Lettings platform Goodlord has become the first start-up company to be recognised by mental health organisation Mind, in its Workplace Wellbeing Awards.

Goodlord is one of 74 companies featuring in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing index, and received a silver award.

Goodlord’s Head of People, Hannah Keal, said: “I’m hugely proud to be announcing that Goodlord has achieved this award in mental health awareness week.

“At the core of our culture, we’re about being able to bring the full force of your personality to work and it’s impossible to do that if you don’t feel comfortable and empowered to speak openly about where you’re at with your mental health.

“Imagine if you broke your leg and you felt the need to hide that from your employer. How absurd does that sound?

“And yet, we still have these unrealistic expectations that you can or should do that for your mental health. Well, not at Goodlord.”

She went on: “There are a lot of unhelpful myths around working in start-ups.

“There’s this expectation that to work at a start-up, you have to give up on the idea of having a work life balance. There’s also this relentless positivity that comes from being a business that’s growing and changing all the time and still finding its feet. You always have to be ‘killing it’.

“Those pressures and expectations can be really damaging to people’s mental health, so we’re trying to carve a different, more honest path.”

Amongst the initiatives that Goodlord has put in place to promote positive mental health is a partnership with Sanctus, the world’s first ‘gym’ for mental health.

Sanctus provides bi-weekly coaching sessions at Goodlord and gives Goodlordians a safe space to talk about anything that’s on their mind. Goodlord also offers managers the opportunity to train as mental health first aiders, and provides in-house training on how to support staff experiencing poor mental health at work.

Goodlord, which has to date raised over £10m from investors, sets out to streamline admin for letting agents.