Mental health is everyone's business.

Coming on to almost five years at D2L, I’ve learned a lot and continue to do so each day. One of the aspects I enjoy most about my role and #LifeatD2L is the opportunity to span wide and go outside the traditional job description of a Recruiter. Don’t get me wrong, I love searching for and bringing top talent to work here but it’s also exciting to be able to expand my skill set and get involved in many different projects that touch on engagement, onboarding and wellness to name a few.

One such recent opportunity led me to deliver a presentation to leaders on Mental Health Awareness and introduce them to the Not Myself Today campaign. It’s D2L’s second year participating and if you haven’t heard of it, I highly recommend considering it for your organization. In a nutshell, it’s a workplace initiative developed by Partners for Mental Health that equips organizations and its employees with information, tools and resources to build a mentally healthy workplace. It also gets everyone talking about mental health and aims to reduce the stigma. It was great to see that our leaders are interested in educating themselves and open to discussing this important topic.

In addition to leader info sessions, we also held a #GETLOUD panel discussion with six of our very own D2Ler’s who shared their stories openly and were a huge inspiration. This topic hits very close to home for me, as I’m sure it does for many and I was incredibly proud that D2L provides the opportunity and environment to share and are supportive of our employees and this very important topic. As part of our planned activities, I was also able to launch an internal social media contest that has encouraged our employees to show their support for Mental Health Week and keep the conversation going.

As I think about some of the key takeaways from today’s panel, I encourage each of you to continue to educate yourselves on mental health and illness, if something doesn’t seem right -ask questions, be supportive and understanding, don’t pass judgement and most of all, always wear your heart on your sleeve as you never know what someone else might be going through outside these four walls.

Thanks again for those who participated in our panel, came out to listen, attended an info session or showed their support on social. Mental health is everyone's business and I'm grateful to see that we're taking steps to take care of it.