Nationwide Building Society has launched an online mental wellbeing network to support its 18,000 employees during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
The Kinda network has been created by the organisation’s internal disability network, Enable and is run by volunteers who have been guided on how to support their communities safely, and are closely following the guidance outlined by their respective national public health committees. So far there are 150-200 active volunteers.
Alongside this, the organisation has partnered with digital mental health wellbeing platform Unmind to provide employees with support and advice on mental wellbeing, in both their work and personal lives.
Nationwide is also encouraging line managers to continue checking in on employees’ wellbeing during the pandemic.
Faye Whitmarsh, people strategy and experience director at Nationwide Building Society, said: “The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week was kindness and we are encouraging all of our 18,000 employees, who have been working hard to support our members, to take some time to be kind to themselves and to each other during these times.
“It’s fantastic that we can launch two new tools to support colleagues during Mental Health Awareness Week. Kinda will connect our employees with their colleagues who need support and Unmind will help provide bespoke mental health support. Our colleagues have seen so much change in their day to day lives over the last few weeks and months, and they continue to be there for our members. We hope that these tools will help our people create the space to proactively look after their own wellbeing as well.”