Beauty brand Molton Brown is to give its office-based, production and store staff a paid day off this month for their mental health.
Its offices, production sites and stores will be closed on Monday 20 January, which is known as Blue Monday in the UK, and will reopen on Tuesday 21 January. Its website will remain open for orders.
Established by its parent organisation Kao, the mental health day takes place every January across all sites and stores in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region in support of mental health and wellbeing. The aim is to allow employees to focus on activities that support their mental health and overall wellbeing, and to step back, relax and recharge.
Gabriele Arend, vice president of human capital development at Kao EMEA, said: “While we are conscious that marking just one day for mental health problems is not enough, we hope that this provides a valuable moment for our employees to rest and recharge during a time that is marked by cold and dark days, and can be a challenge to mental wellbeing.”
Elizaveta Khadjinova, diversity, equality and inclusion manager, with responsibility for the mental health and wellbeing focus group at Kao EMEA, added: “Additionally, we provide a variety of measures to support the mental health and wellbeing of our employees year-round, including a hybrid-working model, meeting-free mornings, programmes providing practical support for mental health and a trained network of mental health first aiders. We also started training our managers to provide better mental health support to our employees.
“The wellbeing of our Molton Brown family is at the centre of everything we do. At Kao, we believe that prioritising mental health and wellbeing is key to help keep an open dialogue, remove stigmas and create a safe environment where people can authentically be themselves.”