Linklaters rolls out app to promote a mentally healthy workforce

Linklaters rolls out app to promote a mentally healthy workforce

The AI-powered workplace wellbeing app to provide an accessible and sustainable tool for its UK staff

Magic Circle firm Linklaters has announced its partnership with UK startup Better Space to promote a mentally healthy workforce concept for its staff in the UK.

The workplace wellbeing app aims at providing accessible and sustainable tools to look after the mental health of the firm's employees.

The platform will be accompanied by a £300 'wellbeing allowance', which the firm said can be used in conjunction with the app to support employees in finding 'personally relevant' mental health-related tools and resources.

The app will provide the Linklaters' workforce access to the platform's directory of in-person and virtual mental wellbeing services related to different aspects of mental health. These include sleep and mindfulness apps, digital coaches for fitness activities and access to volunteering opportunities.

Linklaters has said that promoting a 'mentally healthy workforce' is a priority objective for the firm as part of its wider health and wellbeing strategy

"It is more important than ever that we nurture our physical and mental wellbeing and we hope that the Better Space app will support our people in doing just that. We are proud of our culture of being open, positive and proactive about mental health and to be championing the next frontier in employee wellbeing support," Nick Syson, Linklaters' health and wellbeing partner, said.

Linkaters' decision to adopt the wellbeing aap on a regular basis followed input from its employees that they would prefer a continued relationship with Better Space after the firm had previously hosted two pilots of the startup in 2018. Following the completion of the second pilot in 2020, 91 per cent of the 336 participating employees in its UK offices recommended continued and formal partnership with Better Space.

Jim Woods, CEO of Better Space, emphasised the app's approach to mental health hinges on the lack of a "one size fits all" solution to mental wellbeing.

The issue of mental health of those associated with the legal industry has come to the fore following the COVID-19 pandemic that interrupted the way they worked. The pandemic forced remote working and increased workloads leading to burnout and other mental health concerns, particularly among younger lawyers.