A Nottingham-based confectionery company has made its staff happier, healthier and more productive thanks to a free mental health programme.

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 15 March 2021

TTK Confectionery, located on the Robin Hood Industrial Estate, signed up to mental health charity Mind’s Mental Health at Work Commitment – which consists of six mental health ‘standards’ it must uphold – to help improve staff wellbeing which had been put under strain due to the pandemic.

 

The Commitment is one of many free mental health programmes offered by the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot (MHPP) - an initiative run by Midlands Engine which aims to support employers across the region to improve the mental health of their workforce and boost their bottom line at the same time with no financial cost.

After signing up to the Commitment, TTK Confectionery has seen attitudes to mental health massively improve, with employees feeling more confident to talk openly about their mental health.

Absences have dropped as a result, and the changes have made the workforce happier and healthier.

Director of TTK Confectionery Jess Barnett said:

“Taking care of our employees’ needs and finding the right support for them came down to guesswork really – it was hard to know when to step in or what to recommend.

“When COVID was thrown into the mix, we realised it was time to implement something new to actually make a difference to our employees’ mental health.”

Before signing up to the Commitment, TTK Confectionery had always tried to intervene whenever an employee showed signs of poor mental health, but felt it was being reactive rather than proactive.

After hearing about the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot (MHPP) through University of Derby who are partners in the MHPP programme, Jess got in touch with Kate Wood, Project Manager at Derby.

After a discussion about the challenges the business was facing, she was advised to sign up to the Mind Mental Health at Work Commitment.Aftersigning up, TTK Confectionery made several changes in its workplace.

These included training staff to become ‘mental health champions’ and spot signs of workers who need help, pairing up staff to talk about anything that might be troubling them, having regular mental health briefings, and using Public Health England’sfree ‘Every Mind Matters’ resource.

These changes have meant staff are now more open than they have ever been, and because issues are being spotted earlier, TTK has experienced a reduction in staff absences.

Jess added:

“Signing up to the Mental Health at Work Commitment has made us more confident as a business in speaking up about mental health.

“Our staff have responded very well – many have done the Every Mind Matters quiz and have been using the strategies it has recommended for them.

“The mental health champions we’ve trained are also doing an excellent job in speaking to people and dealing with problems early, meaning we’re having fewer people taking time off.

“I would tell other businesses unsure about whether to sign up to a mental health scheme at work to go for it – the statistics on how mental health affects productivity was a real eye opener for us, so it’s definitely worth a firm’s time to make a difference in their workplace.”

Kate Wood, MHPP Project Manager at the University of Derby, added:

“Tackling the agenda of mental health at work has never been so critical, so it is fantastic to see TTK Confectionary achieve such positive results after signing up to Mind’s Mental Health at Work Commitment.

“The Commitment is one of the free resources available through MHPP and provides a framework to help employers promote staff positive wellbeingalong with a variety of resources to support with this.

“I would encourage any employer thinking about how to promote positive mental health in the workplace to visit the MHPP website to find out more about the free resources that are available.”

Further information about the Mental Health & Productivity Pilot (MHPP) is available at https://mhpp.me/

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