Mental Health and stress – how do we get it right?

This February we were delighted to host a number of senior safety professionals for the latest in our round table events, at The Highfield Pub in Birmingham. Held in conjunction with Gateway HSW (who specialise in developing in Health, Safety and Wellbeing strategy across the transport and construction sectors) we gathered to discuss our various forays into the subject of mental health, and to share best practice with each other – in order to try and de-mystify what can be a complex subject!

Clare Richardson, a Director at Gateway Health, Safety and Well being Consultants, was our chair for the day. Clare is an expert at developing well being and mental health strategies and a member of the Health Leadership – Health in in Construction Group, influencing positive change across the Construction Industry.

To start we were keen to see what people’s understanding was of the subject matter, and what they thought some of the biggest challenges facing the subject were. Around the table were Chris Rowlands (Director at HSE Recruitment), Achim Kreuser (EHS Director EMEA for International Paper), Luigi Mansi (Regional HSE lead Europe at IMI Precision Engineering), Sophia Darwin (Senior Consultant at HSE Recruitment), Rob Owen (Divisional Head of HSE for Support services at Interserve), Lee Jones (Group Business Assurance Manager at Kier Group), Laura Aucott (Brand Leader and Associate Director at HSE Recruitment), Steven Homewood (Group Health and Safety Manager at The Keystone Group), and Phil O’Neil (Group Health and Safety manager at The Billington Group) – hereafter to be referred to by their initials.

When going around the table there seemed to be some common themes emerging; from the lack of accreditation around the subject, the need to get employee assistance programmes right, breaking the taboo around mental health, protecting those offering mental health guidance and support as well as those receiving it, and just a general desire to share best practice and assist each the safety industry to develop correct and sustainable mental health policies.

RO kicked off the conversation by talking about some of the issues faced by his company when moving offices. The new offices have physically removed a lot of the barriers between staff members as it is a more open plan environment – however they have found this has also brought its own issues with distraction and noise levels – which can prove to have an impact on the way people feel about their environment and impact stress. As a result Rob was keen to know what can be done from an environment perspective. There was discussion around the use of zones within the office to provide people with areas that suit their day – such as smaller/quieter meeting rooms to separate people from high noise areas such as sales floors. CR mentioned a sports performance app that he had seen demonstrated at a previous Deloitte event, which asked every player before a game to measure various things on a scale of 1-10 as they arrived each morning (from how well they slept, how motivated they were feeling etc) and then used this data to help shape their practice that day. Deloitte had talked about the possibilities of expanding this into an app that could be used in the same way for employees, a concept that the group found hugely exciting and as CR mentioned would tie in well with the current renovation of the HSE Recruitment and ENG offices. That sort of data could be used to zone areas of an office and to help people get the most out of their day whilst minimising stress.

LM agreed that sleep is an important area of mental health and wellbeing that often gets over looked, but that an accident on the way to work as a result of sleep deprivation (due to illness, stress or childcare issues) should count as an accident at work, and be included in accident figures to enable us to get a more accurate picture. Clare mentioned that the rail industry (as it is so heavily controlled) actually does count your travel time as part of your working day in order to try and minimise the risk from sleep deprivation, and that many companies in that industry are looking to reduce working hours from 12 to 10 (including travel time).

RO agreed that some of the more highly regulated industries do seem to have more control, but that it is certainly something to consider in all sectors. Rob for example often spends 2 or 3 nights a week away from home and these visits can impact his sleep due to unfamiliar environments, noise and other factors. Rob stressed that this is why the culture of a business is such an important factor when it comes to mental health and stress, as a flexible culture would allow people the ability to take these factors into consideration and make an informed decision on home working, flexible hours or similar. We also need to consider that some people may have more than one job, and that although we may have things in place to help manage their workload, that doesn’t mean that their other employers will.

Clare agreed and said that the key with strategy and getting the culture right is getting buy in from senior management, and by how far they willing to support it. If the culture is wrong from the top this can filter down and a key factor for this is usually the bottom line – so getting them to understand the impact of sickness absence and presentism is hugely important. Implementing these sorts of things can be a massive culture shift – it is very similar to when we first tried to get leadership invested in safety. Change will be slow at first but if we focus on the small wins and keep trying change will happen. Clare highlighted the Time to Change programme, which encourages leadership to get involved and signed up, and also offers resources that can help with selling the benefits of good mental health support to the board, as well as action plan templates etc.

CR wondered about the stigma surrounding mental health, and whether this was still a thing not only with management, but also with peer groups. Clare talked about City Health Alliance, who shared videos and pictures of senior team members sharing their experiences of mental health as a way to break down the barriers and try and stop the stigma. Again Clare emphasised the need for this to come from the top down, and gave an example of the CEO if Mace who is a huge advocate for well being and a competitive swimmer. As he lives and breathes well being he is extremely visible throughout the company and this again helps create a culture that is accepting, and open to speaking about issues, as well as open to looking after themselves.

AK said that he had always found their board very helpful, with little push back on the subject, and that they understand that the cost of an EAP is nothing compared to the impact of a suicide or similar incident. Although they have never looked at a hard bottom line or ROI, they know that the cost is peanuts compared to getting it wrong. CR mentioned that EAP’s often get bad press as they are reactive and not proactive, and wanted to know more about AK’s EAP. AK explained that their EAP has legal and financial support as well as general mental health, and is extended to employees and their families, as often they need support and/or can be part of the problem. A line manager can also go to the EAP for support on how to handle an issue with a staff member.

LJ said that raising awareness around the EAP can often be hard, and is something that he has found difficult in Kier. He gave an example of being approached by a colleague who was struggling with his line manager and how he was being performance managed which was exacerbating his mental health problem. LJ put him touch with their EAP but was then told that the EAP needed sign off from the line manager due to budgets, which obviously was a cause for concern given the nature of the issue. LJ raised the need for a central budget for EAP and similar so that sign off isn’t needed. When budget control is given to line management it can be tough to get sign off for mental health issues, even with an appetite for change, as budgets are so tight.

RO talked about the EAP used by his company, which is based on referrals and therefore doesn’t require sign off. However he wanted to know if anyone had experience of EAP’s that would be able to cope with foreign languages, as he has a number of workers who don’t have good English skills. AK said that it really depends on the size and scale of the EAP but that theirs did have access to translators and foreign language support.

CR wanted to know if there was still stigma around calling an EAP – are they anonymous or do they have the ability to be anonymous? 

RO said with EAP’s it tends to be less of a cultural stigma and more of a personal stigma that is the problem – for example with their security staff there can be a certain machismo that is hard to break through which creates an unwillingness to talk or put their hand up. CR mentioned that Mates in Mind are an organisation who are working on breaking this, as they mostly started out in the construction sector (although are now branching out into other areas). Clare re-iterated that this is why it is still so important to raise awareness and talk about mental health – the more we raise awareness the more common it becomes and this hopefully then helps to break personal and cultural stigma.

LJ mentioned a few things that Kier had done to break stigma, for example a number of colleagues who had used the EAP and had support (and come out fitter and stronger) have become internal ambassadors. They are happy to speak about their experience with staff members, and also have their face and story in newsletters and posters throughout the company. They also encourage their senior directors to do “tea room chats” where they turn up at the office and sit in the break room available for anyone in the business to sit down and talk with them about anything. This really helps show that issues are being taken seriously at the top and that “people in their ivory tower” also have issues – it is very common. This really helps make feel more relaxed about talking about health, wellbeing and safety as it is more informal – although of course there will always be people who are scared to come forward.

LM said that the trick is to make sure you put the foundations in – there is no point jumping on the bandwagon and picking up things that other companies have done and implementing them with little thought. They won’t work as you haven’t been on the journey and the foundation isn’t there. This was agreed with by everyone present and seemed to be a key point. LJ mentioned that the cost of not getting things right, or even doing anything, can be huge. Kier can attribute roughly 30% of their absences to mental health (and this number could be much higher as many people aren’t truthful as to the reasons why they are off), and the cost of presenteeism can be even 2 or 3 times higher. It is also important to remember to look at things like financial wellbeing – Kier are relocating their offices currently and this may have an impact on people financially with commuting and moving taken into account. As part of their consultation process when moving offices, Kier held a wellbeing day for all the staff which actually had financial advisors present to help people understand if there was any impact from moving, and how to handle this. In addition they had a focus on fitness and health, and a market stall type environment with various providers covering everything from meditation, relaxation, healthy eating, exercise etc. They also had their EAP present to drive more awareness around it, as well as having their OH team play a big part in the day. Again, this came back to awareness being key.

LM wanted to know if Clare had a best practice document she could share on stress management, and although she didn’t have one in particular that she recommends she mentioned that The HSE has a stress management guide that is free to use. RO said he had looked at that one and that it is useful as a self-reflection guide – to look at ‘what do we have in place currently’ and ‘what can we tell people about’ but didn’t necessarily think that there was enough there to build a strategy with. Clare mentioned that Mind have a step by step process to follow, and you can also utilise the Time to Change charter which features things like engagement surveys, advice on focus groups etc. SH said it is important to make sure we work in conjunction with HR, something he is doing currently with Keystone Group. They are keen to make sure that they don’t rush into anything, this isn’t a tick box exercise. RO mentioned as well it is important to look at things holistically, as you could draft a health and wellbeing policy but then this could impact on other things. These policies can’t work in isolation, but need to work closely with your health and safety policies, absence management policies etc. For example it is hugely important to make sure we are making reasonable adjustments when people come back to work after an absence, as we need to understand their triggers etc for future incidents and see how we can help to lessen the impact. LJ said that at Kier they focus on training peers as mental health first aiders, rather than leaders or management, as it is easier to talk to someone on your own level. Clare mentioned that although of course we wouldn’t record the details of conversations it can be good to record any trends that are coming up, in order to again help address issues before they arise in the future. LJ raised the fact that as the mental health first aider programme is voluntary, about 80% of volunteers do tend to do so because they have a history of mental health problems, which is admirable. However this becomes an issue in itself, as they need to ensure that these volunteers aren’t getting swamped and overwhelmed by the role – there needs to be regular catch ups with people and ongoing support for the first aiders – and this can be hard to do with 400 volunteers across a business! It would be good to look at implementing some sort of review structure.

AK says that at his company they actually avoid the name “first aider” as it makes the volunteers feel that they need to fix people. They have changed it to mental health champions, as it reminds people that they are there for first line support but that they do not have to have all the answers, often the best thing to do is to refer someone to the EAP. LM did ask whether it was wise to ask line managers to be trained, but it was agreed that it is always better to have volunteers for this sort of role if you can. LJ stated that Kier offers mental health awareness training for their line managers – it is delivered to line managers all together and this really helps to open up a dialogue. However this is separate to the mental health first aiders.

Although it seems although there is so much more we could still discuss, unfortunately we had to call the conversation to a close at this point! However, when LA reviewed the action points with everyone it was clear that we had come up with some important first steps and take away points from the session.

Action points/main areas of focus when implementing mental health policies

• Top down culture change – must have senior management on board and living the policy
• Important to get the right EAP support for your business
• Make sure to build a strong foundation first
• Get Health and Well being embedded in the culture of the organisation and working holistically with other policies
• Get your return to work procedure right and understand future triggers
• Although culture must come from the top down, middle management are important and can affect your strategy, so invest in the correct training for them
• Work with internal ambassadors to help change cultural and personal stigma – these should be people who have been through the system internally and come out better for it – and of course they must be happy to talk about it!
• Ensure that your mental health first aiders now they are first point of contact, and have appropriate support to lean on

Thanks again to all of our attendees for their time and insight – as well as to our chair Clare Richardson and sponsors Gateway HSW for their time and support. For more information, or to get involved in our next round table event, please contact info@hserecruitment.co.uk