Bright Horizons has signed the Mindful Business Charter, joining a wide range of businesses and professional service firms around the world in a collective commitment to address the avoidable stresses in our working practices, to promote healthier and more effective ways of working

The Charter, originally launched by Barclays and law firms Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard in October 2018, brings organisations and their service providers together to reach a shared agenda for mental health and wellbeing.

At an event marking World Mental Health Day, Bright Horizons pledged its commitment to abide by a set of principles centred on openness and respect for each other, improved communication, respect for working hours and considerate delegation of tasks.

The Mindful Business Charter provides organisations and individuals with the framework, permission and challenge to dare to be different and to work together across the business community to rehumanise the workplace. Its focus on creating an open and respectful culture and dialogue seeks to ensure that whatever the broader context in which we are being required to work, how we work and how we interact with each other should be thoughtful, mindful, and shaped as far as possible to eliminate unnecessary stress so that we can work both more effectively and more healthily – so that we can all thrive.

Janine Leightley, HR director at Bright Horizons, said: “We are proud to announce we have joined the Mindful Business Charter. The Charter is designed to promote more effective, less stressful and healthier work environments. We are the first employer within the Early Years sector to join the charter, furthering our mission to drive wellbeing within Early Years.”

Mary Peterson, chair of the trustees and head of responsible business at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, one of the founders of MBC, said: “How, when and where we work, and to an extent the very notion of what we mean by work, continues to evolve. The challenge to employers is to ensure that this continuing change is mindful and intentional, that we ensure that all of our people are able to thrive and to work in ways that are both healthy and efficient. MBC continues to evolve to meet that challenge. In the last year, alongside growing our membership base, we have put in place an ambitious strategy to enhance the support we provide to our members to enable them to meet that challenge. Our growing membership, increasingly international in nature and moving well beyond the legal and financial sectors in which MBC began, is testament both to the nature of the challenge and the willingness of employers to meet it. We are delighted to be welcoming Bright Horizons to our community.”

Richard Martin, executive director of The Mindful Business Charter, said: “I am thrilled to be formally welcoming Bright Horizons to The Mindful Business Charter. At its heart MBC is a community of employers coming together to share ideas, learning and challenges, knowing that together we will make so much more of a difference than if we were working alone. Along with our other new members, Bright Horizons have already shown that we will learn from them as much as they will learn from us. The collective commitment from all our members, provides the energy and encouragement to continue our work. We continue to enhance the support we provide to members, whether through collaboration with trusted partners, such as digital wellbeing experts Shine Offline, one to one work with individual members, a growing series of Insight events, the creation of resources to support members or initiatives to tackle unhealthy practices across particular sectors. Change takes time but by making small and deliberate steps on a consistent basis we can achieve great change.”

The MBC has the support of mental health charity Mind, the City Mental Health Alliance, the International Bar Association, the Law Societies of England and Wales and of Scotland and Singapore, LawCare, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and the Lord Mayor of London’s Appeal.