Sally Beck on mental health at work: ‘Seeking out others helped me feel less alone’

In the lead-up to Hospitality Action’s Walk for Wellbeing events, The Caterer is partnering with the charity to explore how industry leaders are supporting their teams’ mental health as well as looking after themselves and keeping their businesses moving in the right direction.

This week, we speak to Sally Beck, general manager at the Royal Lancaster London, who shares how prioritising open communication, structured wellbeing initiatives and professional support has strengthened her team’s resilience, reduced turnover and fostered a culture of care.

How are you and the team doing right now? 

I think we are pretty good. We do quarterly face-to-face meetings with all team members where we talk about development and wellbeing. The meetings mean we are listening to each team member and helping them reach their goals – both career and personal ones, if we can help.

What’s the best way for hotel general managers to communicate the importance of mental health management? 

It’s about being part of the solution. For me, that’s about talking to teams in a relaxed fashion, being available and having an open-door policy.  

We took a survey of our entire team to ask them how stress shows itself at work and then broke down the results into the various generations that work for us. We acted on the results by giving ‘buddies’ to all new starters and creating a chill-out space on our 19th floor.

We also set up a mental wellbeing team, who undertake all sorts of activities to encourage positive practices, and we are looking at bringing in a ‘function and purpose’ vision board to manage career expectations at our Welcome Back Day, which is when the team celebrate passing their three-month probation with us.

Initiatives like this are led and supported by general managers. As a result, we have seen our unauthorised absences decrease and our staff turnover – which is low anyway by industry standards – reduce even further.

How have you helped senior management teams feel more comfortable discussing worries with you?

We have set up mentor and mentee partnerships within the various management teams, which help support growth and succession planning as well as address personal concerns.

Have you made use of professional support to give employees a safe outlet?

Everyone in the team is supported by Hospitality Action’s Employee Assistance programme and we encourage everyone to use the service if they need it. We have sometimes intervened when we know a team member needs their help but is reluctant to ask for it.