Blurred wins Mental Health Champion industry award

We are proud to have been named the winner of the Mental Health Champion category in PR Week’s Best Places To Work awards. The award is particularly meaningful coming off the back of a period of time in which we have all, across society, been challenged by a global pandemic and the impact of that on working patterns, home life and child care. Mental health has never been more pressed, and pressing.

Our first hire was a non-exec director for people and purpose: Nick Porter, who runs coaching sessions for every member of staff every fortnight. These allow employees to discuss difficulties they may have about their personal circumstances, and also inform the senior team about any changes they may need to take. They can act as an 'early warning system' to address concerns about, for example, client workload; Blurred is in the process of restructuring one account as a result. Pre-coronavirus, support was only for staff who had passed probation, but it was extended to everyone amid the pandemic as multiple new starters required extra support.

In addition to professional coaching, the team have informal check-ins with line managers monthly. Blurred has a mental health first aider within the management team who is upskilling line managers in this area to offer extra support.

We do not use timesheets, freeing our people from the burden of artificial and unnecessary administration. We have no formal start and finish times, and an intrinsically flexible working structure that means our people don't have to work a strict nine to five.

With the onset of COVID-19, we introduced the 'kitchen table get together' - a chance to discuss concerns over a coffee at home. One innovation that derived from this was the 'healthy body, healthy mind' programme: exercise classes running every day since the start of the pandemic. It's available for clients too, and interns can use it even if they've left the business.