At NorthEdge, mental health and wellbeing remains high on our agenda and we are committed to understanding how to support our colleagues and portfolio to maintain and improve their mental health and wellbeing on an ongoing basis.

Reports suggest that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind every year in England, while poor mental health costs UK businesses between £53bn and £56bn each year. However, for every £1 employers invest in proactive measures to improve the mental health of their colleagues, it will yield an average return of £5.

In recognition of World Mental Health Day 2023, we wanted to look back at some highlights of our longstanding commitment to both our portfolio and colleagues, as we work to build better businesses.

Last October, we formed a partnership with Sanctus, an organisation that helps businesses pro-actively support their people to achieve better mental health. Sanctus supports more than 100 businesses, both in the UK and internationally, to provide proactive wellbeing and growth support in the workplace.

As part of the partnership, NorthEdge colleagues have access to one-to-one Sanctus coaching sessions every month, which are a blend of personal and professional development with proactive mental wellbeing support. Whether it is to discuss imposter syndrome, improving confidence or building healthy habits, we want our team to have the right support as they grow their careers and lives as part of Team NorthEdge.

We have also sponsored six leaders across our portfolio to take part in the Sanctus Connected Leadership programme. The programme was designed to support people managers at all levels to lead with confidence and create high trust-environments. The portfolio leaders that completed the programme reported more than a 10% improvement against several focus areas and competencies, including resilience, thriving in change and uncertain environments, and cultivating empathetic connections.

To further demonstrate our commitment to mental health and wellbeing, we were one of the first private equity firms to become signatories to the Mindful Employer Charter, renewing our commitment earlier this year, alongside encouraging businesses to invest in training their people in this area. We have six mental health first aiders at NorthEdge, with a further 108 across the portfolio.

In addition, to ensure we create a truly inclusive culture for all colleagues at NorthEdge and across our portfolio, we have made a commitment to further educate ourselves to understand varying perspectives through our long-term diversity, equity and inclusion plan. We are committed to enhancing diversity efforts across all underrepresented groups in our business and in our portfolio, because we recognise that having a diverse and equitable culture can lead to faster growth, improved productivity and increased employee retention – ultimately creating more value for all stakeholders.

Listen to our podcasts on the importance of mental wellbeing in a high-performance environment:

• We spoke to Stevie Ward, former professional rugby player, on mental health, vulnerability and how to reach your full potential – listen here.
• We spoke to George Bettany, Sanctus co-founder, about normalising mental health in the workplace – listen here.

To read more about our commitment to our building better businesses, read our latest ESG Report.