Coronavirus Hub
Coronavirus Hub

Be inspired

How are other businesses stepping up?


  • Facebook has been working with the NHS and Every Mind Matters to circulate videos with practical tips for how people can help to look after their mental health during lockdown
  • Co-op Midcounties has donated 30 smartphones, worth £5,000, and free calls for three months to the Elmore Community Services team, to enable them to support their community’s mental health remotely by hosting group chats with clients
  • STV has launched the next phase of the ‘Britain Get Talking’ campaign, encouraging people to pick up the phone and share messages with friends and family; the initiative is a partnership with ITV and is backed by the Scottish Association for Mental Health, YoungMinds, and Mind.

What have we achieved?


Employers play a vital role in supporting the mental health of their workforce, by prioritising mental health and promoting a positive wellbeing culture. The CBI brought businesses together through our Supporting Mental Health Challenge Group, to share best practice and resources, and to raise awareness of existing campaigns. Through the group, we have:

  • Engaged 100 members on mental health, across a range of sectors, from tech to law to manufacturing
  • Fed member insight into our broader diversity & inclusion policy work, and used it to ensure our go-to factsheet on mental health in a crisis reflects best practice and up-to-date resources
  • Given a platform to experts like Mind and Business in the Community to help businesses drive the conversation on mental health at work.

Be part of a concerted effort to improve the UK's mental health


Get started


Supporting employees’ mental health if you’re not sure where to begin

Expore the CBI’s guidance and resources

Our guidance is developed with business, for business:

  • Read our mental health in a crisis factsheet
  • Attend the CBI National D&I conference on 30th Nov – 1st Dec, with sessions on mental health and wellbeing as well as related topics like flexible working and social mobility
  • Watch our webinar on mental health and wellbeing, including how to instil employee confidence during the return to work. Our webinar with Faye McGuiness from mental health charity Mind also outlined how businesses can support the mental health of staff during the pandemic
  • Read our Front of Mind report, drawing on evidence from nearly 350 UK businesses to set principles for mental health that all firms can follow.

Take a look at the wealth of existing guidance

Our Supporting Mental Health Challenge Group highlighted these resources as the ones helping them to support their employees during the crisis:

  • The Mental Health at Work hub contains resources and advice for senior leaders to take action on employee mental health
  • The Business in the Community network has created a number of toolkits to support employee health and wellbeing
  • It is vital for employers to take an inclusive approach to supporting their whole workforce during the pandemic. For more information, see Business in the Community’s toolkit on taking an inclusive approach to remote working. They have also created a factsheet on Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women, mental health, and coronavirus – including information on action employers can take.

Share your resources and ideas to help other businesses support their staff

Contribute your own resources to help other firms
Firms can donate any information, guidance, or content they have produced to add to the Mental Health at Work hub.

Join the CBI’s People & Skills Networks

These are forums for peer-to-peer sharing and consider the key HR challenges and opportunities affecting UK businesses, including political and legal developments as well as workplace trends. Topics include diversity and inclusion, immigration, skills, and current labour market trends.

Find out more about our work



  • The CBI is campaigning to build diverse and inclusive workplaces

    The CBI is calling on businesses to make diversity and inclusion a priority across all areas of the organisation, creating an environment where everyone has the chance to succeed, prosper, and feel welcome.

  • The Supporting Mental Health challenge was part of our Biggest Challenges Project

    Supporting mental health was part of a wider initiative to bring businesses together to address the social and economic challenges presented by coronavirus. You may also like to read more about our redeploying people challenge - which helped businesses redeploy staff from low to high demand sectors - and our helping families in hardship challenge – which looked at support initiatives that help vulnerable groups.