Last reviewed: May 2024
Understanding that 49% of employees wouldn’t discuss mental health problems with their line manager but are far more likely to speak to a colleague, we identified an opportunity to further develop our mental health services by creating a peer to peer support network.
Why did you decide to undertake this action?
As part of our Wellbeing Strategy, Unilever UK & Ireland is committed to ensuring that no employee is ever more than one chat, one call or one click away from wellbeing support.
Our Wellbeing Strategy focuses on four aspects of employee health: mental, emotional and physical wellbeing and a sense of purpose, as we believe these key areas of wellbeing are interlinked and must be looked after simultaneously.
Understanding that 49% of employees wouldn’t discuss mental health problems with their line manager but are far more likely to speak to a colleague, we identified an opportunity to further develop our mental health services by creating a peer to peer support network.
Who did you want to benefit from it?
The network was created to support all employees with any mental wellbeing concerns, as part of our ongoing commitment to destigmatise mental health issues in the workplace.
Each Unilever UK & Ireland site has a minimum of four Time to Talk team volunteers available and there are currently 293 Time to Talk volunteers available across our employee network.
Who was involved in delivering it?
- Unilever UK & Ireland Employee Health Team
- Mental Health First Aid England
- Volunteer employees from each site
What did you do?
In 2017 we launched ‘Time to Talk’, our peer-to-peer mental health support network which sees dedicated teams provide additional support for employees as part of their wellbeing.
Placing equal importance on the two, Unilever use a similar model for both mental health first aid training and the physical first aid training they provide with Time to Talk volunteers attending a two-day Mental Health First Aid training programme, with annual refresher training, team reviews and continued learning are all part of the programme for Time to Talk volunteers.
With Time to Talk teams across all sites comprising volunteer employees who have attended Mental Health First Aid training, these employees are available to support colleagues with any mental wellbeing concerns and signpost them to the wide range of professional support tools available to Unilever employees, supporting Unilever’s commitment that no employee is ever more than #1chat1call1click away from support.
Time to Talk volunteer responsibilities include acting as a point of contact for an employee who needs to talk, offering initial support through non-judgemental listening and guidance, directing the person to get appropriate help if required and provided a crucial role in early intervention help for someone who may be developing a mental health issue.
What has been the result?
- 293 people trained so far
- Ratio of 1:22 people with a team at every site in UK and Ireland
- 2,326 conversations taken place from June 2017 – March 2019
How have you measured impact and success?
To ensure confidentiality, Time to Talk members, as a team, are only required to log the number of conversations they have each month under a range of broad headings such as relationships, financial, work life balance etc. This helps Unilever understand if there are recurring themes that employees might be struggling with and this data is helping to drive site wide wellbeing campaigns.
Support and the engagement from Time to Talk teams has been unprecedented. In the first 18 months of creating Time to Talk, over 1,800 conversations have taken place within Unilever UK & Ireland. Feedback from trainees has been extremely positive with >94% have used knowledge, >95% confident to approach a colleague and 100% confident to spot signs & symptoms.
What did you learn and is there anything you would do differently if you were to go back in time?
There is a real appetite for people to get involved in this network – we regularly get new volunteers coming forward. The stigma attached to mental health is slowly being chipped away, with more and more people openly discussing mental health throughout the business. We are now looking to roll this programme out globally and are already supporting North America and parts of Europe to set up their own Time to Talk networks.
Detailed planning in advance is key to ensuring the volunteers are supported, engaged and maintain their skills on an ongoing basis. Setting clear boundaries to ensure they are there just to listen and signpost is key and having the relevant professional support in place is vital.
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