Deloitte Leeds are Mindful Employer Charter Signatories and active members of the Leeds Mindful Employer Network. This business has played a big part in supporting the planning, organisation and promotion of our 2024 conference. Members of the Deloitte Leeds team will also be volunteering on the day of the event itself, helping ensure things run smoothly for delegates in attendance.
Mindful Employer Project Coordinator Leigh Staunton has been chatting to Ines Wivell and Helen Kaye from Deloitte Leeds.
Firstly, tell us a bit about you and Deloitte Leeds?
Deloitte Leeds has over 700 people working across Audit, Tax & Legal, Consulting, Financial and Risk Advisory, and Internal Services
We work with a wide variety of businesses covering industries from Retail to Healthcare, Financial Services to Manufacturing and Public Sector.
Ines: I work in our in-house marketing agency, 368, as a Campaign Project Manager, which means I manage the delivery of some of our marketing with the aim of promoting the Deloitte brand and businesses. My role covers a wide variety of activities including creating webpages, producing films, publishing podcasts, and organising events.
Helen Kaye, Deloitte Leeds
Alongside my day job, I help to manage Deloitte Leeds’ partnership with Leeds Mind as part of our 5 Million Futures initiative. This programme supports schools, charities and social impact organisations to break down educational and employment barriers to get more young and under-represented people where they want to go. We are 18 months into our 3-year partnership and I have loved having the opportunity to do something different to my usual job, whilst also supporting the amazing work Leeds Mind do within our local community.
Helen: I am a partner in our Global Employer Services business and I head up the Regional business across the UK. I have worked at Deloitte for 24 years, my team advise businesses on all employment tax matters they have to manage relating to the way they engage, reward and incentivise their workforce, including advice on moving employees on assignment, around the world. I am also the People and Purpose Lead Partner for our Leeds office, working with the teams to ensure we foster an inclusive, open and collaborative place to work for all our people and working with our Society Partners to deliver our 5 Million Futures initiative.
Ines Wivell, Deloitte Leeds
Helen, tell us why is staff mental health important at Deloitte Leeds?
We’re committed to building a culture of inclusion, that fosters a sense of belonging for all of our people. Our motto ‘bring your whole self to work’ – encourages everyone to feel comfortable in their own skin in the workplace, so that individuals can be accepted and celebrated for who they are
Having an inclusive and supportive culture means we can attract and retain the best people and enables them to thrive, in turn making Deloitte Leeds a great place to work.
The mental wellbeing of our people is so important, we encourage our people to consider their mental health equally alongside their physical wellbeing, implementing positive strategies to enable them to sustain a healthy mental wellbeing. Having an inclusive and supportive working environment is so important to achieve this. However, we appreciate that this is difficult and from time to time we all need a little extra support to help us manage our mental health, we want our people to know that they are not expected to be ‘resilient’ 100% of the time and that we are all here for each other when needed. Also that we have a broad package of support available to our people to help them both maintain their mental health but also go beyond when more deliberate and intensive support is needed.
And Helen, tell us about your role in supporting staff wellbeing.
Times have definitely changed and I’m so pleased we can now talk about mental health without the stigma that it used to carry. In my teams we have a mental health charter that we created together and we all encourage one and other to talk about our mental health and watch out for each other. I have supported many colleagues over the years go through some very tough times that had serious mental health impacts on them, but being there to provide the support they needed has always been very important to me, whether that was enabling them to work in a different work pattern, supporting with the provision of talking therapies, time out or time off or simply talking to them and being there to listen.
Personally, I experienced some significant personal issues in recent years and needed the support of my team and Deloitte to enable me to recover and get back to ‘being me’. I took some time off, away from business (not an easy thing for me to do!) and focussed on a course of taking therapy, EMDR and simply space and time to help me process things. Whilst it was very tough, I came through it and am back to my old self. I couldn’t have done this without the total support of Deloitte to enable me to recover and I will be forever grateful for that.
Ines, what are you most proud of in Deloitte Leeds’s approach to staff wellbeing?
I feel well looked after at Deloitte. There’s an open, inclusive culture so I feel able to speak to my colleagues about anything and I know I can always ask for help when I need it. I really appreciate our flexible working policy, which gives me the freedom to choose where, when and how I work with my team, meaning I can structure my days to prioritise what is important to me and my wellbeing. I have been lucky enough to take advantage of our overseas work policy and have worked from France twice now which was amazing as it meant I could spend more time with my family who live there
What are your priorities for the months ahead Ines?
We are committed to supporting the mental health of our people, so we’re really excited to join the Mindful Employer Network and make an impact in our local area. We will continue to develop as an integrated business member of the network and attend network events to share practices with other local businesses. We are also looking to host a network event in our newly refurbished office in the future.
Whilst we pride ourselves on having a caring and inclusive culture and we already have a number of wellbeing initiatives in place, such as a flexible working policy and mental health champions network, we know there is always more we can do.
The Mindful Employer network gives us access to a whole host of local resources and events, and we’re looking forward to connecting with other organisations in the network to understand how they are promoting positive mental health in the workplace and share our experiences.
We’re incredibly excited to support the Mindful Employer Conference in 2024 with the planning and organisation of the event alongside other local businesses, all with the aim of opening the conversation around mental health at the workplace and hopefully making Leeds/West Yorkshire an even better place to work.
What does it mean for Deloitte Leeds to be a Mindful Employer Ines?
The bi-annual review we will complete as charter signatories keeps us accountable. This review will also provides us with feedback on our current mental health practices, so we can keep improving. We want to (and need to) continually evolve to keep our people happy and healthy.
Being a Mindful Employer means we can encourage other organisations to consider their own mental health practices and sign up to the charter if they feel able to.
This status helps us shout about our commitment to taking care of each other and allows us to publicly demonstrate our values.
And finally Ines, what would you say to someone who is considering becoming part of the Leeds Mindful Employer Network?
Go for it – why wouldn’t you? No matter where you are at in your workplace wellbeing journey, the network is there to support organisations of all shapes and sizes in West Yorkshire.
It provides access to a whole host of free information and resources to help support you to promoting positive mental health in the workplace, as well as hosting events which allow you to network with other local businesses and share experiences, including the Mindful Employer conference in 2024 which we are really excited about supporting!
Find out more about this fantastic conference, including our amazing speakers here.
Join the Leeds Mindful Employer Network here.
Add yourself to the waitlist for our Conference on the 21st May.
