Royal Mail: Mental Health Programme

Creating a multi-modal learning programme for up to one hundred and thirty five thousand employees, to support Managers’ and colleagues’ mental wellbeing.

Why

In 2023, Steps was approached to partner with Royal Mail in creating a ‘big and bold’ Mental Health Learning programme.

Fiona McAslan – Head of Wellbeing: “Putting our people at the heart of everything is our number one priority. Our people have been through an incredibly tough few years, and we’re now looking at a significant period of transformation. Keeping our people fit and well is key to all of this.”

What

We developed a 5-phase approach, to generate sustained engagement in the programme.

Phase 1 – review the drivers behind the programme, the desired outcomes and the key measures of success. Followed by a deep period of research and diagnostics involving focus groups, site visits across the UK and online surveys, to ensure the programme was credible and meeting the real needs of people in the business.

Phase 2 – Live Workshops, rolled out to all leaders, line managers and Wellbeing Ambassadors. Led by our Mental Health experts, Ruth Cooper-Dickinson and Laura Rosenthal, alongside actor-facilitators who brought the learning to life via engaging drama-based scenarios, the workshop reached more than 5000 people over a 5-month period and covered:

What is Mental Health?

Spotting the signs of mental ill-health in a team member or colleague

How to have conversations about Mental Health

Tools, tips and models for effective conversations on Mental Health, and for self care

Where to go for further support and resources

Phase 3 – sustain and cascade learning to all colleagues via 3 digital resources, incorporating high-quality bespoke video dramas, and factual content produced by our in-house media team to ensure that the learning remains engaging and practical:

A self-led E-learning for leaders and managers to deepen or refresh their knowledge

5 short, engaging, easy to run modules for internal Facilitators to deliver for all colleagues in situ

An adaptation of the live workshop using video scenarios, so it can continue to be delivered in-house for new managers and Wellbeing Ambassadors

Phase 4 – Train the Trainer workshops upskilling 24 inhouse facilitators to continue to run the live workshops for managers and Wellbeing Ambassadors.

Outcomes

The impact of the programme was far-reaching, with significant evidence to show that we achieved our objectives of improving comfort and confidence levels in talking about Mental Health and in spotting signs of mental ill-health in oneself and others.

How confident are you noting signs and symptoms related to Mental Health challenges at work?

Those who voted ‘Fairly’ or ‘Very’ increased from 45.55% before the workshop to 73.16% after

95% of 2500 people surveyed agreed or strongly agree that the interactive approach was effective

How confident do you feel signposting members of your team/colleagues who need extra mental health support?

Those who voted ‘Fairly’ or ‘Very’ increased from 53.59% before the workshop to 76.56% after

The average rating for the session was 4.6 out of 5

How likely are to you recommend us to a friend or colleague?

Average rating of 9.05 out of 10.

What’s Next?

As the programme continues to be rolled out through team talks and as digital resources are used we will continue to gather feedback data, to measure and understand the long-term impact on workplace productivity, engagement and job satisfaction. The first level of qualitative and quantitative evaluation indicates exceptional progress towards normalising Mental Health discussions at Royal Mail.

Employing an iterative and multi-faceted approach gave us the opportunity to improve the programme as required based on feedback, ensuring that managers and colleagues were being sufficiently supported throughout the process and better placed to sustain and embed awareness and discussion around mental wellbeing.

Our work with Royal Mail in Mental Health, adds to our breadth of experience delivering large scale projects on this topic, in the public and private sectors. Their excellent partnership has contributed to our continued growth and success creating meaningful and impactful learning programmes in this space.

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