All you need to know about the This Can Happen Award 2022 categories
Entries for The This Can Happen Awards 2022, in association with Allen & Overy, are now closed.
The awards are open to all workplaces and individuals who champion mental health and celebrate workplaces and individuals, who have shown excellence in their approach towards positive mental health for their employees and colleagues. We welcome submissions from all types of workplaces, whether large or small, commercial or not-for-profit, from every type of industry and any country.
We encourage entries that outline successful strategies and campaigns that have been implemented, and which show workplaces can drive positive solutions and outcomes. There is no restriction as to how many categories you can enter, so long as the categories are relevant to the entry.
The This Can Happen Awards 2022 categories have been developed in cooperation with our charity partner Mental Health UK.
Workplace Recognitions
These categories recognise the various aspects of delivering a successful workplace mental health strategy.
Entries will be judged based on their strategy, execution and implementation, as well as the results and impact. Additionally, judges will be looking for evidence of a supportive environment in each workplace, and considering areas such as employee inclusivity, the interaction between their strategy and wider culture of the workplace, and its policies to promote the active involvement of employees with experience of poor mental health in all decisions affecting them.
1. Best Mental Health in the Workplace Strategy: Large Company
This award recognises workplaces with over 750 employees that have implemented an exceptional strategy to strengthen mental health in the workplace. Entries should consider:
- how strategies are implemented from top to bottom
- successfully breaking stigma around mental health with executive buy-in, resulting in company-wide cultural change
- delivery of measurable improvement and success.
Entrants should also demonstrate an inclusive, preventive and supportive approach to mental health and wellbeing. This could showcase how considerations around mental health are reflected in a strategic approach and wider policies and systems that flex to the needs of all employees, for example, recognising that good mental health cannot be taken for granted, by encouraging reasonable adjustments and flexible working.
2. Best Mental Health in the Workplace Strategy: SME
This award recognises workplaces with fewer than 750 employees that have implemented an exceptional strategy to strengthen mental health. Entries should consider:
- how strategies are implemented at all employee levels
- successfully breaking stigma around mental health with senior buy-in, resulting in company-wide cultural change
- delivery of measurable improvement and success.
Entrants can demonstrate how a smaller organisation, which may not have in-house wellbeing expertise, has used outside resources successfully to integrate mental health into wider wellbeing strategies.
3. Best Mental Health in the Workplace Strategy: Multinational Implementation
This award recognises workplaces that have successfully implemented a strategy to strengthen mental health in their workplaces in two or more countries. Entries should consider:
- how strategies are implemented at all employee levels
- successfully breaking stigma around mental health with senior buy-in, resulting in company-wide cultural change
- delivery of measurable improvement and success
- recognising local and cultural differences in the implementation yet achieving a holistic approach throughout the different countries.
Entrants should also demonstrate an inclusive, preventive and supportive approach to mental health and wellbeing.
4. Best New Workplace Approach to Mental Health
This award will be given to a workplace that has recently recognised explicitly the importance of addressing mental health, and within the past 18 months has taken first steps to change the culture via a holistic and focused approach to maintaining and improving the mental health of all employees.
Due to the limited timeframe companies at this stage of their mental health journey have had to see the benefits of this work emerge, judges will not focus solely on outcomes but will consider the impetus and process behind the initiative and the action plan to deliver it.
5. HR/D&I/Wellbeing Team of the Year
This award is aimed at motivating and celebrating those teams – including project teams – who have a positive impact across their workplace. Whether large or small, the team – which could represent HR, Wellbeing and/or Diversity/Inclusion functions – should demonstrate that they have been crucial in driving the implementation of mental health initiatives and strategies and delivering measurable results for their workplace.
6. Employee Network of the Year
Many workplaces have established peer networks in their workplace to support colleagues and drive change within mental health. These include Mental Health First Aiders, ambassadors, champions, or advocating employee groups that commit to supporting colleagues in addition to their day job. This category looks to identify networks that can demonstrate how they have been instrumental in supporting colleagues in the workplace and give examples of how their network has been a success.
7. Best Targeted Mental Health Initiative
This category celebrates mental health campaigns and initiatives that workforces have implemented for either (a) a specific group of employees, or (b) a specialist initiative to solve a particular workplace challenge – for example, addressing working from home, furlough, men and mental health, addiction at work, menopause in the workplace, or stress in the workplace. Entries should clearly outline the target group or issue addressed and demonstrate how the initiative improved the situation for the target group or solved the challenge.
8. Product Impact Award
This category recognises the impact of a product that assists organisations with their workplace mental health programmes. Products can include but are not limited to physical products, courses and technological products such as apps. Entries should be submitted in the form of two case studies and demonstrate how the product is supporting mental health in the client organisation(s), including the results and impact it achieved. Approved client testimonials will be required for this category.
9. Mental Health Consultancy Award
This category recognises consultants, trainers or agencies that can demonstrate that their work with their client(s) has delivered a successful and implementable strategy. This category is looking for the outstanding mental health consultancies, trainers and agencies that help develop and implement mental health strategies together with their clients. This category looks for best-in-class organisations and individuals that can clearly demonstrate how their work has helped to break down the stigma around mental health. Judges will be looking for tailored strategies, evidence-based action plans and the delivery of measurable improvement and success.
Entries should be submitted in the form of two case studies, and client testimonials will be required for this category.
NEW - 10. Best adaption to working through Covid
Covid-19 has accelerated the move to flexible working, blurring the boundaries between work and personal time and increasing reliance on technology. From working from home and hybrid meetings to returning to the office, workplaces faced several challenges in adapting to the changing environment. Winners in this category will demonstrate how they embedded the wellbeing of their employees in their people strategies, and how they created a healthy workplace culture to protect the wellbeing, work-life balance and mental health of their employees and leaders.
Individual Recognitions
These categories recognise individuals and their contribution to breaking the stigma around mental health at their workplaces.
Nominees will be judged based on their engagement, strategy and achievements.
13. Most Inspiring HR Leader of the Year
This category recognises those senior leaders within HR / Wellbeing / D&I who have truly led from the front to banish stigma around mental health, and who have actively campaigned within their organisation to ensure colleagues are appropriately supported by their employer. Entrants are nominated by their company.
14. Most Inspiring Senior Leader of the Year
This category recognises those C-Suite / senior executives / directors who have truly led from the front to banish stigma around mental health, and who went above and beyond their day job to advance the mental health in the workplace agenda within their organisation to ensure colleagues are appropriately supported by their employer. Entrants are nominated by their company.
15. Most Inspiring Employee of the Year
This category recognises an individual who has inspired their workplace by breaking stigma around mental health as well as growing awareness of how a workplace can focus on positive mental health. This role should be in addition the individual’s day job and they can be nominated by their company or colleagues.
Recognition for Excellence and Outstanding Engagement (non-entering)
These two categories are non-entering. The winners will be chosen by the judges’ panel and the founders of This Can Happen.
16. This Can Happen Grand Prix Winner 2022
This award is given to the most outstanding award entry, chosen by our panel of esteemed judges.
17. Founders' Choice Award: Outstanding Service to Mental Health
This discretionary award is given to an individual or organisation that the Founders of This Can Happen feel deserves recognition for their work in promoting excellence in mental health.