As with sustainability in energy generation and transmission, the solution here lies in taking a collaborative approach; working together for the best outcome since no one can do it alone.
This allyship starts at a personal level, with colleagues asking each other: "How are you, honestly?" – then listening and asking how they can help.
As Nadine puts it: "What is important is that when we ask "How are you?", we are ready to listen. I always try to have open conversations with my team to really understand, "Okay, are you feeling good? How are you? How are things in your life? I mean, would you like to talk?" It‘s important to open these kind of conversations."
But beyond this, there needs to be a company-wide change in culture; a big task, but a vital one. And this needs to be more than providing short-term initiatives and quick-fix resources. Companies need to adopt a more all-encompassing approach and make their whole culture empathetic and caring. That is what we are working on at Siemens Energy.
Our strategy is to promote a culture with open and honest dialogue on mental health, to protect employees from those aspects of work which may cause stress, and to support those colleagues who are affected by these issues.
We have an Employee Assistance Program, a confidential and professional counselling service available to staff in almost every market. It can be accessed by employees looking for individual support, by managers who wish to learn more about how they can take care of their teams, and by the mental health champions who are being trained in a growing number of countries.
Nadine says: “Siemens Energy made available several tools to help employees through the pandemic. One was an app which offered free therapy sessions. That was really helpful.”
