Destigmatizing mental health at Media Profile

Mental health, an important issue before the pandemic, has become even more important today as we continue to live through the ups and downs of new variants, vaccinations, and lockdowns.

At Media Profile we take the topic of mental health very seriously. We approach mental health with empathy, understanding that every employee comes from a different place with different circumstances, and we’re proud of mental health-focused benefits we offer to our staff:

Mental Health Days

At Media Profile we value our employees’ emotional well-being and give each person two paid mental health days off per year. Giving employees mental health days makes the intent clear, these are days to take when you need a mental break.

Mental Health Benefits 

We give each employee a $500 health and wellness benefit so they can improve their overall mental and physical health and we offer more than $2000 under our extended health care plan for mental health services. Employees can use these benefits to see a Clinical Counsellor, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and/or Social Worker. This benefit extends beyond individual treatment to family and relationship counselling as well. 

Wellness Activities

At Media Profile we have a health and wellness committee that provides quarterly newsletters designed to provide our staff with resources to help achieve overall wellness. We end our bi-weekly staff meetings with meditations, yoga or stretching exercises to help with overall mental health and wellness.

Work-life Balance

Good mental health also stems from an employee’s ability to unplug from work and achieve a healthy work-life balance. At Media Profile we are very committed to work-life balance. We have programs in place to help employees achieve this, for example, we offer flex hours and balance days whereby employees can choose to work a 4-day work week.

Work Away

We realized that our employees were getting very tired of working from home, staring out the same window, so we decided to introduce a work away program. Media Profile gives each employee financial resources and the opportunity to work anywhere in the world for up to a month. We feel that this is a great way to unplug, get a change of scenery, spark some creativity, and get immersed in a different culture. Last year, Account Director, Stephanie Kesler created her own work from home experience out west, and it sounds like Barbados, Brazil and Holland may become new office locales for some of our staff.

Open Dialogue

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, scheduling regular 1:1 check-ins and encouraging thoughtful discussion is critical to establishing the trust and communication vital to positive workplace culture. Each employee at Media Profile is assigned to a VP Partner and it is their responsibility to check in with each employee once a month. There are so many benefits to getting to know each employee on an individual level and watching for signs of change that could prompt discussion.