Wellbeing & Mental Health at ITRS

It goes without saying that no one was truly prepared for the pandemic, and as a business we certainly realised quickly that we needed to support our employees Mental Health and Wellbeing in different ways than we had previously.  We implemented various initiatives which were well received.  We have kept most of the initiatives in place and continue to build on them regularly, offering a range of support to suit all needs. One of the first initiatives implemented was an ‘Anti Isolation Café’.  Twice a day employees could dial into the meeting and chat to whoever attended, not just about work but about anything, getting to know each other better, speaking with colleagues in various regions or functions that they wouldn’t normally engage with.  This was just a lockdown initiative but many people really enjoyed it and appreciated the break.

Lockdown was unexpected and for most of us, it was a difficult time.  An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was introduced across all locations for our staff and their dependents to reach out should they have needed advice, whether it was for health reasons, financial and so forth.  We have kept this in place and will continue to do so to ensure that each ITRS employee has confidential support whenever they might need it.

Our employees continued to work extremely hard throughout lockdown, and we were conscious that many people were struggling being at home and were feeling tired, our Executive Leadership team provided a number of Global days off.  This was a circuit breaker for all staff so they could close their laptops and have some time back for themselves, with no pressure as their colleagues/managers were not online; it really felt like you could have a relaxing, carefree day off returning to work feeling refreshed.   I don’t know many other companies that gave back like this and I am very proud to work for a business that really cares for its staff. One of our core values is ‘Our people and their families matter’ and this initiative really aligned to this value and was hugely appreciated across the whole company.

We have continued to focus on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of our employees and introduced the following:

•    Celebrated both World Mental Health Awareness Day and Week with activities such as a Mental Health Rounds table talk which encouraged employees to be brave, breaking the bias around the Mental health stigma and sharing their stories with others, blogs, and a dedicated wellbeing page on our intranet with helpful advice and links
•    Organised quarterly Virtual Mindfulness/Desk Yoga sessions available for everyone to join in
•    Managers received resilience training so they are able to support and manage employees more effectively
•    Introduced Mental Health First Aiders to the business – having trained and dedicated employees willing to support their colleagues is amazing to see.  More training is being planned
•    A Mental Health Steering Group was set up in January 2022 – we have very passionate people giving their time to this group and we look forward to seeing what they achieve 

Seeing how much of an impact these positive initiatives had on our employees has ignited our passion to ensure that Wellbeing and Mental Health stays at the top of our employee agenda moving forward.