Open Source: Our Startup Mental Health Policy at Afrocenchix
The topic of mental health is ubiquitous these days, but it’s still frustratingly taboo.
As a founder of a fast growing seed stage start up, and someone in therapy for cPTSD, it’s a topic close to my heart. I was going to write an article on what we’re learning about mental health and how we look after our team, but rather than overcook it, I’ve decided to share the policy I wrote for Afrocenchix in the hope it will inspire yours.
My particularly brand of cPTSD makes me a chronically avoidant overachiever. So naturally when one of my executive coaches told me our approach to mental health is world class and I should write an article on it, I avoided it as I wasn’t immediately sure on the best way to present it. (Thanks for being the catalyst for this piece Punit Aggarwal!)
The truth is, as much as I believe in talking about mental health to help destigmatise it, I can’t ignore the costs and risks involved. It’s draining to open up and find inevitably awkward, intrusive and insensitive questions land in your inbox. It’s worse when people speak to you with a level of derision, believing you weak because you’ve been honest about your human vulnerability.
I fundamentally believe compassion is a strength, no matter how it looks to others. The ability to connect to someone else’s needs and support them through a difficult time is an important part of our humanity. It’s also sadly one that we frequently bury in business, for fear of appearing weak. It may be that this article is held against me by future potential investors or otherwise, but if sharing this helps a couple of leaders make things better for their team, it’s a worthwhile risk.
So here it is, I’m open sourcing our policy to help leaders improve their culture so that as many people as possible can achieve optimum mental health and well-being. I was inspired by the work of Sanctus and the policy at Charlie HR in writing this. Feel free to ask questions. Feel free to make constructive suggestions to help us further improve things for the Afrocenchix team. And please do share with someone this could impact.
The Afrocenchix Mental Health Policy
Mental Health & Wellness Pledge
Afrocenchix exists to promote Health and wellbeing in everyday life, starting with haircare products. We want our team, customers, community and stakeholders to thrive and it’s within this context that we make our pledge.
We promise to cultivate a safe environment for the Afrocenchix team where all can flourish and achieve optimum physical and mental health and wellbeing. We will continually monitor and increase our levels of psychological safety in accordance with this goal.
We commit to facilitating activities important for good mental health and wellness and providing the support and resources needed to manage work related stress.
1. Official Mental Health Policy
An open and safe environment requires transparency around policy. Knowing the company’s official approach to mental health and wellness encourages us all to prioritise our mental health and helps to destigmatise mental health challenges.
Our handbook and policy documents are designed to remove uncertainty by clarifying the way we support team members with mental and physical health challenges.
2. Personal Days
If you need space to properly assess your mental state, to call a therapist or to rest and realign yourself when on the verge of burnout, we encourage you to take a personal day.
These are designed to alleviate the anxiety associated with mental health problems. For many, it can feel dishonest to take a sick day because you’re at risk of depression or you sense anxiety is around the corner. Or you may simply not want people to ask what illness you have and whether you’re better. Using up holiday can feel like a waste and equally invites awkward questions. In most workplaces, there’s no place for just needing headspace. This is that space. You can use personal days for therapy or even just to journal and make a place to prevent mental health issues from spiralling.
Like a sick day, you book a personal day on Charlie HR before 8am and update us. We also have a back to work interview to ensure we are supporting you in your return. During this time we will ask about your plan to get the mental health help you need, and how we can be supportive.
Unlike a holiday, you won’t have colleagues asking how your break was or what you got up to. Unlike a sick day you won’t have people asking what was wrong and if you’re better. You can talk about it as little or as much as you are comfortable with.
3. Mental health questions in Founder Catch Ups
Our regular Founder Catch Ups are designed to facilitate individual and collective wellbeing, by providing a regular forum to talk about everything important to you. We discuss how you’re finding your workload, any new ideas you’re excited about, your career progression or any major developments in your personal life. We also ask questions about Mental health to create a safe, judgement free and non pressurised space to discuss any and all mental health issues that may arise.
4. Spill
We offer access to Spill, a service that allows you to book video therapy sessions in just a few clicks. It’s a Slack app which you can find below your DMs (but the therapy doesn’t happen in Slack!) Spill is completely confidential and secure so we won’t receive any information about how you use it.
Spill is a ‘safe space to share how you’re really feeling, discuss any of your concerns or anxieties, and put together a plan for how you can stay mentally and emotionally healthy during this period, too. In a therapy session, you can talk about work, life, love, the world: anything and everything. Nothing is too small or too big to discuss.’
You can watch this video to learn more about how it works.
We recommend starting with a one off session to determine a good fit, then booking the full 6 sessions if you need more support. We’d suggest also letting your GP know about your mental health challenges, and getting on an NHS waiting list in case you need longer term support.
If you want a particular type of therapist, or have a session that isn’t as you’d hoped, you can directly email therapy@spill.chat with your request/feedback.
Anonymous wellbeing polls & pulse checks
By conducting regular anonymous feedback polls and pulse checks, we’re able to ensure that we create an open environment for the team to talk about difficulties and we’re supporting our team members in managing stress. We encourage all team members to participate in these polls in addition to voicing any concerns or needs as they arise.
A note on wellness
We recognise that conflating mental health conversations with wellness/wellbeing conversations can diminish the suffering caused by serious mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and bipolar disorder.
Although we initially planned to have one policy for mental health and wellness, we recognise that this could contribute to unhelpful perceptions of mental health challenges being something that can be overcome by positive thinking and kale smoothies.
Some of our initiatives have benefits for both wellness and mental health. For instance we have daily group check-ins where we share what we’re working on and who we need. This helps with autonomy and focus. Our daily debriefs are a chance to share a win and vent about a struggle to close off the work day and end with a sense of camaraderie. We also have a weekly standup focused on celebrating wins, sharing learnings and what we’re reading and focusing on what we need to achieve in the week ahead, as well as recognising the star of the week. These core meetings help to create psychological safety.
Separate policies are a way to ensure that we create the atmosphere necessary for all at Afrocenchix to achieve optimum wellness, whilst providing adequate support and resources to support those suffering due to serious mental health conditions.
