Mental Health Awareness Week

Statistics show that, in England, 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year. On top of that, 1 in 6 report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression) in any given week. As our awareness and understanding of mental health has grown over the years, thanks to initiatives such as mental health awareness week, so has our understanding of the things that we all need to do to protect the mental health of ourselves and our people.

We’d be foolish to think that our actions and decisions as an employer do not impact the health and wellbeing of our people from time to time. Lifestyle factors such as work, exercise, social interaction and sleep all have the ability to positively or negatively impact the mental and physical wellbeing of our people. Let’s face it – we work in a very demanding and highly pressured industry. A career in Law is unlikely to ever be described as ‘easy’. The combination of keeping up to date with changes in the law, managing difficult matters and the emotional burden which comes with the work can be a direct path to burnout and this can be worse without the right support from your employer. At Walker Morris, we’ve adopted an approach that puts the wellbeing of our people at the heart of what we do. That’s why we’re really proud of our industry-leading sabbatical scheme, approach to chargeable hours, our extensive wellbeing benefits and of course our people.

Sabbatical scheme

In recent years the number of people taking a mental health career break in the UK has risen. Taking an extended break from work is a great way to reset your mental health and reduce the risk of burn-out. I’m sure nobody is surprised to hear that our minds work much more efficiently when we’re relaxed.

Recognising that the risk of burnout is higher in an industry such as ours, we introduced our sabbatical scheme to enable our solicitors to accrue a 2-week paid sabbatical every 2 years or a 4-week paid sabbatical every 3 years. The sabbatical sits alongside an already enhanced annual leave entitlement to ensure that all of our people are able to take extended breaks from work to focus on the things that are important to them.

Chargeable hours

Our sabbatical scheme aims to reduce the risk of burnout, but we also invest a lot of energy into the things that are important to our people such as creating opportunities to: connect and socialise, develop their skills, drive positive change and contribute to our inclusion and ESG initiatives. We recognise that it’s not possible to do this on top of a busy to-do list, so we intentionally set our chargeable hours expectations much lower than the industry average. This safe space away from business as usual enables our people to get involved in the things that are important to them and that will have a positive impact on their mental wellbeing.

Wellbeing benefits

Whilst we do everything that we can to prioritise the positive influences and mitigate the negative ones, it goes without saying that from time to time our people require additional support. We’ve put together a comprehensive package that recognises that we’re all human beings that need help from time to time, this includes:

• Access to remote GP appointments & medical second opinions.
• Company funded counselling.
• Generous social budget.
• Life, money and wellbeing support.
• Mental health support & training.
• Saving schemes and access to a range of discounts.

We regularly review our wellbeing benefits to ensure they’re fit for practice and cater to the needs of our people. This helps us to be confident that we can give our employees access to the right level of support when they need it the most.

It’s all about our people…

At our recent Sustainable Careers launch our employees overwhelmingly told us that the top thing which makes Walker Morris a great place to work is the people. Where wellness and mental health are concerned, having the right people around you, socialising, connecting and just having someone to share and to laugh with, can be a great tonic for everyone.

We recognise that we win and lose together, with that in mind we encourage all of our people to connect through our various committees, social events and work streams. Our sense of community and connectedness really shines through here, we’re an organisation that supports one another through the good and bad – it’s something we do really well.

Mental Health Awareness Week at WM

We do a lot already, but we know – there’s always room for improvement.  We’ll be focussing on those areas during mental health awareness week. Amongst other things, we’ll be: putting a spot light on this year’s theme – Anxiety by delivering line manager training, asking our people to carry out self-assessments and reminding everybody of the resources and support available to them.