Caring for the mental health and wellbeing of our people

Our wellbeing priorities focus on systematically reducing mental health risks across the organization and are aligned to the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) recommendations 2022:

• Reduce: Exposure to mental health risks for our people through education and integration of wellbeing into our policies and processes.
• Promote: Awareness of mental health and wellbeing at work and strengthen skills and capabilities across the organization.
• Support: Our people participate in and have the support to thrive at work no matter where they sit on the mental health continuum.

Novartis’ wellbeing priorities are overseen by senior management, with day-to-day operational responsibility owned by the Global Head of Wellbeing.

Promoting awareness of mental health and wellbeing at work

Our goal is that our people have the confidence to talk openly about mental health, recognize the signs that they or someone they know may need support, and know where to find that support and ignite the discussion to de-stigmatize mental health. We run global and country awareness campaigns throughout the year - for example “Mental Health Awareness Month” in May and “Mental Health and Wellbeing Month” in October.

Supporting our people to enhance their mental health & wellbeing

We provide our people with global tools and resources through our ‘Wellbeing Hub’ (e.g. wellbeing toolkits, self-assessment tools and trainings) to support and enhance their mental health and wellbeing. These complement additional supports customized at a country level based on local needs and context (e.g. Employee Assistance Programs providing 24/7 psychological support).

We have a global network of country wellbeing teams and Employee Resource Groups who co-create our campaigns and initiatives locally to ensure relevance for greatest impact across all geographies. We are continuously growing our community of 1 000+ ‘Mental Health First Aiders’ who receive training to help guide their colleagues to access the most appropriate supports when needed.

We recognize the important role managers contribute to the wellbeing of their teams. Given this we have dedicated manager resources and learning programs (e.g. wellbeing leader toolkit, e-learns and development curriculum) and have integrated wellbeing into key policies and processes – for example onboarding, performance and development, team effectiveness, learning.

Reducing mental health risks across our organization

We measure our impact through ongoing data insights and feedback from our people. We track our “Wellbeing Index” which is based on our quarterly employee engagement survey. This includes sentiment data on wellbeing and work-life balance to identify trends and focus areas. The data gathered is used to further enhance our mental health and wellbeing offerings to better meet the needs of our people. This guided our hybrid working principles to support better work-life balance and our peoples’ sense of belonging and development through in-person collaboration.

Advancing mental health and wellbeing beyond Novartis

• Novartis is a founding member of The Future of Workforce Health Initiative led by Harvard Medical School. It aims to identify cutting-edge solutions and practices for improving employee health and productivity while reducing the cost of health care benefits
• Novartis partnered with London School of Economics, University of Zurich and MoreThanNow in academic research to inform ‘Mental Health First Aider’ programs
• Novartis Slovenia joined UNICEF Slovenia in raising awareness of mental health in children and adolescents
• Novartis South Africa supported Dr. Mutshidzi Mulondo’s research into mental health challenges affecting young people and the general public in South Africa
• Novartis & One Young World advancing issues in healthcare and mental health through The Novartis Reimaging Healthcare Scholarship program