We strive to build a culture that encourages conversations and promotes healthy behaviours around mental health and wellbeing, so our people and business can thrive, grow and sustain high performance.

Our wellbeing framework consists of three components: mind, body and balance, each of which guides the development of our programmes. Our Head of Wellbeing and Inclusion Kristina Adey-Davies says: ‘We continue to focus on building a healthy culture and encouraging connection across our offices.’

We began focusing on mental health literacy—  getting colleagues comfortable talking about mental health at work and equipping them with skills and resources to look after their own mental health, as well as others. Our peer-to-peer support programme (comprised of colleagues trained in Mental Health First Aid  skills) provides our people with language to talk about mental health and a framework to support others in the workplace.

Senior buy-in is critical in evolving the ways we work. Engaging leaders raises awareness of the day-to-day benefits of healthy working practices, empowering people to look after themselves and others.

So, as well as continuing mental health training , we rolled out ‘Fostering High Performing Teams’ training for senior leaders globally in 2023, explaining the relationship between mental health and performance, as well as helping our senior leaders learn how to recognize when people might be struggling and may be in need of guidance. 

Freshfields Partner and Chair of the Global Board Piers Prichard Jones attended the training and says it ‘clearly highlighted the fundamental link between good mental health and wellbeing, and the high-performance culture that's so integral to Freshfields. Working at a global law firm, we can have demanding workloads, and it’s vital we support our teams and colleagues to thrive and perform to their best.’

Building on this, over the last year we have embedded this work into core career development milestone and developed a global network of executive sponsors. The network is made up of partners and senior business services colleagues, who have specific goals including role modelling sustainable ways of working and acting as an advisory board locally and globally as we evolve our approach and introduce new tools and protocols.

In addition to a range of local offerings, all colleagues have access to a wellbeing app that provides tools to support their mental health and wellbeing and access to professional support across a range of areas such as emotional, mental and physical health. Collaborating with and listening to our people has been crucial in evolving our approach to wellbeing, helping to ensure that we are continuing to provide a range of support to suit different needs. 

We engage with our global Associate and Business Services Advisory Board which helps us understand how our global approach is experienced and informs how we can continue to evolve and improve. We run listening exercises and regularly connect with our global Mental Health Support Team. Their input and feedback are helpful in developing our initiatives.