Employee Wellbeing – Policy driven or just “the right thing to do”?

As an operational leader for more years than I care to remember I have seen my fair share of initiatives come and go. Some have created frameworks for culture change others introduced with little impact despite making sense to everyone who heard about them and off course numerous in between.

 I thought I would pause and think about a something that has recently created, in my opinion, ac a seismic shift in organisational thinking across the UK which is around employee mental health and wellbeing. I wanted to reflect briefly on whether this process should be driven by policy or behaviour or both?

In one of my previous Linkedin posts I explained what different organisations across numerous sectors were doing in an attempt to create a “best practice” framework and the question above was raised and I have been mulling on it ever since. I also recently attended some research study feedback sessions at MMU business school which was gathering data with regards to some specific workplace issues ranging from Menopause, Fertility and the new universal credit roll out. The study is looking at the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of employees when faced with these types of challenges both inside and outside of the workplace. The emphasis was around whether specific policies should be written to address and support these and other potential root cause contributors or whether existing frameworks and organisational behaviours are enough. (They are seeking contributors into the research and please contact Professor Carol Atkinson – Manopause, Dr Krystal Wilkinson - Fertility or Dr Katy Jones – Universal Credit all at the MMU to get involved and contribute your experiences and thoughts)

Around 3 years ago myself and my team begun introducing programmes specifically focused on a male dominated employee base. We firstly helped everyone understand and be aware of what we described as “mental wealth” (see below) across our population. Then looking at the support mechanisms asking the employees affected what “great looked like” and how together we would drive the process. We introduced a phrase “how you doin?” and irrespective of role or position we would ask the question everyday of each other but more importantly we knew collectively what to do if the answer was not the one, we generally expected and people were just “not themselves”. Whatever that means?

No one asked us to do it and we had no specific wellbeing policies other than those you would expect around good HR employee support mechanisms. Interestingly the driver however was still a legal one and the process begun through our health and safety (Zero Harm) Committee. We had a strong team-based culture developed through the leadership, supervision and our colleagues of significantly reducing physical harm incidents to almost zero. Those that remained (less than 10 over the last 3 years) were minor cuts and bruises in a high risk rated operational environment. Our programmes of employee ownership and inclusion were regularly audited and were considered World Class but we wanted to continue to push ourselves and look deeper into how we could continue to support each other going forward. The start of our WHY!

We examined the stats and were initially shocked at that time with suicide being the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 and back in 2017 it was equating to 16 deaths per day in the UK. It is believed this is significantly under reported through coroners and some families’ pressures and reluctance to assign this as the true cause accurately on their reports but I also believe this is beginning to change and new possibly more stark statistics are expected to be published soon? More recently it is estimated that around 15% of all employees irrespective of gender or age have symptoms of an existing mental health condition. The cost? Recent Government estimates say that the cost to the economy is somewhere between ￡74bn - ￡99bn/Year and the cost to employers is somewhere between ￡33bn – 42bn/year.

Whilst we did not focus on costs we did focus on impacts that could be measured and understood by our workplace community including employee engagement, empowerment, absence, productivity and also support provision uptake. By utilising the numbers or KPI’s we already had rather than adding more too it we could get people talking and it was more relevant. We all know that whilst it is not all about the numbers in reality it is all about the numbers. Our localised stats made this more meaningful for our people. The WHY now converted into a measurable format?

So what are my conclusions at this stage – Policy or Just the right thing to do?

I personally believe we have enough policies in place and we are in danger of creating leaders and Managers who spend their day working through “how” they fulfil their role rather than why they do what they do, their purpose. I understand legal frameworks have to be in place and time spent ensuring they understand these aspects is essential and that should be a part of their development within the organisation. Use what you have as the framework i.e. Health and Safety, Performance Management, Development reviews, Absence Management with robust return to work follow ups and the like.

The why they do what they do is cultural and if the leaders, managers and supervisors of tomorrow are to flourish but more importantly enable their teams to flourish then it is the right behaviours and employee support that has to be encouraged. We need to understand our people, and get them involved in looking after each other the leaders included and by doing that, whatever your KPI, I am sure it will have a positive trend. I focused my team on a strengths-based approach in the workplace looking at what people are good at and what energises them and they can do well with positive affirmation. The approach is proven to help people’s wellbeing and performance as this is how they want to approach their tasks. We did not ignore weaknesses or when performance slipped not react but understood this was part of supporting each other and dealing with it as necessary giving them direction and tools which help them turn this around personally and professionally but with discipline a last resort and very rarely used, but used.

From my experience employees who are part of a successful team will deliver their best and feel good about it. When things are not going well and inevitably that also happens, we should support each other naturally and without prejudice. This is about culture and leadership behaviours. We should not need a policy we just need to do the right things.

Organisations that can help you do the right thing include:

Ascent Wellbeing; People:Power:Performance: (PPPOIS.LTD); Mental Wealth Training.