Ahead of 'Time To Talk day' on 6th February 2020, a national campaign with the aim of breaking down the stigma surrounding talking about mental health, we spoke to our company FIR Ambassadors and Mental Health First Aiders about their experience so far in the role and implementing the initiates into the company.

Sean Strohman

Since joining the supply chain sustainability school and then becoming a FIR ambassador I have been in a position to help heighten awareness within our workforce of the importance of FIR. Along with my colleague Rebecca Billimore, also a FIR ambassador, we have also influenced company policy through knowledge gained from the Schools fantastic free courses and supporting information on, not only FIR, but EDI, mental health and much more.

What I have personally found very rewarding is seeing new company practices and procedures being set in place to reflect the importance of FIR within the workplace. An example of this is all new recruits, as part of their introduction to our company, will firstly receive from either myself or Rebecca a presentation on FIR generally followed by a more company orientated talk outlining our FIR ethos and support available to our employees.

Being seen as an FIR ambassador has allowed individuals to approach me with questions or concerns and to be able to help or resolve these together or with the input of other company members.

Its now almost twelve months since I became an FIR ambassador and during that time I have noticed a greater confidence towards and acceptance of FIR by our overall workforce. So I feel I have, with the total buy in of my company, helped make a difference, changed attitudes and made people more aware of the person next to them and the consideration that each and all of us deserve regardless of race, gender or ethnicity.

So in short it’s been a rewarding journey…

Rebecca Billimore

Since becoming a FIR ambassador I have also changed my job role to the scheduling, I believe that Fairness, Inclusion and Respect pays a massive part in this job role on a day to day basis. I am one of the first points of call for the operatives in the field. I am lucky to work in a role that means I speak to a lot of the staff at Force One on daily basis and often speak to them about a variety of things, from how they’re feeling today to where they are working next week. Whether these conversations are 30 seconds or 5 minutes, its valuable time to ensure that the operatives feel fairly treated, included and respected due to not having the face to face interaction with them every day that I do with the staff based in the office. Tying in closely with these values is the mental health first aid qualification I sat 12 months ago, when my role was administration based. I am now able to more effectively put these principles into practice supporting the operatives should they require it. I’m looking forward to putting more FIR initiatives into practice in 2020 alongside Sean, I have found it to be a very positive experience.

For further detail on the positive impact becoming an active member of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, follow the link below to read our gold member case study.

Gold Member: Force One Limited Case Study