Hive Learning and Mental Health Innovations launch a new digital training programme to help employers better support employees' mental health

- The programme will combine Hive Learning's peer learning methodology and a framework used to train 7,000 volunteers for the UK's leading text helpline, Shout 85258 

- The programme helps people develop self-awareness about their own mental health and practice eight critical skills for more supportive conversations that will benefit them in every aspect of their work

LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hive Learning –– the world's #1 peer learning platform –– has partnered with the UK's leading digital mental health charity –– Mental Health Innovations (MHI) –– to launch Mental Health Works, a new digital peer learning programme designed to help organisations foster a culture of trust and compassion.

It's clear that there is an urgent need for organisations to better support their employee's mental health:

• Based on a study of the world's 36 largest countries, it's estimated that 12 billion productive days are lost each year due to poor mental health, at a cost of $925 billion
•  Workers dealing with change are 2X as likely to report chronic work stress, while many employers agree that change is a guaranteed constant
• Half of people managers have been approached with a mental health issue, but fewer than 1/3 have been trained on how to respond
• Mental Health Innovations data show that more than half (52%)^[1] of those who were currently employed wouldn't feel able to talk to their manager about their mental health

These factors alongside many more prompted the World Economic Forum to call for collective and urgent action from employers in 2021 to better support their employee's mental health.

Driven by customer demand, Hive Learning partnered with Mental Health Innovations to develop a new programme that helps leaders, managers, and every employee develop eight critical skills for more supportive conversations.

The programme uses the framework designed by Shout to train 7,000 volunteers and is informed by a huge data set generated from nearly three quarters of a million conversations. 87% of Shout texters find the service helpful and 74% say they feel more calm after their conversation.*

Skills learnt on the programme are highly transferable –– helping employees build rapport, help people with personal struggles like a breakup or grief, and talk about everyday work concerns like workload or difficult feedback.

The 2021 Shout Volunteer survey shows that 84% of volunteers agree that their training helps them be better listeners, and 86% of volunteers agree that volunteering with Shout has helped them feel more comfortable handling difficult situations. 91% of Shout Volunteers agree that their volunteering has given them transferable skills and mental health knowledge that they can apply to their life beyond the platform.

Volunteers report that they feel more comfortable dealing with difficult situations at work and at home and supporting colleagues, friends and family. Volunteers also report that Shout training techniques have given them more confidence pursuing new avenues and opportunities.

The programme is available off-the-shelf and to customise, and will be deployed on Hive Learning's consumer-grade peer learning platform. It will be accompanied by campaign management packages that include nudges, conversation starters, pulse checks and other engagement tactics designed to spark conversation and turn learning into action. Clinical support is also available on request.

The training programme is available to deploy from today.

You can learn more about the Mental Health Works programme and view a sample of the Mental Health Works programme content at Hive Learning's website.

Hive Learning CEO Julia Tierney said of the launch:

"Every week, we obsess about what healthy, happy, and productive workforces look like and how employers can create them. We know that creating a culture of trust and compassion is critical for helping people do their best work and Covid-19 has created an environment that makes that even harder.

"Having been asked for support with this by a number of customers, we took a good look at the mental health offerings available on the market today. And we felt like there was a huge gap.

"It's great to see organisations offering access to wellbeing benefits like meditation apps or gym memberships and it's encouraging to see so much mental health first aid training being delivered too.

"But the challenge with these tools is that they are very focused on individual experiences which aren't for everyone. What's more, they don't set a standard for the collective behaviours of employees or help people understand 'how we do things around here' when it comes to supporting positive mental health.

"Organisations currently have very few ways to give every person the practical tools to help them do that. Ultimately we know that for culture change to stick, it has to be everyone's job. That's why we launched this programme.

"We partnered with Mental Health Innovations because we loved their data-driven and practical approach to building skills, and the deep expertise of their clinical psychologists means that organisations will be able to give their people access to the very best training.

"We look forward to continuing to work with them and helping many organisations create a culture of trust and compassion, one conversation at a time."

Victoria Hornby, CEO of Mental Health Innovations, commented:

"Given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of the UK population, it's now more important than ever that employers consider the mental wellbeing of their employees. However our data has revealed a key issue in that we've found that a huge 52% of workers would not broach the subject of mental health with their managers. It appears that the workplace is a space where many people don't feel comfortable talking about their mental health. This points towards a clear need for a shift in the approach taken by employers and a need to make space for new conversations in the workspace.

"The training that we give our Shout Volunteers centres on the immense power of a positive conversation and the conversations volunteers have with the texters who contact us in a moment of need have a huge and sometimes life changing impact. We know that our volunteers take this training beyond the Shout platform and benefit from using it in the wider world, whether that's by implementing active listening skills to support friends and family or by harnessing the confidence the training gives them to take their next steps at work.

"We chose to partner with Hive Learning because of their expertise in changing culture at scale, particularly in challenging areas like diversity and inclusion which is closely linked to mental health. We know that with these types of subjects it can be important to reach many people quickly and Hive Learning's programmatic, cohort-based approach will help us do just that.

"For a sensitive and nuanced topic like mental health, we believe that peer learning adds value by getting everyone on the same page about what good looks like quickly, encouraging people to share stories and experiences, and creating a strong support network people can access even if they're far apart from colleagues.

"Shout has used Hive Learning to embed the training we deliver to our volunteers for a number of years and we know that they find the chance to connect with their peers exceptionally valuable.

"We'll be reinvesting the funds generated from this programme into our charity's mission to improve the mental health of the UK population through the provision of digital tools, support and resources."

About Hive Learning

Hive Learning is the world's #1 peer learning platform. Their award-winning approach uses a combination of nudge theory and network science to help enterprise companies and large dispersed workforces create and sustain behaviour change at scale, specialising in areas like inclusion, mental health, and leadership.

Hive Learning takes a three pronged approach:

A consumer-grade, nudge-powered peer learning platform mirrors the good bits of social media to give users a familiar experience that makes it easy to drive adoption and form habits that stick.

Peer learning programmes are available off-the-shelf or to customise. They're built with experts and designed to accelerate skill adoption by encouraging action and conversation, using a network effect to create accountability and sustain momentum.

Expert services mean Hive Learning partners with customers to offer deep insight into their culture and deliver an engagement playbook designed over 20,000 deployments. This guarantees impact, whatever stage of the culture change journey a business is on.  

In the past three years, Hive Learning has generated over 22 million peer learning interactions in 196 countries, and helped +80% of learners take action on what they learnt. Customers include the likes of Legal & General, Boots, and Sun Life Financial.

Visit www.hivelearning.com to learn more.

About Mental Health Innovations

Mental Health Innovations (MHI) is a charity whose mission is to use data-driven analysis, clinical expertise and technological innovation to develop and sustain pioneering digital products and services that meet underserved needs and that improve the mental health of the UK population. Our vision is that everyone in the UK has access to the digital mental health services that they need and can access appropriate, high-quality support quickly and efficiently through the power of technology.

MHI was founded in 2017 and our first product is Shout 85258, a free 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone in the UK who is struggling to cope.

Media Contact

Mara Ispas
Marketing Manager, Hive Learning
[email protected]

*Based on an optional post-conversation survey question of 500 texters who answered that they were employed (data date range: 2021-04-19 to 2021-05-07)

^[1] Based on an optional post-conversation survey question of 500 texters who answered that they were employed (data date range: 2021-04-19 to 2021-05-07)