Are you able to recognise peoples struggles and provide them with the support to work around any issues?

Hey, we definitely try to be proactive when it comes to people's experiences at work, particularly in my experiences from a Wellbeing point of view! I'm a MHFA (Mental Health First Aider) and me and the team will proactively check in with people where we can. Also, we have a quarterly pulse survey so if you'd rather feedback anonymously, thats a great forum for that, as every quarter teams sit down and look through the results, and create actions to resolve any issues or struggles that have been raised. I think the culture at First Central generally is very open, so Line Managers also check in regularly with you and you can feed back there as well.

Through training provided by First Central via Mental Health UK, I am a qualified mental health first aider, along with 50 other colleagues within the business. This provides me with more awareness on early warning signs and how to offer support when it is needed. My role within learning and development has provided great coaching/listening skills which again allows me to support colleagues. I have a great network within First Central and can sign post people to others within the business who may be better placed to support on a particular issue. First Central also has an Employee Assistance Programme which I can refer colleagues to should they need further support.

As mentioned by some of my colleagues already, we have some fantastic training for managers on this and approximate 50 mental health first aiders in the business. We have also been working with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) communities to organise internal podcasts and panel discussions with colleagues to raise awareness and ensure our workplace is an environment where people feel safe to share both who they are and any struggles they may have. Our internal policies are also very inclusive - so if you are struggling we have benefits such as 'Your Time In Need' policy where you can take additional days leave if you need to.