At the national water agency PUB, managers and supervisors are trained in basic counselling and coaching skills to help colleagues under stress or other emotional problems.

Staff members can also turn to professional counsellors, whose services are paid for by the agency.

Some officers have been trained to provide support to families to employees and their families suffering from traumatic stress during emergencies too.

These services were put in place after a 2005 survey showed that over a third of the PUB's employees felt stressed, mostly from work.

A repeat survey last year showed that the proportion who felt very stressed had dropped to one in five.

The PUB was one of the two winners of the Mental Wellbeing Award presented by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) on Thursday.

The other winner was the Singapore Civil Defence Force, which trains some of its officers to counsel stressed or distressed colleagues, and provides a 24-hour helpline for new trainees.

The Mental Wellbeing Award is a new award presented together with the Singapore Health (Helping Employees Achieve Lifetime Health) Award, which is given to companies that implement good health policies for their employees.

This year, 358 organisations received the main award, which comes in four levels - platinum, gold, silver and bronze.

Nine of them bagged additional awards for having the best programmes in mental health, fitness, nutrition and anti-smoking.