But these days does this really hold true? Or is it now more of a case that charity begins at work?
Many employers now offer employees opportunities to support charities through the workplace, be it through fundraising, workplace giving or volunteering initiatives.
Here at Employee Benefits, we’re no different. Every year, Centaur Media, which owns Employee Benefits selects a charity partner for the year for the business to support.
This often leads to some interesting fundraising efforts. For example, a very rainy Sunday last December saw a team from Employee Benefits running around a London park dressed as Santa – all in the name of charity.
This year, we’re taking a different approach to support our charity partner Mind. Mental ill-health now affects one in four people in any given year. This means that in an organisation with 100 staff, 25 will suffer from mental ill-health each year.
This is a startling number. But I wonder how many employers actually realise the extent to which such issues exist among their workforce. Sadly, such a stigma still exists around such issues that many employees may be reluctant to share their condition with their employer, meaning they miss out on the support that is offered by an increasing number of organisations.
To help raise awareness of this important issue, next week Employee Benefits is teaming up with Mind and Legal and General to hold a live webinar on the topic of workplace mental wellbeing. This will see a panel of experts discuss issues such as what employers can do to reduce this stigma, how they can raise awareness of mental health issues in the workplace and best-practice support.
The webinar will broadcast live at 3pm on Tuesday 28 April on EBTV.
We’d love for you to join us.
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Tweet: @DebbieLovewell
