Mindful employer
Mindful Employer is an initiative aimed at increasing awareness of mental health at work and providing ongoing support for employers in the recruitment and retention of staff.
Enabling employers to build on current good practice and put further initiatives in place helps ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support.
Ourselves and Liberata (Pendle) has signed the Charter for Employers who are positive about mental health.
This means that as an employer we recognise that:
- people who have mental health issues may have experienced discrimination in recruitment and selection procedures this may discourage them from seeking employment,
- whilst some people will acknowledge their experience of mental health issues in a frank and open way, others fear that stigma will jeopardise their chances of getting a job,
- given appropriate support, the vast majority of people who have experienced mental ill health continue to work successfully as do many with ongoing issues
This also means that as an employer we aim to:
- show a positive and enabling attitude to employees and job applicants with mental health issues this will include positive statements in local recruitment literature,
- ensure that all staff involved in recruitment and selection are briefed on mental health issues and the Equality Act, and given appropriate interview skills,
- make it clear in any recruitment or occupational health check that people who have experienced mental health issues will not be discriminated against and that the disclosure of a mental health problem will enable both employee and employer to assess and provide the right level of support or adjustment,
- not make assumptions that a person with a mental health issue will be more vulnerable to workplace stress or take more time off than any other employee or job applicant,
- provide non-judgemental and proactive support to individual staff who experience mental health issues,
- ensure all line managers have information and training about managing mental health in the workplace,
- We will be doing our best to meet all aspects of the Charter if you have any suggestions on how we could support employees who have mental health issues then please contact Human Resources
Find out more about the Mindful Employer initiative at their website
