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20 Nov 2019
by Dawn Lewis

Wellbeing in Retail: Ruth Sutherland CEO of Samaritans on encouraging good mental health

Wellbeing in Retail was launched last month and aims to aid the mental wellbeing of those who work in retail through an online guide. It provides information to help workers look after their own mental health, gives advice on how to support others who may be struggling and signposts where to go for extra help. 

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We spoke with Ruth Sutherland CEO of Samaritans – the charity behind the online guide – about their involvement in the initiative and why supporting good mental health in the workplace is so important.

The Wellbeing in Retail programme

“The development of Wellbeing in Retail was inspired by joint research from the John Lewis Partnership, Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Next, which revealed that over 50% of the 2,000 retail workers questioned could not recognise the signs of someone needing emotional support, and around 25% would not feel confident approaching an upset colleague.

“In a UK industry first, seven leading retailers [ASOS, Co-op, John Lewis Partnership, M&S, Next  Sainsbury’s and Tesco] joined together in an effort to improve the mental wellbeing of staff, with the help of Samaritans, by developing Wellbeing in Retail which launched on Mental Health Awareness Day,” explains Sutherland.

The retail sector is the largest private sector employer in the UK. Figures from Retail Economics reveal that some 2.9 million people work in this industry, highlighting how important it is to support this part of the country’s workforce. This is especially true given that we spend about a third of our life at work, and one in five adults experience suicidal feelings at some point in their lives, according to findings from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Mental Health and Wellbeing, England (2014).

“It’s very likely that there are people suffering and trying to hide it in your organisation,” says Sutherland. “But suicide can be preventable, and every organisation can work towards building a healthy and happy workforce.”

The aim of the initiative

Business in the Community’s Mental Health at Work Report (2017) found that three out of five people have experienced a mental health issue due to work. And it is now the number one reason for staff absence, with 12.8 million working days lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2018 and 2019, according the Health and Safety Executive’s work-related stress, anxiety or depression statistics (2019).

“We want to create happier and healthier workplaces. And we believe this starts by creating open and supportive working environments, where people feel listened to,” says Sutherland.

“Wellbeing in Retail has been designed to help retail workers look after their own mental health, give advice on how to support others who may be struggling and signpost where to go for extra help. We also aim to make staff better listeners and more emotionally resilient.”

The changing approach to mental health in the workplace

The momentum behind recognising and taking action on mental health in the workplace has been continuing to gather speed over the past few years. REBA’s Employee Wellbeing Research (2019) found that 46% of employers have a dedicated strategy in place to manage employee mental health, up 15.8% since 2018.

For Sutherland, the fact that retailers have come together in the interest of improving their staff’s mental health to develop the Wellbeing in Retail initiative, is very encouraging.

“Over recent years, we have seen a real step change in the attitudes and behaviours of employers as they actively seek to address how they can improve wellbeing in the workplace, and we are proud to be part of making this transition happen,” she says.

Sutherland adds that work is such a big part of our individual identity and is where we spend a large proportion of our time.

“If we feel overwhelmed and stressed at work, it has a detrimental effect on other parts of our lives including our relationships and physical health. People who have felt overwhelmed at work say they didn’t want to let anyone down, or they didn’t want to be seen as a poor performer. They suffer in silence until they reach crisis point,” says Sutherland.

She believes that emotional literacy is a key life skill “as important as learning to read and write”. The Wellbeing in Retail programme is designed to give people these skills so they can manage difficult conversations and better support their colleagues.

Supporting employees’ mental health in any organisation

“Employers play a crucial role in creating an environment where staff feel safe, supported and able to ask for help without fear of judgement,” says Sutherland.

Samaritans has a broader Wellbeing in the Workplace online learning programme, which was launched initially in 2018 for city workers with the help of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, and has now been successfully rolled out to more 800 organisations.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far. Together with our partners, we’re bringing Samaritans’ skills into workplaces, creating more open and supportive working cultures across the retail sector and beyond.

“Government and employers now have a unique opportunity to create open and supportive environments, to raise awareness about suicidal thoughts and feelings, and help reduce the huge stigma that still surrounds this area,” concludes Sutherland.

The author is Dawn Lewis, content editor at REBA.

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