Case study
Halfords
Since partnering with Halfords in 2018, we have helped to look after the mental health, wellbeing and personal safety of their colleagues.
What we did
Mental health first aid
We trained over 100 mental health first aiders across the business to provide initial support to those in need.
Personal safety
We created a tailored personal safety and conflict management course to meet the specific needs of this unique retail environment.
Train the Trainer
We developed a bespoke conflict management and personal safety programme, teaching their trainers how to deliver it internally.
Customised training videos
We created customised training videos to deal with conflict and aggression.
Embedding mental health support across Halfords
We are delighted to have trained over 100 Mental Health First Aiders across the business, as well as providing upskilling and refresher courses. We’ve also delivered tailored mental health awareness sessions for senior leaders and managers, helping to strengthen confidence and embed wellbeing at every level.
Personal safety
As in most retail environments, frontline staff are all too often in the firing line. They come face-to-face with angry or aggressive customers in handling refunds, refusing service, preventing shop theft, and dealing with anti-social behavior.
Halfords also provides fitting services, which can mean staff work alone and out of close contact with colleagues. As well as delivering in-person training, we create a series of customised training videos, showing the most common challenges their colleagues face when managing conflict and aggression.
Train the Trainer
Sharing key messages with a workforce so large and geographically dispersed is a challenge. To get round this we developed a tailored course for role out to all staff, and then trained a team of managers how to deliver the course.
What the client said
Halfords is a large diverse organisation with multiple locations so when looking for a training partner, we needed an organisation that has experience in delivering services to large complex retailers. We needed to be confident that the services would deliver the right level of impact across our workforce. Halfords prides itself in prioritising colleague care and given the challenges of the past 15 months, we are stepping up activity to fine-tune our Mental Health strategy. We look forward to working in partnership with Terry and the team at Oakwood Training going forward. Further to Terry's thought-provoking and informative executive session, we are more conscious of the work we need to do to better support our teams and elevate our mental health commitments in the coming months. This includes coaching for our senior leaders, refreshing training for our current cohort of Mental Health First Aiders and expanding the programme across the Group. We are looking forward to embedding more positive change and see great potential in using Terry's services to enhance the wellbeing and care of colleagues making them feel more confident and able to raise issues they have in the workplace further supporting our One Halfords Family value.
Graham Stapleton
CEO, Halfords
The Oakwood training team provided our Managers from the Distribution Centres with a two day Mental Health First Aid course. The training was engaging, informative and gave all of us involved a real insight into the many issues that seem to be part of every day life now. Without exception all members fed back at the end of the course that they now feel better equipped and able to help support colleagues, friends or family in the future. As for the trainers well what can I say other than they very quickly gaged the group dynamics and delivered two days that although at times due to the subject matter was hard with light and laughter so all I can say is a big Thank You and at every opportunity I would highly recommend Oakwood Training.
Sian White
Health and Safety, Halfords
What the client said
"We were looking for a partner, who had a positive approach to Mental Health & Wellbeing. Someone who could convey the message in an engaging way while still being laser sharp about the seriousness of taking care of your own wellbeing. It was important to select a Programme, which could embrace our Colgate Culture and at the same time tap straight into various local cultures and allow each individual to feel invited and listen to.
The Programme has been a great success with incredible high participation on both the virtual instructor-led sessions and the eLearning modules. What we particularly love is the bite-sized, fun and interactive way the eLearning is constructed with a great variety to keep the learner hooked.
The equal and unpretentious dialogue Oakwood masters creates psychological safety and opens up for dialogue, vulnerability - and the opportunity to proactively take responsibility"
Susanne Vang
Talent Acquisition & Learning Manager - Northern Europe, Colgate-Palmolive Company
"We were looking for a partner, who had a positive approach to Mental Health & Wellbeing. Someone who could convey the message in an engaging way while still being laser sharp about the seriousness of taking care of your own wellbeing. It was important to select a Programme, which could embrace our Colgate Culture and at the same time tap straight into various local cultures and allow each individual to feel invited and listen to.
The Programme has been a great success with incredible high participation on both the virtual instructor-led sessions and the eLearning modules. What we particularly love is the bite-sized, fun and interactive way the eLearning is constructed with a great variety to keep the learner hooked.
The equal and unpretentious dialogue Oakwood masters creates psychological safety and opens up for dialogue, vulnerability - and the opportunity to proactively take responsibility"
Susanne Vang
Talent Acquisition & Learning Manager - Northern Europe, Colgate-Palmolive Company
Oakwood's approach to Mental Health training was perfectly pitched for a senior team. The training was engaging, accessible, informative, important and mind-broadening. We came away with a much clearer picture of how mental health issues affect people at work.
Lord Simon Wolfson
CEO, Next
Oakwood's approach to Mental Health training was perfectly pitched for a senior team. The training was engaging, accessible, informative, important and mind-broadening. We came away with a much clearer picture of how mental health issues affect people at work.
Lord Simon Wolfson
CEO, Next
Oakwood's approach to Mental Health training was perfectly pitched for a senior team. The training was engaging, accessible, informative, important and mind-broadening. We came away with a much clearer picture of how mental health issues affect people at work.
Lord Simon Wolfson
CEO, Next
"We were looking for a partner, who had a positive approach to Mental Health & Wellbeing. Someone who could convey the message in an engaging way while still being laser sharp about the seriousness of taking care of your own wellbeing. It was important to select a Programme, which could embrace our Colgate Culture and at the same time tap straight into various local cultures and allow each individual to feel invited and listen to.
The Programme has been a great success with incredible high participation on both the virtual instructor-led sessions and the eLearning modules. What we particularly love is the bite-sized, fun and interactive way the eLearning is constructed with a great variety to keep the learner hooked.
The equal and unpretentious dialogue Oakwood masters creates psychological safety and opens up for dialogue, vulnerability - and the opportunity to proactively take responsibility"