UK Garden Centre Retailer Trains More Mental Health First Aiders and Champions

  • Dobbies increases mental health support for team members
  • Training more mental health first aiders across its business
  • Introducing store level mental health champions
  • Wellbeing training available through internal e-learning platform
  • Courses include Mental Health Awareness, Mindfulness, Stress Awareness, and Menopause Awareness

UK garden centre retailer Dobbies is enhancing the mental health support of its 4,000 team members by increasing the number of mental health first aiders (MHFA) from two to 16. The company will also introduce store-level mental health champions for localized resources. In addition to MHFA and champion offerings, Dobbies provides wellbeing training through its internal e-learning platform, including courses on Mental Health Awareness, Practicing Mindfulness, Wellbeing at Dobbies, Stress Awareness, and Suicide Prevention Awareness. This initiative aims to better equip team members to support each other during challenging times or personal changes while promoting work-life balance. Research from Retail Trust reveals 85% of UK retail managers report increased mental health issues among teams, with over half (54%) admitting they’re ill-equipped to handle them. Paul Green, Dobbies’ head of people experience, emphasizes the importance of supporting team members’ wellbeing. Iain McDonald, learning and development specialist at Dobbies, shares his motivation for joining the MHFA course: ‘I wanted to expand my knowledge to offer worthwhile support in times of need.’

Factuality Level: 10
Factuality Justification: The article provides accurate information about Dobbies’ efforts to improve mental health support for its team members by increasing the number of mental health first aiders and introducing store level champions. It also mentions various wellbeing training available through their e-learning platform. The quotes from Paul Green and Iain McDonald add credibility to the article.
Noise Level: 2
Noise Justification: The article provides relevant information about a company’s efforts to improve mental health support for its employees by increasing the number of mental health first aiders and offering wellbeing training. It highlights the importance of addressing mental health issues in the workplace and includes quotes from company representatives. The content is focused on the topic and supports its claims with statistics.
Financial Relevance: No
Financial Markets Impacted: Not applicable
Financial Rating Justification: The article focuses on a UK garden centre retailer’s efforts to improve mental health support for its employees, which does not have direct financial relevance or impact on financial markets or companies.
Presence Of Extreme Event: No
Nature Of Extreme Event: Other
Impact Rating Of The Extreme Event: Minor
Extreme Rating Justification: There is no extreme event mentioned in the text.

Reported publicly: www.retailsector.co.uk