Getting to know individuals can help create an inclusive work environment and mitigate mental health and wellbeing risks.
Our Working Well With Me resource is a simple way to start honest conversations, with ten short questions.
The template can be sent to new starters as part of a wellbeing pack email, or via a separate working well email.
It’s crew members’ choice whether to answer the questions, and they should be offered the option to discuss verbally instead.
Be open on access
Team members should be told who can access their answers – such as line managers, senior managers, or human resources – to support the accommodation of their needs and preferences. (GDPR rules should be followed when managing completed documents).
They should also be advised that while it might not be possible to meet every preference, it’s important to flag issues that will affect their ability to do their job.
It might also help to tell team members that they can choose to share some or all of their answers with certain wider team members, so they may want to consider this in their answers, and add notes for discussion.
Consider specific needs and protected characteristics
Discussions of completed documents should go alongside conversations with all new starters about whether they require supported for disabilities including reasonable adjustments.
It’s worth knowing that the Film and TV Charity’s Looking Glass research found that people from underrepresented groups, and those facing additional barriers in the workplace such as Disabled people and carers, were at greater risk of workplace stress.
In your discussions, it’s worth emphasising that if issues are raised around protected characteristics, this is the sort of information that could be shared with line managers, senior managers or human resources.
Protected characteristics are:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy/maternity leave
Templates
With the following Word templates you can:
- Give crew members the opportunity to document and share their working well needs
- Help crew members understand that their personal characteristics matter
Working Well With Me template
- Give crew members ideas on how they might fill out their working well needs
Working Well With Me example
Feedback
As we regularly review Toolkit content, if you have any suggestions to improve this guide, or any part of the site, we would love to hear from you.
Return to Mini Guide 2: Communicate your wellbeing plan to your team
