The challenges of recent months as the pandemic continues mean that now more than ever, we need to think about taking care of ourselves and each other. There has been a huge amount of change in a very short time, and a lot for our colleagues, suppliers and customers to adjust to.

Lots of us have felt worried about the coronavirus pandemic, and everyone will feel differently about changes to lockdown restrictions. During the pandemic, our people could be working from home, leaving home to go to work or on furlough. In any of these situations, we can all find it hard to look after our mental health and wellbeing.

Last year Barrett Steel’s Group Management Board signed our pledge to the Time To Change movement. Since then many of our Managers have gone on to complete mental health awareness training, and employees are becoming mental health first aiders.

To support our ongoing commitment to developing a greater understanding of mental health, today we are launching our Time To Change campaigns around the business. The campaign messages are ‘Be In Your Colleague’s Corner’ and ‘Ask Twice’. Here’s why:

Be in your Colleague’s corner

This message might seem a small gesture, but the important thing is, it’s a simple way of showing that we want our people to feel more confident talking about mental health.

Ask Twice

We want people to ‘Ask Twice’ if they suspect a friend, family member or colleague might be struggling with their mental health. The simple act of asking again, can help someone open up for the first time.

From today these messages will appear on colleagues screen savers and on a series of posters throughout the business.

As a business our corporate charity is Mind UK and we are working hard to raise as much awareness and as many donations as possible for the charity across various events, charity sporting events and within our depots across our UK network.