Helen Ginman – CEO and Founder of Unique and Inclusive Wellbeing

For this LIVEtalk discussion we had a chat to Helen Ginman who set up Unique and Exclusive to take on mental Health issues.

U+I promotes positive mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, because it matters. Working with organisations and individuals, we create and provide unique and inclusive training, workshops, programmes and events that challenges the stigma, creating cultures that encourage people to talk, gives confidence to have the right conversations and enables people to pull upon toolkits that can help self-manage their health and prevent poor mental health.

GBS: Mental health is such a prevalent topic in the media which seems to have grown significantly in the past year or so. Why is that?

Helen: Mental Health has really come to the forefront over the last 12-18 months’ but the reality is, it isn’t “new”. It has always existed. People have always struggled with their mental health – just like they have struggled with their physical health. I think the biggest reason we have seen mental health come under the spotlight is because of the growing awareness and understanding of the significant impact it can have and is having on so many people’s lives. With staggering figures such as 1 in 4 people will be affected from poor mental health every year, an estimated 12 people committing suicide every day and a cost of ￡42 billion pounds every year to employers from absenteeism and attrition, the world has started to wake up. We should also remember that culturally we have moved to this very vocal society, where social stigmas are being challenged continuously. That has really helped give mental health a platform for people to talk about it.

GBS: Why should organisations do anything with mental health & wellbeing in their workplace?

Helen: The impact of poor mental health in organisations is significant. A commissioned report by the Government highlighted the financial impact to organisations - ￡42 billion pounds annually right back to the employer every year.   That cost to UK businesses is predominantly made up of absence cost, presenteeism cost (how productive people are in work) and turnover / attrition cost. For the private sector, its costs up to ￡32bn and for private sector up to ￡10 billion.  But fundamentally, we shouldn’t forget that employers have a responsibility and duty of care to their employees under the Health & Safety Act. It’s a legal responsibility.

The work environment also plays a big part in someone’s life and it too has its own pressures and stress that can materialise. We don’t go to work to be stressed and arguably work can be pressurised at times, but companies have a responsibility to create an environment that has the right support and a culture that encourages employee wellness. It is massively in the interest of employers to prioritise and invest far more in improving mental health. 

Taking off the business hat – there are people who are desperately struggling, who struggle in silence, afraid of speaking up. They may have to go off work because of how they are feeling and there may be some who are even contemplating taking their own life. We should make sure they know that they are not alone.

GBS: What are the types of things companies can do to bring employee wellness into their organisation and promote positive mental health?

Helen: There is so much organisations can do, but there are a few key things that I would start with and introduce concurrently. Make sure people understand mental health, how it can affect them and recognising the signs / symptoms. Help give and encourage the use of different tools and techniques that individuals can pull upon to help self-manage their wellbeing and mental health. Train and coach leadership to listen, engage and support their staff – they are often the first once who will notice changes in someone. Then make sure there is some signposting in place – where to go to get more help, support, guidance and what organisations to engage to help with recovery.

GBS: What are the biggest challenges facing mental health and wellbeing in the UK?

Helen: Companies realising that they are one of the biggest problems and one of the biggest solutions to tackling mental health and wellbeing. It is in a lot of instances (not all) incredibly difficult getting organisations to take action, to see the need for them to do something. Some embrace it – others, for whatever reasons choose not to with what may well be considered quite an archaic position against a society that is driving choice, equality, diversity and inclusivity.  

On a broader scale, resources are incredibly stretched for supporting poor mental health. Just last week, there was yet another report of 2 year waiting lists to even be seen for help and these experiences happen far too often. There have been some fantastic steps forward, but as always, the funding is never enough.

The challenge is that whilst recognising improvements, further improvement and action is needed to make sure we reach everyone. 

GBS: What type of financial investment should organisations be looking at?

Helen: That really depends on the organisation. Each organisations investment differs on the size, scale, culture, geographical location, number of employees and what they want to do. Investment depends on return. First and foremost, the investment is in potentially saving a life and really improving the opportunities to prevent more people from suffering from poor mental health and as cliché as it sounds – how can you put a price on that?

But being in business, it has to make financial sense and the best way to measure it is the return on investment. For reactive intervention, for every ￡1 invested could yield ￡5 for ROI. For proactive mental health support such as line management training, coaching and workshops, for every ￡1 invested, could see ￡6 in return. For organisation-wide culture / awareness raising activities such as personal exercises could be ￡9 per employee. And those figures are really really conservative. 

For each company we work with, the return on investment is calculated for reactive and proactive intervention.

GBS: Are there any trends across industries?

Helen: It is really important to call out that everyone is different and our mental health is unique to us. Our triggers and reasons are all different. Each industry and organisation present its own challenges, stressors and pressures. Whilst some industries may be considered at higher risk, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone has poor mental health or that you will develop poor mental health because you work for that industry. 

Analysis has shown that industries at higher risk are public admin, education, health, construction, transport and communications. Some of those may well be a surprise. On the other side of the scale are agriculture, forestry and fishing. There is loads of good research that has shown the benefits of being connected to nature which may well be one of the many reasons, it features here. But again, it doesn’t mean that because you work in those industries you will never be faced with difficulties with your mental health. Everyone is unique but there are learnings and opportunities that we can take and use in other industries. 

Business leaders have the choice to create an environment and a culture which promotes positive mental health and wellbeing.

We are challenging industries across the country to be part of making Gloucestershire a well place to work. Regardless of your industry – it’s time to be challenged!

GBS: Thanks Helen.

Helen is speaking at #GBS19 at 10:30 on Tuesday 21st May. You can book into the talk by visiting: https://mental-health-in-the-spotlight-its-time-to-take-ac.eventbrite.co.uk

Unique & exclusive is also exhibiting on stand So1 at The Gloucestershire Business Show 2019