Mental Health Awareness week 13th – 19th May 2019.
In the fast-paced, target driven industry of recruitment, it is very easy for stress to take over. Recruitment really does put you through your paces, your emotions are up and down like a roller coaster; the process of placing one candidate comes with its own trials, tribulations, twists and turns but as we all know ample reward! What about when you don’t place the candidate? What about when clients cancel roles after 3 weeks research has been done? What about the near misses where you weren’t quite quick enough? Things can really start to take their toll on your mental wellbeing. Anything from the candidate receiving a better offer, the client may offer too little, the candidate may be counter offered and decide to stay in their current role, so many things can go wrong, every recruiter has experienced these problems and the sinking feeling is always the same! All that hard work, for nothing. Maybe your commission was going to be; the deposit for your house, the holiday you have been planning, the school you always wanted to send your child to, maybe your wedding. Not anymore, time to grit your teeth and try again!! Multiply this feeling of the rug being pulled right from under your feet many times over the course of your career and it is easy to see why recruitment can be detrimental on your mental health if you do not take time for yourself.
At Mackinnon Bruce we have being working with our employees on how we can help them deal with the problems and Mental Awareness Week gives a great opportunity to put these issues in the spotlight and let’s people know they are not alone in the struggle!
We have used Mental Heath Awareness week to really drill down on the problems that our employees face where we can be in control of the problems or issues; staff may be facing on a day to day basis. The small things that really do make a difference to a persons day. Below is our weekly itinerary and what we did during the week to help make a difference to our staff’s day to day mental health, not only during this week but in the weeks to come & of course raise money for the Mental Health Awareness Foundation:
Day One – Stress Balls & Awareness
We provided all employees with a stress ball & leaflets about Mental Health awareness i.e how to reduce stress at work, how to sleep better, the importance of exercise etc
Day Two – Elevenses
The company got together at 11am for tea, biscuits & cupcakes; prior to the meeting we had asked everybody in the company if they could think of at least one improvement/suggestion that would improve their happiness & workplace wellbeing.
Below are a couple of ideas that are 100% being implemented in the workplace and have already been actioned for 2019:
- Fruit Basket Delivery
- Recycling Bins throughout the offices
- Period 1 at desk de-stress massages
- Different lunchtime options
- Incentive spinning wheel
Day Three – Healthy Lunch & Exercise Class
All staff were asked to take a long walk in their lunch hour or were given the opportunity to take part in a group exercise class. There was 11 members of the MBI company took part in a HIIT exercise class at 2pm.
Day Four – Work Free, Email Free, Stress Free
Everybody in the company were treated to either the morning or afternoon off work where they could wind down work free, without using any of their holiday entitlement.
We asked employees at MBI to follow the below tips as close as possible:
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/stress-tips.html
Day Five – Pizza Party & Team Building at the Escape Rooms
Mackinnon Bruce International split into 3 teams at the Tick Tock Unlock Escape Rooms – Leeds. This was a great team building exercise and ended the week on a high. Only one out of three teams manages to escape from their room with 1 minute 26 seconds left spare on the clock. Mackinnon Bruce had a fantastic week raising awareness for Mental Health awareness within the recruitment industry, we have made some huge changes within the workplace & we also managed to raise £250.70 for the Mental Health Awareness Foundation.
