Real Time Communications (RTC) has joined Menable as part of a bid to "champion the well-being" of its team and its clients in the automotive retail sector.

As part of the partnership with the mental health movement specifically for the automotive market, the company said it will examine how its software solutions can be used to support better mental health across the industry.

The digitalisation company said it initially joined the movement to help take care of its own staff, but now wants to broaden its scope and design solutions that have a greater positive impact for customers, partners and other industry professionals.

Richard Robinson, chief operating officer at RTC, said: “We’ve always been proud to champion our team’s well-being – be that physical or mental. The past 18 months have been some of the hardest many of us have faced, so we wanted to put additional support in place to help us take care of our staff.

“Firstly, we’ve opened up and raised awareness about mental health across the business to reduce the stigma and show that it’s okay to talk about how you feel.

“Through Menable, we’ve been given the tools to offer training on how to support, guide and assist staff who may be facing mental health issues.

“We want to create a culture where our team feel comfortable and able to speak up if they feel they are reaching a crisis point – and in the future, we hope to be able to prevent people reaching that point by further developing this caring environment for our team.

“This also made us think about how the software we develop can have a positive impact for colleagues in the wider automotive industry.”

Menable aims to raise awareness and create proactive steps across the automotive sector to tackle the issue of mental health. It uses social media, local ambassadors and dedicated resources to enable businesses to put their own mental health strategies in place.

Stephen Whitton, founder of Menable said: “It is great to have RTC on board and to see them embrace awareness of mental health so fully.

“Honest and open discussion of stresses and anxieties is a key performance driver on an individual and organisational level.

“It can enable teams to navigate changing times, motivate employees, and remove blockers to growth.

“We are happy to see the movement grow as more businesses adopt a mental health-positive culture and look forward to supporting RTC further as they put their mental health strategy into practice on a wider basis.”