MENTAL HEALTH Watching Wellbeing


Gill McAteer, Director of Employment Law at Citation, offers some practical steps for putting the mental health of employees first.


There are few better measures of the health of a business than the wellbeing of its employees. The number of days the average employee is absent from work has grown from 5.8 to 7.8 in the last five years according to The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development


(CIPD), rising to 10.6 days in the public sector. This causes significant disruption to individual businesses and has knock- on effects for the wider economy, particularly in the care sector where absence rates are among the highest.


Given the care sector is already struggling with recruitment, the impact of absences is even greater. As a result, bolstering your approach to people management is a good way to help relieve the added pressure on employee wellbeing.


HANDS-ON SUPPORT


You’ll likely already have processes in place to support employee wellbeing such as check-ins with line managers and monitoring of working patterns and excessive overtime, but these need to be evaluated on a regular basis and updated according to your team’s evolving needs. The industry being expected to deliver more with fewer resources means that busier employees need more support, so remind them what’s available, check that they’re having regular catchups with their managers, and make sure that wellbeing is on the agenda.


As the care industry is under such pressure, staff shortages may put workers off taking leave, so it’s important to keep an eye on this and introduce a system to ensure that employees take regular breaks to avoid burnout. This is particularly important for care businesses with holiday years starting from 1 April that have introduced rolled up holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers, as this could be an incentive for workers to not take as much time off and instead choose to bank the accumulated holiday pay.


Wellbeing isn’t just coping with the bad but also celebrating the good. It can be just as damaging for employees who are thriving to feel underappreciated as those who are struggling. So, an increased focus on wellbeing should include celebrating both personal and professional achievements, demonstrating that people can bring their whole selves to work. For example, sharing positive feedback widely and proudly is a great starting point.


OFFER YOUR MANAGERS MORE


Managers are your boots on the ground when it comes to supporting wellbeing, but they may not have the training they need to do this effectively and spot the signs that someone on their team is struggling. Consider providing training that acknowledges added risks to wellbeing, such as supporting colleagues with personal issues and reoccurring challenges within care settings, such as the loss of a service user.


When it comes to addressing employee frustrations, make the process for escalating concerns clear so that they don’t sit on problems and let them snowball – employees suffering from burnout are more likely to make mistakes. Managers themselves need support in handling these delicate conversations and should feel confident that the advice they offer is consistent and evidence based.


Protecting this delicate balance is where external wellbeing support can be invaluable. For employees, providing access to employee assistance programmes, for example, gives them a space where they can discuss matters affecting their wellbeing that they wouldn’t be comfortable sharing at work. It puts these issues in the hands of independent professionals and ensures that managers can point employees in the direction of expert advice. Again, communicating the availability of these resources is crucial, as is communicating their independence and confidentiality.


At a time when care workers are under more pressure than ever, there’s no time like the present to put in place wellbeing measures to protect it that are visible, robust, and proactive.


www.citation.co.uk


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