roundtable
also have to consider personal stresses outside work.”
Dr Martin Carroll, the Cardinal Clinic’s clinical psychologist, drew attention to ‘soft’ factors that can affect workplace stress. “Relationships between colleagues, especially with bullying, as well as organisational change and the ways businesses communicate with staff are all important.”
Can you hear me?
A problem shared can be a problem solved, but not if messages of support aren’t getting across.
“Companies may be communicating about how they can help, but the word that often gets forgotten is ‘effective’ communication. Have you got real engagement, are people reading your messages, and are they listening to you?” said Wilson.
Davis added: “You need effective communication channels that reach the intended recipients. Historically we did a lot on our intranet, but our postmen and women work in the field so we needed a rethink. We now also communicate mental health information through PDAs and take the message to the recipient.”
Wilkins agreed: “A lot of people at EY spend weeks working at client sites and don’t always have time to log on to our intranet. So a partner will be directly responsible for communicating with their team members to check in with them.”
Are workplaces becoming toxic?
Swanwick said how companies educate people to look after their peers was massively important. “Negativity can impact your mental wellbeing. Most people are aware of physical health but less aware of mental health and will just take it for granted that you’re okay.”
Offering support to work in ways that safeguard mental health, like taking a 20-minute walk, or working from home, are important ways you can support employees,” said Wilkins.
Disinterest danger
If managers show little interest in colleagues’ life outside work then they might not find it easy when it comes to helping people. Wilson said teamwork was important in the steps you take towards improving wellbeing. “It comes back to understanding people. The army has a buddy system, which is a form of peer-to-peer mentoring. You know you’ve always got someone
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – JULY/AUGUST 2018
looking out for you. As a corporal – a ‘middle manager’ – I made sure I knew the first names of all my team, knew about their families, what they liked doing at weekends.”
You definitely need to focus on people, as well as products and processes, agreed Holland. “Businesses can be too goal oriented. There’s a danger that if you lack the soft skills then you won’t know what your team is experiencing and they will disengage.”
It comes back to training, thought Wilson. “Managers are key. Middle managers are the ones handling situations, nurturing people and making sure goals are achievable. They need training to empower them to deal with mental health issues.”
Still a stigma
Carroll said one of the biggest problems is the stigma around mental health. “We deal with a real mix of work-related issues. We see people who say their boss has been amazing and supportive, but they are scared about how their other colleagues will react to their problems.”
Attitudes are slowing shifting, thought Wilkins. “Our mental health network has doubled in size in the past year. It shows things are changing, but we’re not there yet. But in general, statistics show that around 75% of people with mental health problems carry on working.”
Wilson added: “You can recover and come back to work, but you’ll never be the same person. We read a lot about high-profile figures suffering and overcoming issues. What I’d like to see are more stories about ordinary people and how they have coped.”
Bird: “We have a lot of real-life stories about coping with stress, like staff who look after elderly parents, those with youngsters or with older children going to university. It can be difficult coping and the firm tries to offer release mechanisms that help colleagues reduce personal stress.”
Davis: “A lot needs to change to remove the stigma. Many companies inadvertently reward people for overworking through the bonus schemes and performance-related pay mechanisms they have. People want to be high performers for personal pride and to earn that bonus so the reward is potentially driving the wrong behaviours. We’ve done a lot of work on mental health issues, and are conscious of the relationship(s) with policy and procedures – we have some work still to do. In my opinion
until organisations better align with HR, reward and pay policies – giving cognisance of health and wellbeing – we will only be partially successful.”
Spotting the signs
It’s not easy to see the signs that something’s wrong with a colleague, pointed out Carroll. “It might be
Continued overleaf ...
Dr Martin Carroll
Ali Bird
Nick Holland
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