Written by Matt Higgs, HSEQ Director

At Highway Traffic Management (HTM), we’ve spent the last decade embedding mental health into our company culture—not just as a value on a wall, but as a priority in our daily operations.

This is something I’ve witnessed during my own career with HTM, with a focus from the first Talk More campaign to various different support mechanisms being added to the business to support the mental health of our workforce that we have in place today.

But as we celebrate 30 years in business, we’ve also taken time to reflect and ultimately, to evolve. That’s why, this year, we’ve made a subtle but significant change: we’re updating our core value from “Mental Health” to “Wellbeing.”

Why? Because language matters—and this shift reflects a deeper, more holistic approach to supporting our people.

Mental Health

When we introduced “Mental Health” as a value several years ago, it helped to highlight and acknowledge the often-invisible burdens our workforce and crews carry both professionally and personally – and help encourage more people to open up about their mental health.

Talking openly about mental health helped us break down stigma. It sparked conversations. It potentially saved lives. We encouraged people to speak to us and reach out for help before things get unmanageable, with our 2023 Talk More campaign reminding us all to “Talk More, Spot the Signs, Talk More, Save Lives.”

But over time, we’ve realised that our commitment needs to go further than simply reacting to crises.

“Mental health” as a phrase often points to a state of distress—something we need to fix. “Wellbeing,” on the other hand, speaks to the whole person, and the full spectrum of experience: physical, emotional, mental, financial, and even social. Whilst it includes mental health, it also transcends it. It also feels, to me, that there is a far more open approach to talking about wellbeing than mental health, which has to count for something.

The new value is broken down into 5 ’pillars’ of wellbeing:

• Mental Health
• Physical Health
• Financial Wellbeing
• Social and Peer Support
• Work Life Balance

Our five pillars of wellbeing create a supportive, inclusive environment where everyone feels valued. By understanding the factors that shape our daily lives, we take a holistic approach to prioritising our people’s wellbeing.

Wellbeing is Proactive, Not Reactive

When you prioritise wellbeing, you’re not just offering support after something goes wrong. You’re understanding that wellbeing is something that we all have to work at and nurture.

Using myself as an example, in January 2024 I joined a running club which saw me head out on runs from anywhere between 4:30-6:30am. And as the months passed, I realised that the morning run was a huge part of managing my wellbeing and how I set myself up for success each day.

There have been days or weeks where, naturally, life gets in the way. Major life events occur, and diet and exercise can slip. Stress can creep in, along with the doomscrolling, and the things that help us maintain our mental clarity or wellbeing seem to be at the bottom of the priority list. The change in my mood after getting back on track with the running club, eating better and sleeping better, were so noticeable that they were mentioned by my wife. She could see the difference in my wellbeing on the days where I got up and ran before leaving for work, versus the days that I didn’t’.

It all helped me reach the understanding that our wellbeing starts with us. We have to take accountability for our own actions. Sometimes, being honest and holding up the mirror is the thing we simply don’t want to do, but with our wellbeing, we often can find the answer to starting to get back on track by taking a look inwards. If we aren’t getting enough sleep, good food, maintaining good relationships with our partners or family and friends, spending quality time with them, and if we aren’t doing the things we enjoy like golf or exercising in a way that works for us, are we setting ourselves up for success?

We already have wellness action plans in place to help us prevent wellbeing issues from snowballing or becoming unmanageable, and this is key. Preventions is far more successful than intervention, and these wellness action plans help us sit down with employees who are experiencing a period of low wellbeing and get them to ask themselves just that – what could I be doing to help myself? This empowers people to take their wellbeing into their own hands and also help them identify some quick wins when it comes to their wellbeing, and if they are doing these things and still struggling, it helps us support them and help build further steps in.

As a business, we offer a multitude of tools and support services, from Talk More Scores to our EAP, Wellbeing Action Plans to support people to remain in work, reasonable adjustments as necessary to facilitate this, and ongoing education around mental health and wellbeing, encouraging healthy routines, sufficient sleep, hydration, exercise and digital balance.

All of these contribute to long-term resilience and productivity, —not just for the individual, but for the company.

Supporting mental health remains critical. But evolving our terminology to embrace “wellbeing” opens doors to new possibilities, better engagement, and deeper care.

At HTM, we’re proud of our progress—but we’re not stopping here. Because when it comes to wellbeing, the road ahead is just as important as the one behind us.