Employees at Publicis Sapient will be ‘Free at Three’ every Friday in Oct

Realising that employees need time for themselves, Publicis Sapient, has given all its employees and contractors one day off in October to rest and rejuvenate. In addition, throughout the month of October, employees are being asked to stop working at 3 p.m. every Friday and avoid booking meetings on Friday afternoons. The initiative is being called ‘Free at Three’.

All these relaxations are part of the digital consultancy’s way of honouring World Mental Health Day, which is on October 10.

Nigel Vaz, CEO, Publicis Sapient, says, “We respect that everyone seeks to achieve mental wellness differently and offer a diverse range of programmes and resources to address individual needs and preferences.”

He appreciates how the employees have supported the Company over the last one and a half years and feels that employees should also be given time to themselves.

Giving equal importance to mental and physical health, the organisation has taken many initiatives for its employees’ wellbeing.

It has a strong network of 13 Mental Wellbeing Ambassadors or MWAs who are compassionate listeners professionally trained by a renowned partner ‘Human Edge’, to listen without judgement and point people in the right direction for professional treatment, while keeping all communication confidential.

There is also an internal anonymous helpline using which any employee can speak openly and anonymously with an MWA and receive counselling and guidance. About 35 people have used the helpline to address their issues.

In addition, the Company has VOX Page, a digital platform, which serves as a central repository for all mental-health materials such as reminders, post updates, knowledge bytes, counselling information, and amigo notifications, among other things. Since its introduction, the platform has attracted over 2000 visits.