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England Athletics wins Silver Mind Workplace Wellbeing Award

England Athletics has been recognised with a Silver in Mind’s third annual Workplace Wellbeing Index, which are a benchmark of best policy and practice and celebrates the good work employers are doing to promote and support positive mental health.

Every employer depends on having healthy and productive employees – valued and supported staff are far more likely to perform better and achieve peak performance. Mental health problems are common among employees. Mind surveyed more than 44,000 employees across the 106 employers participating in the Awards, and found that 7 in 10 had experienced a mental health problem in their lives, with over one in two (53 per cent) affected by poor mental health in their current workplace.

Gill Jones, Head of HR and People Development at England Athletics, says: “By participating in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index we have made a long-term commitment to supporting the mental wellbeing of our staff.  Our involvement in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index means we are contributing towards cutting edge research on workplace wellbeing. We are on a journey towards a better way of working where supporting the mental health of our staff is part of everyday business.”

As well as supporting its staff, England Athletics works in partnership with its 1,350 affiliated clubs, 2,261 RunTogether groups and Mind to create a network of trained volunteer Mental Health Athletics Champions to promote mental wellbeing through running.  Since 2016 England Athletics has delivered six #RunAndTalk campaigns with approximately 765 organised runs and over 23,600 participants. Of these participants, an average of 30% report mental health problems and between 15-30% of runners for each campaign are new runners or returning to running.  Feedback from these campaigns shows that on average, 38.6% of respondents indicated improved aspects of mental wellbeing and half of those surveyed intend to run more while half intended to maintain their running after attending a #RunAndTalk event.

Emma Mamo, Head of Workplace Wellbeing at Mind, said: “Every employer depends on having a healthy and productive workforce – valued and supported employees are far more likely to deliver the best outcomes for your organisation. That’s why we’re delighted to recognise and celebrate employers making mental health a priority for their organisation through our Workplace Wellbeing Awards.

“This year, we’ve been overwhelmed to see so much good practice right across the board, from each and every one of the 106 diverse employers to take part. The Awards event provided an opportunity to recognise those forward-thinking employers who are at the cutting edge when it comes to investing in their staff wellbeing, and in turn getting the best outcomes for their business.”