Skip to main content

Current Style: Standard

Text size

-A   |   +A

Pluss

Being a Mindful Employer

Pluss - mindful employer logoPluss are fully signed up signaturies to the MINDFUL EMPLOYER® Charter.

The MINDFUL EMPLOYER® Charter is for employers who are positive about mental health.

The Charter
As an employer Pluss 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.

As an employer Pluss 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 2010, 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 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 problem 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.

Stress, depression and anxiety are estimated to be the cause of more working days lost than any other work-related illness. Sick pay reduces profits. Covering absent workers adds more pressure. Loss of valued and talented people costs more than money.

The term 'mental ill health' covers harmful levels of stress, depression, anxiety schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder (manic depression), psychosis, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and is often associated with drug and alcohol abuse and eating disorders (e.g. anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa).

We all need (and sometimes thrive) on pressure: it gives us energy, it helps with performance, it inspires confidence.

But when pressure becomes too much  – perhaps due to too much work, lack of time for social, family and personal activities, inadequate training to do the job, or external factors – it can lead to stress and this can lead to other mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Extract taken from the MINDFUL EMPLOYER® website.


MINDFUL EMPLOYER® is facilitated by Workways which provides information, advice and practical support for people whose mental health affects their ability to find or remain in employment, training, education and voluntary work.

Workways is run and managed by Devon Partnership NHS Trust and MINDFUL EMPLOYER® is a Registered Trade Mark of Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

52% of people with a psychiatric history have concealed their Mental Health issue from their employer for fear of losing their job. Mental ill health remains an area of fear and stigma for many.

Statistic taken from the MINDFUL EMPLOYER® website.