Supporting the mental wellbeing of frontline workers

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leslie and would you mind coming off neatly
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sorry that was bound to happen good afternoon everyone my name is leslie richards and i'm
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delighted to be hosting today's session on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of frontline workers
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my role within cipd is to head up the team in wales but please don't worry this session is
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applicable to everyone wherever you're based so don't let the accent fool you into thinking you're in the wrong place
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so the purpose of today's session is to talk about the importance of mental health and well-being which has become even more apparent
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during the past year and which if it wasn't already there is firmly on the agenda
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as employers recognize the vital role that they play in supporting staff both now and beyond the pandemic
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we're going to be focusing on how to effectively support frontline and key workers the role of occupational health in
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identifying and discussing appropriate interventions and the need more than ever to develop
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and embrace a compassionate leadership culture to tackle the stigma around mental health
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so today i'm joined by a panel of three experts each of whom brings a different perspective
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to the discussion first of all ben wilmot who leads the cibd's public policy team
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which works to inform and shape debate government policy and legislation in order to develop higher performance
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at work ben's got an incredible knowledge across a range of areas
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but it's his interest in employee engagement and well-being and absence and stress management that
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are particularly relevant to today's topic dr gail kinman is visiting professor of
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occupational health psychology at burbeck university of london gail has extensive experience in research and
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practice with a focus on improving the working conditions and well-being of people who do emotionally demanding
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work such as health and social care professionals prison offices and academics and finally
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steve lee head of staff wealth and well health and well-being at nhs england and nhs improvement
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steve has a strong track record in implementing evidence-based measures to prevent mental health in the
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workplace and in his current role is responsible for the delivery of the health and well-being offered to 1.3
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million nhs staff across england so thank you to our three panelists for joining us this afternoon
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before we hear from our speakers i just want to cover some practical details uh the session is being recorded and
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will be available on demand via the webinar section of the cipd website where you can access
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all our previous webinar recordings and sign up for future ones
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all attendees have been rooted to submit questions to the panel please type into the q a box and not the
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chat box though you can use the chat box to network with fellow attendees and please remember to use all
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panelists and attendees in order to share with everyone i'd also like to draw your attention to
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our member benefits and in particular some of our additional resources you may already be aware of
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that can support you in your role as we continue to navigate these unusual
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times we're updating the faqs and resources on our website wall time as information becomes available so you
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need to go to the cipd coronavirus hub for more resources which are available to all our security members
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we can also access individual legal advice irr hr inform helpline which is available 24
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7. and finally sea apd members in uk and ireland can also access our new well-being
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helpline together with award-winning workplaces wellbeing provider health assured
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we now provide cipd members with free help and support 24 7 365 days a year by a telephone or
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online consultations with qualified therapists members can access the phone number and
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the online services via the membership benefits webpage and you will see more details about this
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at the end of the session so now on to the content ben will be our
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first speaker and he'll cover the cipd perspective giving a general overview of our theme for today
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followed by gail who will look in more depth into the impact and well-being challenges for online workers
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together with interventions that work and finally steve will bring the issue to life with a practical
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case study we'll then open up for questions so please send these through as we go along
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we'll aim to get through as many as we can we may not be able to focus on each individual question but we will
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try to pick up things and group them so i think that's all from me for now
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i'm going to hand over to ben to get us started thanks ben good afternoon everybody um the issue of
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mental health of the workforce has grown in importance as a business issue in recent years
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as knowledge on the subject has increased highlighting the risks both workers and organizations if not
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addressed and concerns over the issue in stress and in common mental health conditions like
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anxiety and depression has reached across the workforce and become even more of a focus as a
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result of the pandemic and as our outline in my presentation there are particular risks
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for frontline and key workers um next slide please
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the cost and impact of mental health at work was most recently put into
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context by the stephenson pharma review of mental health this estimated that uh the the cost of
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mental health illness um per employee per year was between 12
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about 1200 and about 1500 pounds per per year per employee um and the costs made up of a
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combination of absenteeism presenters and and and staff turnover but there are
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some other wider issues i think around um the cost of mental health as well which may we'll touch on as we
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we um continue the discussion next slide please um this is a slide from our uh recent
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um april uh 2021 health and well-being survey um and what it shows
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is that mental ill health is the number one cause of uh absence
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with stress in that long-term absence with stress in it at number three but it's also stress and
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mental ill health are both um cause a significant cause of short-term absence as well and also i think um it's highly likely that a
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significant proportion of reported minor illnesses uh actually hide issues around uh
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stress and and mental ill health as well so it is a significant uh cause of of
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absence and um has to be managed effectively
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and next slide please the health and wellbeing survey also
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highlights that presenteeism is becoming more of an issue so this year three quarters of employers said that uh
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they were presenters in their organization with um both um both people who are
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continuing to work in going to the workplace and amongst home workers next slide please
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we've also seen an impact not surprisingly on people's well-being
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as it was out of the pandemic and this slide um shows data
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uh from september 2020. this is employee survey data which shows uh how the pandemic has had
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a negative impact on people's well-being in a number of different ways um but if we look at mental health 45
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of the uh the 2000 employees sampled said that their mental health had or
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worse as a result of the covert 19 lockdown so the pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated
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existing issues around health and well-being and particularly around mental health next slide please i think
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the other and particularly relevant to uh this discussion is that um there are
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particular factors that can undermine the mental well-being of frontline workers
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so we know that um of course anyway interaction with customers
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patients and members of the public can be challenging um you know create some really
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emotionally difficult situations and and those interactions have only been exacerbated
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by the pandemic we know that um frontline workers also typically have less access to flexible
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working including homeworking and of course let's work in can help people manage um
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issues they may be having to deal with outside work improve people's work life balance
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managed care responsibilities so really critical to supporting people's health and well-being the other issue is around
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autonomy because of the nature of frontline workers jobs quite quite often they have
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less control over their work or their workload and they're also
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additional potential challenges around low pay um with um you know for some frontline
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workers uh more likely to suffer from low pay and um to run into issues around sort of their
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financial well-being issues with debt for example and finally
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the issue of anti-social or long hours working which can impact cause additional stress
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impact on people's abilities to make healthy uh lifestyle choices impact on people's
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sleep patterns etc so there are some real risks particularly for frontline workers
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um around mental ill health i think which have been exacerbated by the pandemic
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next slide please now managing and preventing stress is
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critical to an approach to trying to supporting the health and
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wellbeing of staff the health and safety executive defines stress as the adverse reaction
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people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them now we know
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that there's nothing wrong with short bursts of or stress or pressure typically there isn't but it's when um
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stress becomes continuous or you know excessive pressure becomes continuous
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and unrelenting or you know chronic stress that this is linked to
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higher risk of conditions such as anxiety and depression as well as heart disease
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we know that um stress can also have a significant impact on on people's
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performance and and how they um how they they interact with colleagues
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uh in the workplace stress impairs or can impair people's cognitive ability and
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undermine their judgment their ability to prioritize and research from the hsc
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shows leads to behavior that can increase the likelihood of mistakes and accidents so for frontline staff
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managing stress is absolutely critical to supporting the health and wellbeing
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and also to um you know making sure that issues around custom and patient care are
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uh taken into full account next slide please this slide highlights the the
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major cause of stressful work as according to our health and um and well-being at work survey because
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there are some particular cause of stress coming from the pandemic uh so uh you'll see that
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that cobid related anxiety because of fear of contagion the workplace is identified
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as a as a stress for this year's survey as is new work related demands or challenges
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down to homework as a result of kobit 19 but the top two cause of stress
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remain workload and management style as they have done for the last few years
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and we know management style in particular is critical it can help to mitigate issues around
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workload but also some of the other issues around you know how peoples are able to
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deal with non-work issues how they are able to manage caring responsibilities for
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example so that issue of of management capability is critical
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next slide please now the cipd um has conducted significant research um
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over the last few years looking at the management behaviors that underpin
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employee engagement but also support health and wellbeing in the workplace and this has led to the development of
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our competency framework identify five competency areas which are critical to uh trust
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engagement and a positive psychological contract first there is around sort of
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being open fair and consistent so managers um you know managing their emotion emotions not
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passing on stress uh the second area is around handling conflict and people management issues so
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managers um being able to have the confidence to interfere in that early stage for example if there's conflict
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knowing when to use informal um approaches but also when to when they need to use the formal uh
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processes um using that judgment in those sorts of situations they need to be able
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to provide knowledge clarity and guidance so providing constructive feedback real clarity of objectives
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joint problem solving and building and sustaining relationships is absolutely critical so do they really know their
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stuff do they understand the issues that matter to them do they demonstrate that they care about
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them this is about really the essence of building trust if people don't trust you they
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won't disclose if they have an issue or a challenge so unless you get these behaviors right
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then anything else you do to support the health and wellbeing of your start staff is building on sand the final
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areas is around supporting development so do managers ensure do they coach staff do they
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ensure they have access to training do they support the progression opportunities so these are the sort of the foundation
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from the cipd's perspective around health and well-being next slide please but no matter how well
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people are managed employees will suffer um from from mental health
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and it's crucial that managers are also able to spot the early signs that might demonstrate that the people
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have uh an issue um this this quote is taken from our joint guide with mind around
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managing supporting uh mental health in the workplace and i'll touch a bit more on these issues next slide please
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we'll miss this one because of time so managers need to be able to pick up
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the signs of poor mental health and these might be people working long hours not taking
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breaks but it might be you know people being late leaving early taking extended lunches
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it can be you know people taking time off um or it conversely might be not taking
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time off it's about you know what are uncharacteristic changes in emotional response there are people um you know
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reacting differently um you know uh are they moody are they um you know showing
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differences in how they respond are they is it impairment or inconsistent performance
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um or out of conflict colleague with conflict with colleagues all of these might might be indicate
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indicators that all is not well and managers need to be able to have those open conversations
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that can help get under the skin of these issues next slide please
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and so besides that investment in management people management capability then it's
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important you have the the right um support and
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practices available and these are these the some of the the key ones that we know make a difference
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in terms of supporting employees with mental health difficulties um i'm conscious i'm running out of time
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a bit so um i will move on to the next slide
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um i'll just pick out the last couple of findings on this this slide this is
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data from our health and well-being survey and it shows the um and how employers rate the
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effectiveness of promoting supporting positive mental health in the work place and i think the warring sign
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is that the the bottom two findings of our managers are confident to have sensitive discussions and signposts
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after expert sources so just 38 of employers said their managers were confident in
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that respect um and just 31 says managers are confident and competent to spot the early warning
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signs of mental ill health so even though these issues there has been some improvement over the last few years it's still a minority of organizations
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that are saying that managers have competence in these key areas next slides please and finally i'll just leave you
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with this slide um yeah there is a very very strong business case for investing in in
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the uh health and well-being um of of your uh your workforce and it's critical
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that these this is really fully factored in when when the case for investment in in manager training and access to
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occupational health and other support is uh is made to uh or two organizations i'll leave it
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there leslie i'm happy to take questions later thank you
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great thank you thank you ben um just moving on to gail now because i'm going to look a bit more in depth
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at some of the issues and interventions thanks gail hi everybody and thanks very much for
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inviting me to give this um contribution to your uh really interesting webinar
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okay so i'm going to be uh just talking a little bit about supporting the mental well-being of
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frontline workers and this is drawing on quite a lot of research i've done myself but also
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um a resource uh as part of a series of resources that i've been commissioned to write for the society of occupational
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medicine and public health england so next slide please
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well i'm sure you'd all agree you know we are experiencing a situation of unprecedented demand um
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very very challenging times we know that workers are experiencing considerable difficulties
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from many different sources concerns about their safety their job security etc
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many changes in work practices and locations and also and i think this shouldn't be
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underestimated considerable uncertainty about the future um and unsurprisingly as as ben just
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said you know there has been high levels of mental health problems uh observed in many different surveys
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uh depression anxiety and also loneliness and that can be a particular issue for
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people working at home and people with existing mental health problems as they mentioned that often has exacerbated these existing
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issues now we know that different groups of workers have been
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disproportionately affected and certainly in the work i've been doing recently but there is evidence that younger workers in particular are
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having particular problems uh workers from vain backgrounds workers with disabilities
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but also those doing particular types of work so it's no great surprise i guess that
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health and social care workers are considered to be at higher risk but we also need to acknowledge the
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difficulties that other groups of workers are facing such as security guards drivers in general
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cleaners etc but today i'm going to be talking about healthcare professionals
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so um research sorry next slide sorry about that um research certainly
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shows that during the pandemic um the the workload uh working hours have have
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increased for healthcare workers uh and certainly um reviews of the the
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evidence that i've been commissioned to conduct over the last couple of years on the mental health and well-being of
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uk doctors nurses and midwives show that this was poor prior to the
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pandemic in general so they were at considerably high risk burnout mental health problems etc
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in relation to their work but it has deteriorated during the current crisis now um we've got
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longer hours etc evidence for higher intensity of the job fewer breaks difficulty taking time off
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etc now unsurprisingly it's left the workforce uh in general exhausted and feeling depleted and they
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now have to face a whole raft of other demands uh to catch up with the um the workload
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that has remained undone um during the pandemic so also other issues uh that we found
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discomfort and fatigue um from long shifts spent wearing ppe and obviously
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wearing ppe has um interfered with uh communication with with patients etc and service users and
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also many services many staff um have moved from a face-to-face service
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to a predominantly virtual service and you know we shouldn't forget the needs of those because it's very very
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difficult talking about challenging and personal issues to vulnerable people
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online so um it's important to acknowledge that we know that burnout is certainly a key
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concern but you know there is a high risk of stress depression and anxiety
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research conducted recently particularly by um neil greenberg from kings has found
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that um the scope for ptsd has increased also a tendency perhaps towards problem
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drinking where people are using um substances to as a form of self-medication
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to to manage their stress and their mental health but i think um what's particularly interesting and this is something that
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that we should all be on the lookout for you know when managing people is something called moral injury and
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this may not be something that everybody has come across but uh it's really interesting and it's
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where people feel obliged to act in ways that violate their ethical and their moral code
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and i think in health and social care this has happened and it can be a very extreme uh source
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of distress uh increase the risk of ptsd anxiety um and etc and there are some
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interventions uh that can be put in place but obviously the stigma can be a particular problem
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so people should be encouraged to speak up about this uh compassion fatigue is also
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um another issue that's linked with ptsd and burnout and this is something where you know
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basically what it says on the tin it's where it's where people are unable to
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process um all of the emotional demands they experience so they tend to get a
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bit emotionally blunted and cynical and may depersonalize their um recipients of
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care there has been um copic related stress also experienced by people working in in
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health care uh because obviously the concerns for their own health and their families health and safety
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have to be balanced with their you know demands for um and they wish to to treat other
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people and put themselves in in harm's way often and uh there's also some evidence that um
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insecurity can be a concern for people at the lower levels in in organizations
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particularly hourly paid staff there has been an increased demand from counselling and support
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certainly um the use of the um bma's mental health helpline rose by
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80 percent um fairly early on in the the pandemic which suggests that people are
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very much looking for support but often people may have problems accessing support because
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perhaps they may not know where to go um you know information can be dispersed
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very widely so it's quite difficult sometimes to find out where you can access support
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and they may have uh no time or feel that they lack time to enable them to access support now as we know
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um experiencing job-related stress burnout and mental health difficulties
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can lead to impaired performance and this can have very severe implications for patient care in terms
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of perhaps error making etc and also patient satisfaction where
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the rapport that staff can have with patients sometimes can suffer there is um
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high sickness absence and certainly the scope for sickness present season in
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healthcare is much higher you know quite a lot of the evidence certainly reviews that i've conducted in this particular topic
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suggests that presenteeism can be a very major problem for lots of different reasons you know high workload
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also um low staffing where people may not have cover perhaps when they're off sick
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uh a sense of duty and responsibility for the well-being of others is also a very high driver
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towards continuing to work while sick ours is a reluctance to let colleagues down too so you know
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it's it's definitely worth considering the uh the drivers of presidencies in
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your organization also concerns about retention um we do know that
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uh there is a recruitment problem at the moment in in health and social care the national shortage and the demand is
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expected to rise so a very common reason for wishing to leave this type of work
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is stress and and high workload etc okay next slide please
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right so um what can we do about it now i'm going to make various suggestions
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obviously we don't have a huge amount of time so i will just be um
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taking every superfinish if you like but if you do have any
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questions please um get in touch with me and i can help so as we know uh
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we we need to take a multi-level approach organizations must have
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evidence-informed interventions at all levels uh from the primary where um organizations tackle the
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sources of stress at source secondary where we build up
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individuals ability to cope and tertiary where we're supporting individuals return to work but
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unfortunately most of the interventions tend to be bundled up in the secondary
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level so we are expecting um individuals to um learn how to manage stress more
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effectively if you like counseling etc which is undoubtedly important but we would certainly argue that many
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more interventions are needed at this primary level so next slide please
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uh apologies for the the multicolored here but it'll keep you awake certainly over
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lunchtime so uh we need to consider what works and these are some suggestions that uh
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we have based on the evidence at primary secondary and tertiary levels
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now i know that steve is going to be talking quests a lot about some interventions that are in place
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afterwards um so i won't be focusing that much on secondary but i do really want to focus a lot on primary
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uh very important to have a whole organization approach and promote a safe working environment
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that supports mental and physical health tackling stigma is obviously
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very very important and you know i think we're all hoping really that the stigma that previously existed
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about speaking up about mental health problems will have reduced a lot following the
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pandemic because people are much more likely to talk about it now so
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hopefully that that will remain we need to assess risk diagnose the hazards possibly by using
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the health and safety executives management standards now some of you who may not be aware they have recently
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introduced a talking toolkit that goes alongside the health and safety executive
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management standards where you can have conversations with staff about that
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the other thing that i did want to pick up is spotting signs of struggle now this is absolutely vital and
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certainly ben mentioned a few things about that in his talk but it can be much more difficult to do
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when people are working remotely certainly
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things like you know spotting extreme levels of distress where people you know having
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um um crying fits etc or you know um angry outbursts that's
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much more easy to spot but it's a particular problem when people are working uh um at home and when they're new
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starters so colleagues and managers don't really know um what's normal for them and the support
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that they need and certainly i would recommend here that mind have a really really good wellness action plan
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based uh targeted for people working at home and um that's really excellent for employees
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to identify the signs that they are likely to show if they're struggling so that could be very useful um present
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he is more so is is another issue that should be considered and also
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change fatigue which is uh endemic in healthcare uh so it's spotting these these issues
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secondary um include things like psycho education mindfulness etc
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reflective groups like um schwartz rounds very very helpful indeed
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providing mental health tools and encouraging access now what we found in our work certainly and
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the reviews and the primary research was that people are often very unaware of what's
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available to them so it's really important to have almost like a sort of one-stop shop where
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people can see what's available in one particular place and also they need to be encouraged to
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use it and senior leaders and managers should also role model this desired
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behavior and show that they are accessing help themselves help and support themselves above all
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ensuring interventions are evidence informed that goes without saying our appropriate analysis that are
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accessible tertiary well um occupational health services have been
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very much um used i think during the pandemic
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um and in some areas they can be under-resourced
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and there is some concern that occupational health staff feel they lack knowledge and training on
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spotting and treating mental health issues and burnout amongst workers so i'm working i'm going
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to be working on a project on that uh soon to um upskill people uh in that particular area ensuring
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access to support etc ensuring return to work is as smooth as possible now this is going to be a particular
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issue when people are experiencing things like long covered um and as we know managers have uh have
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a key role to play here and also better communication between occupational health staff and
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managers working together to negotiate a return that's acceptable
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for everybody and adjustments that are likely to work okay so that's just a very brief
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overview of what is likely to work um and i shall hand you back
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thank you thank you gail gosh there was a lot in there wasn't there we'll talk about some of that in the
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q a um steve over to you now thanks okay thank you good afternoon
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everyone and thanks very much for inviting us along to talk to you today to share we've got to really on our kind
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of health and well-being uh journey so uh my name is stevie i'm on loan at
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the moment from public health england to nhs england and nhs improvement um
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before working in public health england i've worked in a number of regulators including the mhra who you'd have heard of
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in terms of licensing the vaccination before that worked in health and safety executive developing management standards on
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stress i could get the next slide please so i joined a team in october
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at that time we'd put in place a number of interventions to support staff at an individual level so between april and october a
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number of app developers and providers had come to us to offer their services we'd created a devoted website we'd
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created helplines with the support of samaritans and hospice uk
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and you can see that and the number of hits number about downloads has been significant up to this point in
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time uh worth saying that those interventions though require an individual to decide what type of
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support they need a given point in time and there's no real feedback route to the organization so that's something
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that we're we're moving towards uh shifting at this point in time
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we've also provided coaching sessions for staff um specific support for bme colleagues
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and every time we put out an offer they're over subscribed so that's something that there's clearly appetite
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for across the nhs as well as that um to build on our inclusive health and well-being offer
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we're ensuring that any physical well-being offers that we put forward are
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accessible to all so at the moment we've got an initiative called 5k our way so whether you cycle whether you
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run walk it's entirely up to you how you participate working on that project with the
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invictus games foundation and that helps us in terms of being seen as not being instructional so that we're
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working with partners to kind of encourage physical activity um in addition
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because of the ways of working at the moment we've we've held webinars which have been again kind of over subscribed
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to share where we are what support is available and where we're going next on the journey if i could get the next slide
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please we are staff around you know kind of what have been their barriers to accessing health and well-being support
36:18
and part of this kind of builds on some of the comments i made earlier around you know time and and stuff potentially seeing uh
36:24
somebody offers as being something they need to do in their own time you know if you need to access an app or if you need to access
36:30
a helpline awareness so while we've had a number of people accessing the website using the apps um some people still
36:38
don't know the the national offer exists and and don't access it lack of trust
36:43
um as you'll know you know there's stigma particularly associated with mental health issues and there's
36:48
this kind of fear factor if people who do engage with someone who supports a services that could go back to their
36:55
their line manager feeders have been too tired to overwhelm not having the time to
37:00
go which goes back to our first point about to access the offers this sense as well and this is something
37:06
that's a cultural issue within the nhs that we're keen to kind of overcome is this uh the sense that kind of when
37:12
you're the the care provider um it's often challenging to seek help for yourself so we're trying to
37:18
normalize those help seeking behaviors some issues around iit um some
37:23
colleagues saying there's there's too much to navigate through um and another saying that they you know
37:28
they don't feel as though they need to access the support or there aren't any barriers so there's a whole host of things in the mix
37:34
that helps us to kind of refine the offer and ensure it resonates so for example some of the
37:39
apps that we initially provided we've started to sunset those because um they weren't being accessed or they
37:44
weren't being used in the way that was intended if i could get the next slide please
37:50
uh in addition to to kind of asking staff kind of qualitatively we also kind of check into on a
37:57
quantitative metrics using something called the poll survey which has been underway uh since the pandemic struck
38:05
the the key theme i'll draw out of here at the light of time is that this reinforces something that
38:10
we already know that good support for my managers and from peers has almost a protective effect with
38:16
things like too high demand or not enough control at work now where does that evidence come from when that
38:21
comes from something called the the whitehall 2 study a longitudinal study looking at the health of civil servants over time
38:29
and that showed this dynamic between kind of demands control and support at work that support had
38:34
that almost protective effect so in some ways it's kind of reassuring to to get that reinforcement that
38:40
support is essential in what we build going forwards if i could get the next slide please
38:48
and now this really kind of gets to the heart of one of what i wanted to to share with you so while it was absolutely the right thing
38:54
to do uh when the pandemic struck to provide that support offer aimed and targeted individuals who needed that
39:01
help guidance and support we are now starting to to shift the emphasis to shift the
39:06
focus towards organisationally led preventive measures so kind of those upstream activities
39:12
organizations can implement and own to yield downstream positive outputs so to what we're doing
39:20
at the moment and the priorities for the coming year are to to embed something called health and well-being guardians
39:26
senior leaders within organizations both large and small who can kind of oversee and champion um
39:33
health and well-being within organizations so typically a health and well-being guardian in a large trust would be a
39:40
non-executive director level uh within smaller primary care organizations
39:45
the organization itself can decide who wants to fulfill that role but somebody who can influence the health and well-being agenda
39:52
to help with that role we've been working with colleagues within the health and safety executive and the
39:57
university of manchester to develop indicator tools that guardians can use to help assess
40:03
performance and we're due to go live with a prototype tomorrow and that tool is looking at both lead
40:09
and ag indicators of health and well-being performance i think typically within organizations
40:16
there's this uh default to look at those lag indicators particularly around sickness absence and presenteeism and
40:23
sometimes that can drive the wrong types of intervention because you're responding to an issue that by its nature has had a lag that is
40:29
kind of almost a past issue so we're we've asked hse and they've developed
40:36
some like that blended approach so you can also see about what are those positive lead indicators that can provide you
40:43
with assurance that you're taking steps in the right direction so a lead indicator could be things like
40:49
uh you're you've introduced stress management standards you are
40:54
complying with the the violence reduction standards for example um so that work is underway
41:00
and it's moving at pace and again you know kind of in terms of developing those products and tools for
41:05
guardians it kind of encourages the guardian to ask the question if they've got a higher than average sickness absence rate is that okay
41:12
bearing in mind that they're off setting up with some of those preventive measures the next tier down so you've
41:18
got our top level senior buy-in the the next level down is
41:24
equipped line managers and we've been asked um when we've introduced this concept called health and
41:30
well-being conversations um are we going to measure them and now our view is no you know they
41:36
should be ongoing routine check-ins that kind of how are you conversation
41:42
and the line managers if they don't feel equipped to answer the question in immediate here and now they know where to sign posts for
41:48
help and guidance even for themselves or for a member of staff the important thing is the routine
41:53
nature of those conversations i think it's worth saying on both the guardians peace on the health and
41:59
well-being conversations peace we recognize that health and well-being is on the agenda
42:04
in a way that has never been before so we're we're really keen to ensure that the territory that we've gained we
42:10
retain and that we we keep kind of moving forward the third uh
42:15
element has got kind of two two components really the first is to to
42:21
continue to deploy evidence-based interventions on our mental health so we've uh we're currently mobilizing
42:27
40 mental health hubs nationwide and the staff can access to seek
42:33
help support and guidance if they have a mental health issue and the second element is around
42:38
occupational health and this is the integrated occupational health work stream where that's underway at the moment uh
42:45
dr steve bourman who some of you may be be aware of who are involved in occupational health who has provided
42:51
recommendations to us to advance and this is about building on some comments that we made earlier how you get occupational health
42:57
as part of that integrated health and well-being management system as opposed to being seen as external to the
43:04
organization or somewhere where you go to respond to some of those lag indicators how can occupational health
43:10
help you how can it gather intelligence how can it help inform the guardians within organizations how
43:16
can it help equip my managers in teams to have those health and well-being conversations so instead of seeing being seen as kind
43:22
of an occasion a passive function it's very much an active function and
43:27
we're investing pretty heavily into making sure that that happens over the course of the coming year against the backdrop of those three
43:35
priorities we need to ensure that everything we're doing has a focus on people recovery
43:40
so neil greenberg who you heard about the earlier he sits on something called the recovery commission
43:45
that's supporting us in our work around recovery the strong message we're getting
43:50
the strong steer that we're getting is that one size doesn't fit all so you know our viewers you know any
43:57
conversation around recovery has to start with that conversation know what's going to work in your given context i could get in the next
44:04
slide please and just to finish really so while we're that's our kind of
44:10
strategy yeah they're our priority areas of
44:16
a firm focus on prevention um we continue to to refine the offer and we listened to
44:21
staff we've had great involvement from the invictus games foundation we've had great involvement from the duke and duchess of cambridge
44:28
around our bereavement uh support lines but we also have extended access to our apps um so our
44:36
providers have generously kind of allowed extensions to their services for us um we've got the physical health
44:42
offer that i've i've mentioned we've put in place some additional kind of external support to help colleagues
44:48
with financial well-being and and with relationships violence reduction training so we've
44:54
seen that there's been an increase in violent assault during uh kind of the pandemic so what we've
45:00
got now uh is a body-worn cameras project particularly in the ambulance sector but we intend to extend out further and that's
45:07
acting both as a as a deterrent but also to help us secure prosecutions
45:13
and i think as well it's really important to to kind of reflect that you know i think often people see violence
45:18
as you know perpetrator and victim it has a much wider impact in terms of the impact on on colleagues within
45:25
organizations i've mentioned about health and well-being conversations i'll finish off on saying you know kind
45:31
of there's also work around that kind of those secondary interventions around you how do we equip line managers to support
45:38
staff how do we ensure that the right responses are received to those health and well-being conversations and we'll continue to kind of listen and
45:45
engage with the broad community to ensure that the offer is is inclusive looking at bme colleagues looking at the
45:52
lgbt plus community looking at colleagues with disabilities to ensure that all can participate
45:58
that was my final slide oh sorry my colleague on the the analyst would kill me if i didn't say this but everything that we do we
46:04
kind of review and we ensure that we kind of test and we do get regular tracking to ensure that what we're putting out there resonates
46:11
and is valued thank you for for your time and more than happy to answer any questions about
46:16
where we've got to thank you thank you very much uh so
46:22
quite a few questions coming in and i've got quite a few of my own but i'll keep mine till the end if we've got time uh
46:28
the first question steve um seeing as you've you spoke last this is a very practical question but um
46:38
lynn would like to know how you decided on the pulse survey questions and what did you learn as to whether
46:44
these were the right questions yeah it's a it's not with pulse it's an ongoing process
46:50
so we've got the ability to include or kind of exclude questions so it's kind of it's been when i wasn't
46:57
involved in initial kind of rollout of polls because that happened kind of in april before i joined the organization
47:02
but what i can say is this enabled us to kind of test in kind of
47:08
in real time uh metrics that we're interested in similar to those health and well-being conversations we're now
47:14
tracking to see the uptake of those not in an intrusive way but just to kind of test what's happening as a result of that
47:20
initiative is it gaining traction or isn't it and there'll be other questions that we've started started to kind of sunset
47:27
so it gives you the advantage for us is it gives us a more real-time feel of the the data and enables us to
47:34
be more responsive as opposed to just relying on the once a year staff survey which by the
47:40
time you've had the results by the time you've developed your interventions you're kind of six months behind the curve so that's been the
47:47
advantage of it um i could ask colleagues about you know kind of what what you know kind of the
47:52
initial decisions were around you know the original items but in terms of practical use that's how we
47:58
we test and refine thank you thanks gail i wonder if you'd like to
48:05
take this one how can you measure presenteeism
48:11
that's a really good question because obviously it's much easier to measure absenteeism
48:18
because somebody's either there and working or they're not they're signed off sick or they're not
48:23
and indeed if um a worker turns up um for work and says that they feel too
48:29
sick to work an employer would be contravening their duty of care wouldn't they if if they allow them to continue so
48:36
it's incredibly difficult um in any other way but uh
48:41
self-report in in staff surveys including questions on presenteeism uh not just you know um
48:50
how many times over the last year have you worked while sick but the type of illnesses perhaps that people are most
48:57
likely to experience and i really think that the cipd's approach is excellent too where you're asking people
49:03
professionals to actually report on the extent to which it is a problem in their
49:08
organization but it's a very imprecise um [Music]
49:13
art at the moment there are some scales to measure it but i think it's it's definitely a work
49:19
in progress thank you gail um i've rolled a few
49:25
questions to get that together here ben can i um throw this one at you
49:31
you and gail both spoke about the uh made reference to spotting the signs
49:37
and there's two elements here isn't there there's the competence of line managers to recognize the signs
49:44
and then there's the confidence of those line managers to start those conversations uh we've already had the mind resources
49:52
popped into the chat box so people can access those are there any specific cipd resources to
49:58
help line managers uh get those those tips and skills to
50:03
start those difficult conversations and also around that resource question
50:08
um is there anywhere people can go to source reputable and recommended occupational
50:14
health provider um on the first point
50:21
again i'd probably come back initially to the sort of the core people imagine competencies i was
50:27
talking about because um you know when you start to have
50:32
regular conversations you know with with people in your team you know and get to know them um and
50:40
you know those sorts of of uh discussions tend to arise much more
50:47
organically um and naturally so i think the critical thing is for managers to really understand the
50:55
people they manage um through investing time uh in their one-to-ones to developing their soft
51:01
skills around empathy listening and providing flexibility and support and it's only from those behaviors that
51:08
you then to get trust and um and i mean i of course you need to be able to up to recognize
51:14
um you know some people will will be you know will hide and might not want to disclose and but
51:20
and you need to be able to sort of you know pick up on those those sort of um
51:25
uh triggers which might suggest someone is is you know struggling then you but then the key is
51:30
to ask the sort of open questions because you can't force people to talk about these issues
51:36
they need to feel confident that that they want to disclose and and it's the sort of management behavior piece which
51:42
is critical so i think it's the challenge this is quite a complex area
51:47
there's no flick so it's like a switch that you can flick um or um you know sort of um
51:55
intervention that will guarantee um you know people's health and well-being it is about behavior
52:02
and it's about a lot of it is about the soft skills of line managers and i think we just need to invest much more on proactively
52:11
developing those skills and particularly if you look at you know within um you know for example steve i suppose
52:18
big issue is in the nhs you know the people management skills of clinical leaders you know um we've got we've got to make
52:25
sure that those skills become if you're managing people those skills become absolute core to uh
52:31
your role as a manager thank you ben um steve going back to
52:37
your case study we've had a question around the support that exists
52:44
under the different headers that you mentioned at that high level so for example tapping trauma therapy
52:51
really thing what types of support are you actually offering uh well there's a
52:57
whole host that staff can access dependent on on what their needs are really so it's so
53:03
you know from a manager level they can access a whole host of learning and development around health and well-being an individual
53:09
level mentioned the mental health hubs you can access a whole host of apps for example headspace
53:16
daylight sleepio you can access the the support lines that we've got they're run by the samaritans you can access
53:23
their website which takes you to financial advice and support and guidance and we've started a partnership with
53:28
relates as well so for relationship issues so depending on
53:34
what staff need um there's an avenue for them to pursue
53:40
and just just to quickly just respond to on i think a really good point made by by
53:45
ben in terms of we're keen to ensure that there is no lottery in terms of what management response and what support you receive at
53:52
work so getting consistency is really really key and i don't think health and well-being should be seen as just
53:58
an isolated activity you've got a factory in this park on an employee journey you've got to think about
54:03
what your freedom to speak up arrangements are so that people can recognize and call out when something isn't going quite right so
54:09
for me it's part of weaving what we're trying to do on health and well-being as part of a much bigger organizational culture piece
54:17
so you know i'm trying to think of it much more what can you expect on boarding what can you expect when you're at work
54:22
you know through support through your line manager response and why folk leave it and understand
54:28
those elements i think is really key for us thanks i'm just following on from
54:33
that then steve um obviously there's such a wealth of resources available to your 1.3 million people um
54:40
i guess i'm interested in how you effectively signpost all of that in the context of
54:46
you know pandemic frontline workers um so that the information they need is
54:52
available to them in the moment at that very point of need yeah and that's that's a really tough
54:58
one it's a really tough nut to crack so you can use things like the website you
55:04
can do that um but we need to think about the mechanisms too so engaging with other partners
55:09
trade unions for example uh people in the occupational health teams people are in the organizations
55:15
who can help us cascade but it's got to be relevant and the message that rings in my ears whatever i'm kind
55:22
of pursuing this is from uh dr paul litchfield who heads up the work center for well-being who says you've got to keep this simple
55:29
so it's got to be applicable and relevant wherever you work so we're working on
55:34
you can't you know one size doesn't fit all when it comes to communication so that's something that we work on kind of
55:40
relentlessly you know thinking about who are the other communications channels can you use tv screens for example in
55:46
trusts or within doctor surgeries to get those kind of messages out to people whatever it takes we try and do we've
55:53
created credit card size kind of documents that people can use we've used a5 document we've used all
55:59
a whole host a whole raft there always be gaps but we're trying to use both the digital offer
56:05
combined with more traditional routes to ensure that everyone from a senior consultant through the whole organization knows how to
56:11
access support for support in the here and now the key thing though we've got to balance is that the default response to
56:18
health and well-being issues isn't go to this app go to this website go to this helpline
56:24
it is how can i help you in a line manager capacity and how can we make an organizational shift
56:30
that can help you in the long run that's how i believe you're going to make a sustainable and substantial difference
56:35
great thank you um so the cipd resources there's a link just
56:41
being posted in the chat if you've missed that to help you go directly to the resources that we've got
56:47
available um gate jill no gail sorry somebody's asked jill a question but
56:53
gail um could you give some examples of tools that could be used for managers
56:59
who feel uncomfortable discussing mental health issues for personal reasons and just
57:05
before you answer that girl could i just ask um the panelists to pop into the chat their contact details
57:12
i'm sure uh people are going to want to follow up steve in particular that question around the pulse survey and gail i should
57:19
imagine there'll be plenty of queries around some of those interventions that you shared with us earlier on
57:25
so if you could just do that in the last few minutes um and then gail maybe give us one or
57:31
two examples of the tools that we can use um now i am aware that
57:36
many managers do feel embarrassed
57:42
and also many individuals do too so putting the two things together
57:48
it you know it can be rather challenging i'm i'm not personally aware to be
57:54
honest of any tools that are available um ben is is there anything in
58:01
cipd that can be helpful there um i mean we we have our our uh guide uh
58:08
with the joint guide with mine which i think is used for one thing i would say on this i think um return to work interviews can be
58:15
really helpful ways of of having these conversations the royal mail used to have the fantastic e-learning
58:23
resource where they they had a video of a of a line manager going through a return to work interview
58:28
and they ran it twice first of all it was a a depot manager doing a return to work
58:35
with interview with a posty and the first time the manager goes through the return to work questions
58:40
and you know he asks all the right questions and they they decide that the post is going to return to work
58:46
on a given date then they run it again and this time the manager is using those sort of soft people
58:51
management skills he's listening properly engaging asking follow-up questions and the whole
58:57
the whole conversation changes to one where the the posty then starts sort of opening up
59:02
about the issues that's happening his home life why he's been having to take time off um
59:07
and and then they they have this conversation about well how can we resolve to you know what sort of flexibility might give you a bit of
59:13
space to help to manage these issues and and i think you know those sorts of of tools that give
59:19
real life examples of how you can change the conversation how you can make it much more human-centered and how you both
59:27
as a manager and the individual get much more out of it i think got to bring the sick conversations alive because it's not rocket science
59:33
it's just about deploying those soft skills and using your common sense um and and
59:39
asking you know open questions you know i think which those sorts of tools can be quite helpful
59:44
absolutely and it's taking um an individual approach isn't it rather than having a list of questions to tick and
59:51
because i'm certainly in in my own research i'm very aware that some people can find return to work
59:58
interviews when they've had mental health issues very intimidating and are rather concerned about them so
1:00:05
having this developmental approach you know where there can be um
1:00:13
conversations if you like uh would be um and risk assessments also uh would be
1:00:19
very useful thank you thanks everybody um time is up so we're gonna have to leave it there
1:00:26
as usual more questions than time we have tried to um get through as many as we can
1:00:34
thank you to gail and steve and ben who um i'm sure everybody will agree and
1:00:40
share some really great insight with us knowledge and expertise i think for me one of the things that's
1:00:46
come through loud and clear is there's just so many aspects to the whole issue of mental health in the
1:00:51
workplace and there's new dimensions and potential contributors
1:00:56
to the issues uh emerging all the time we've read quite recently about a new
1:01:03
covered anxiety around people who've been working from home or shielding or on furlough
1:01:10
actually experiencing real anxiety now the prospect of even going outside their house and that you know that is a real a real um
1:01:18
issue and a real contributor to their stress levels there's also the tensions through i
1:01:24
guess people returning uh with different experiences and the impact of returning back to work and how
1:01:30
you sort of manage and balance the experience of the frontline workers with the experience of
1:01:35
people who haven't had the same experience um obviously they've
1:01:40
had their own very different experience but it's it's matching those up um thank you to everybody who's
1:01:47
submitted a question thank you to the person who's submitted an idea for a future session we'll certainly
1:01:53
pick up on that the recording is going to be available on demand um as will the slide
1:02:00
deck and just a final reminder it's just so uh relevant to what we've been
1:02:07
talking about today uh of the of the well-being support for members our secretary members
1:02:13
in the uk and ireland the 24 7 telephone helpline uh qualified uh staffed by therapists
1:02:20
and which is all provided by workplace wellbeing provider health assured
1:02:26
so thank you everybody for joining us see you next time