Mental health and wellness

A new mental health and employee assistance programme commenced at Aktogay and Bozshakol in 2019 which proved to be highly valuable for supporting employees during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. As part of this initiative, psychologists were made available to support the mental wellbeing of employees at these remote sites.

Due to national travel and quarantine restrictions, employees worked extended shifts during the year and the Group has adopted a new system of extended rotations to minimise the risk of infection. This means that employees now spend longer periods away from friends and family, which can lead to an increase in demand for mental health services and other employee assistance programmes.

The idea for the service was originally put forward by employees as part of the ‘Direct Line’ call in 2019, an annual employee engagement event hosted by the Chair of KAZ Minerals. The psychologists specialise in working with employees on remote sites, such as mines or oil and gas installations.

During 2020, around 2,500 one-to-one and group wellbeing sessions took place at Aktogay and Bozshakol.