A serious incident prompted Grant Thornton to create a safe employee community online
The problem
When accountancy firm Grant Thornton struggled to cope with a mental health-related incident in its offices, with employees noticeably uncomfortable talking openly about mental health, HR business partner Daniel Keenan realised the organisation needed to be doing more to create a safe and open culture for discussion of this growing wellbeing challenge.
“I looked at what other businesses were offering around mental health at work, and thought we needed a strategy that would get our firm more on board with an understanding of mental health,” says Keenan, who came up with the idea of creating an internal, online platform to foster greater discussion and awareness of mental health issues.
The solution
Working alongside members of Grant Thornton’s communications department, Keenan spearheaded an online campaign called ‘Where’s your head at’, to create a trusted platform for sharing resources and information about mental illnesses. Using the company intranet, employees can open discussions and share their own stories of mental illness – efforts that Keenan hopes will help to counter the many stigmas associated with the topic.
“We wanted firstly to create a trusted place where people could share their experiences and what worked for them, seek support and publish advice,” Keenan says. “The second aim was to create momentum within the firm around talking about mental health.
The outcome
‘Where’s your head at’ launched in March 2015 and in the first week alone drew more than 7,500 views. As employees began to share their stories, the site rapidly became the most-viewed page on the company network. Grant Thornton’s CEO, Sacha Romanovitch – who was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about mental health at work earlier this year – was supportive, and personally replied to some submissions, endorsing employees for speaking out and encouraging the growing discussion.
“It’s great to have a CEO who is a huge advocate of mental health,” Keenan says. “We are lucky to have support like this from the top of the organisation; I don’t think it would happen in other firms.”
The next step is to organise mental health training for some of the key advocates at the heart of the site. This has been in the pipeline for a while, but the team has run into difficulties with implementation as staff are widely dispersed around the UK. In the meantime, however, Keenan believes the network has had a highly positive impact on the company’s culture.
“I like to think that, today, the organisation wouldn’t reach the point where a serious incident occurred,” he says. “The impact on individuals who have suffered mental health challenges, and the strength they have taken from the site, is amazing: it has made the business feel like more of a community.”
Eighteen months after its launch, Keenan says he is still blown away by the response: “Colleagues are still sharing their stories of mental health challenges and new people are joining the firm who are already willing to share their stories and invest in the site – they have been welcomed into that community with open arms.”
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