Championing mental health awareness in your business

From influencers, to small-business owners, to big brand names – more people are standing up and entering the mental health conversation. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, it felt like the perfect time to dig into what businesses have taken applaudable action to become advocates for mental health awareness that can serve as inspiration for your own business.

Showing you care about your people

You could have 100 job openings you are looking to fill or are in the weeds about supply chain issues – but don’t forget your current employees. The number one rule for reducing employee turnover is to make sure you are taking care of your workforce and mental and physical wellness of people currently on your team.

One company that’s taken action to show how much they care about employee wellbeing is Elvie. To be honest – we love everything about this brand. From leaking billboards to a poster campaign with TITS (This Is The Sh!t), we love what they stand for and how it embodies everything they do. They undoubtedly put their people first, so their decision earlier this month to add ‘Life Leave’ to its list of benefits was no surprise. With this new decision, it allows employees to take time off – without any questions or rules.

As a big player who is heavily reliant on people power Airbnb recently committed to a fully remote workplace. And guess what? It was reported that the Airbnb career page was visited nearly 800K times after the announcement was made.

Encouraging open conversations

Encourage an open dialogue around the topic of mental health helps to normalize this often taboo subject. JanSport’s Lighten the Load campaign does just that, offering a great hub for young people to go with videos and therapy sessions. When people share stories of their battles or experiences, someone out there can relate. Encouraging employees to open up about their mental health journeys allows the topic to become normalized.

Fundraising for those with a mission to help

One of the most effective ways to take action and show support for any cause is to fundraise for a related charity. Whether you pledge to donate a portion of sales over a month’s time period or create a limited edition product with a cause related partnership, it will encourage consumers. Consumers want and need to feel as though they have played a part in helping others for better.

DeMellier, a luxury handbag company collaborated with Chinese-American artist Fong Min Liao to launch their Soul Tote, in which 100% of profits is donated to Liao’s charity PEERS. Liao has publicly spoken about her own mental health journey, which made for the perfect partnership.

Mental health policies

The most important things to attract new talent and retain talent are flexibility, competitive pay and a clear employer’s mental health policy. If you’re a growing business this has to be high on your list to agree, articulate and Communicate. Finding good relevant ways to really support your workforce in this space.

Making sure that your organization has a strategy set in place to ensure you are living and breathing your policies is key. If you could use some help in writing your policy and communicating internally and externally, we’d love to hear from you dani@wearebodhiandco.com