Employee mental health is for life, not just for #mentalhealthawarenessweek.

It was my battle with chronic illness and subsequent related poor mental health, combined with the demands of a fast-paced corporate career, that led me to set up fifty50 in February 2020. In my experience, too many wellbeing initiatives focus on the symptom rather than tackling the root cause, leading to the creation of inauthentic workplaces where people are afraid and often unable to bring their whole self forward.

Our mission is to help employers to value employee mental health as much as they do their physical health, and this is the inspiration behind the name fifty50.

We all have mental health and, just as we work out our body to keep on top of our physical health, we need to think about our mind in the same way. Building our mental fitness, flexing our mind ‘muscle’ to increase strength and resilience and learning valuable tools and techniques to manage our mental state and create shifts when required, is hugely rewarding. It’s also fundamental if we are to get the best out of ourselves and our lives. The safe, supportive and open space we create at fifty50, prioritises your people and their wellbeing, helping them to navigate challenges whilst empowering them to take action.

I’m fine.

Your people may say they are, but are they really? 

Beneath the ‘I’m fine’, many suffer silently, dutifully working whilst wearing a mask to hide what’s going on for them. The result? A workforce that is present in body, but not in mind. The detrimental impact on productivity, creativity, and morale is well documented, and levels of engagement and happiness a fraction of what is possible. 

Employees are real people facing real-life personal challenges every day. Their ability to cope with and handle the more difficult moments will fluctuate, depending on factors including sleep, exercise, health and workload. Separating work lives from personal lives is difficult, as the two are intrinsically linked. If the attempt to compartmentalise what is really going on in life and just ‘crack on’ with the day job is encouraged, employees run the risk of just ‘getting by’ until, of course, they can’t. Enter overwhelm, burnout and crisis. The collateral damage along the way is significant too; repressed feelings and emotions will have a detrimental impact on overall engagement, performance and ultimately the ‘bouncebackability’ of your people.

Duty of care

Employers, therefore, have a duty of care to prioritise initiatives that enable their people to invest in themselves in a way that embraces their individuality, emotional needs and personal circumstances; whilst at the same time removing the stigma and any form of judgement. This is no easy task. But, if you can get it right, this is where the magic happens, as you begin to reach people in a way that really matters to them.

In creating a culture where your people feel valued, cared for and invested in, you build respect, trust and loyalty. You open up a different channel of engagement; one where you can access the rich, deeper layers of potential that often lie dormant, trapped beneath the responses of ‘I’m fine’ and behaviours of those who are clearly ‘just getting by’.

Coaching for mental health

At fifty50, we hand-select professional, accredited and experienced Partner Coaches who are hugely relatable and bring extensive career capital to the table. Our in-house training to support mental health via coaching is the only International Coaching Federation (ICF) accredited training of its kind. Our approach is innovative and expands the professional boundaries of coaching globally. 

Fifty50 coaches have also been selected for their glowing testimonials and personal experience with mental health. They go that bit deeper in a session, supporting common mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, overwhelm and stress. This is a big deal as mental health is traditionally an area reserved for therapeutic intervention.

We are big believers in the power of therapy, indeed we have a team of Partner Psychotherapists to whom our Coaches are trained to refer to. However, we are acutely aware of the gaping hole between feeling mentally healthy and entering a crisis or breakdown. Prevention plays a critical part in what we do and we bridge this gap in a way that empowers and creates a non-dependency culture, equipping employees with the skills and tools to build mental strength and resilience. 

Authenticity trumps ‘I’m fine’

The golden thread that holds us all together at fifty50 is our shared passion for promoting authenticity and changing how we support employee mental health at work.

We get it, we care, and we can help you to prioritise your workplace mental health.

To discuss further, pease get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.  Camilla Rogers, Founder of fifty50 Coaching