How supportive managers can boost employee wellbeing
Entain is one of the biggest players in the betting and gambling/gaming industry, with a workforce of more than 25,000 people in 20 offices across five continents. A member of the FTSE 100, Entain’s brands have a combined heritage of 250 years.
To deliver great customer experiences, Entain knew it had to first deliver great employee experiences. So, in 2020, it partnered with Unmind to support the mental health of its international workforce.
The challenge
In 2022, Entain ran a global survey to assess its workplace wellbeing. It discovered a link between manager support for employees and employee burnout. The more regular, open and honest conversations employees had with managers, the less they experienced burnout.
The need for manager training was clear. For help, the gaming giant turned to Unmind’s Workplace of Tomorrow training course.
Stella Gavinho, Entain's Group Head of Wellbeing, who championed the initiative, says: “We wanted to help managers nurture the right conversations and better support their teams, so giving them access to Unmind Managers was a no-brainer.”
Equipping managers
Unmind Managers is designed to equip managers to have supportive conversations, giving practical support on topics that really matter – such as self-care, managing stress and anxiety, financial wellbeing and understanding neurodiversity.
“It is very easy to say, ‘you should have more conversations’,” says Gavinho, “but you need to give people the skills and confidence to do that. You have to lay the foundations of mental health and give everyone the same basic skills.”
A total of 96% of managers completed the training and, just days after finishing the course, 68% had already taken action to support their own or others’ mental health.
Managers reported that they felt more able to spot when a colleague might be struggling with their mental health, more confident in their ability to nurture their team’s mental health, and better equipped to help a colleague who needed it.
Thomas Brooks, Etain’s Retail Learning Business Partner, says: “It’s fantastic to hear so much positive feedback for this training – a massive win.”
Adds Gavinho: “We wanted our managers to have the basic skills to create that culture of psychological safety. Ultimately this leads to happier and better performing teams.”
In partnership with Unmind
Our vision is to create a world where mental health is universally understood, nurtured&celebrated.
