As part of its goal of being a great place to work, Frazer-Nash has signed up to the ‘Time to Change’ employer pledge, led by mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.
Signed by over 1500 organisations, employing over four million people across England, the Time to Change pledge is a commitment to changing the way we all think about mental health in the workplace, and acting to create a more open and understanding culture around mental health problems at work.
Frazer-Nash’s pledge includes committing to a plan of tangible and measured activities to tackle any perceived stigma associated with talking about mental health in the workplace. Built upon the 2017 Thriving at Work standards, the plan covers developing mental health awareness, encouraging open conversations and signposting support, providing good working conditions and a healthy work-life balance, as well as promoting effective people management and routinely monitoring employee wellbeing.
As a first step, the company has appointed three Mental Health Champions, who will be available to discuss mental health concerns with Frazer-Nash employees, and can signpost them to additional support where needed.
Managing Director, Neil McDougall, said:
“I often talk about our Systems Approach, and how we take the time to properly diagnose a customer’s system or technical problem, using a medical analogy about the challenge of diagnosing patients’ ailments and settling on the best course of treatment. But medical symptoms are often visible, making the diagnosis much easier – especially when the patient can point to where it hurts and describe how the injury came about.
Mental Health is much more challenging, often with no obvious external symptoms, and the patient might well struggle to describe the origins or the symptoms themselves. There might also be a reluctance on their part to come forward because of a perceived stigma associated with mental health. One of our core values is ‘we care’, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that any barriers to the open discussion of mental health issues are removed at Frazer-Nash. We want to ensure that anyone on our team who needs help, gets speedy access to it. So we’re committed to our Time to Change pledge, and to enacting our plan.”
Frazer-Nash submitted its application to take the pledge in May, for review by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, shortly before it was retired to new applicants in July 2020.
