At the Essex Wildlife Trust, the health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers is just as much of a priority as the wildlife we protect. This year, we have even been awarded Highly Commended at the CIPD Awards for Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative!

Michelle Harrison, Head of People Support for the Trust, tells us about the initiative; "I wanted to put something out to everyone on both World Mental Health Day and International Stress Awareness Day to raise mental health awareness, but realised they were only 23 days apart. I decided to put together an email for each of those 23 days about wellness and send to all staff, and asked everyone to share their stories around mental health and wellbeing.

Each day there was a different subject from stress, to panic attacks, to breathing, to respect and included personal stories from EWT team members, as well as lots of signposting and links to supportive organisations and our Employee Assistance Programme. Our team members started to share some really personal stories about their experiences, and this sharing helped us as an organisation to destigmatise mental health and open up a dialogue that demonstrated you could “speak up and speak out”. It was a move to show that our culture is about being open and supportive; I loved doing it and found it touching and interesting and it was great that so many people got involved in making it a success!"

Would you like to work for an organisation that values health and wellbeing, and will support you throughout your career? Take a look at opportunities now available with the Essex Wildlife Trust.