Supporting the mental wellbeing of frontline workers
Watch our webinar to explore how you can best support your frontline and key workers’ mental wellbeing now and beyond the pandemic
Watch our webinar to explore how you can best support your frontline and key workers’ mental wellbeing now and beyond the pandemic
Watch our webinar to learn how to effectively support the mental health of your frontline and key workers, the role of occupational health in discussing the support available and the need for a compassionate leadership culture to tackle stigma around mental health.
Our panel of experts include:
Chaired by Lesley Richards, Head of CIPD Wales, CIPD
0:19
leslie and would you mind coming off neatly
0:25
sorry that was bound to happen good afternoon everyone my name is leslie richards and i'm
0:32
delighted to be hosting today's session on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of frontline workers
0:38
my role within cipd is to head up the team in wales but please don't worry this session is
0:44
applicable to everyone wherever you're based so don't let the accent fool you into thinking you're in the wrong place
0:52
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
0:59
during the past year and which if it wasn't already there is firmly on the agenda
1:05
as employers recognize the vital role that they play in supporting staff both now and beyond the pandemic
1:13
we're going to be focusing on how to effectively support frontline and key workers the role of occupational health in
1:19
identifying and discussing appropriate interventions and the need more than ever to develop
1:24
and embrace a compassionate leadership culture to tackle the stigma around mental health
1:30
so today i'm joined by a panel of three experts each of whom brings a different perspective
1:35
to the discussion first of all ben wilmot who leads the cibd's public policy team
1:41
which works to inform and shape debate government policy and legislation in order to develop higher performance
1:48
at work ben's got an incredible knowledge across a range of areas
1:53
but it's his interest in employee engagement and well-being and absence and stress management that
2:00
are particularly relevant to today's topic dr gail kinman is visiting professor of
2:06
occupational health psychology at burbeck university of london gail has extensive experience in research and
2:13
practice with a focus on improving the working conditions and well-being of people who do emotionally demanding
2:20
work such as health and social care professionals prison offices and academics and finally
2:26
steve lee head of staff wealth and well health and well-being at nhs england and nhs improvement
2:32
steve has a strong track record in implementing evidence-based measures to prevent mental health in the
2:38
workplace and in his current role is responsible for the delivery of the health and well-being offered to 1.3
2:44
million nhs staff across england so thank you to our three panelists for joining us this afternoon
2:52
before we hear from our speakers i just want to cover some practical details uh the session is being recorded and
2:58
will be available on demand via the webinar section of the cipd website where you can access
3:04
all our previous webinar recordings and sign up for future ones
3:10
all attendees have been rooted to submit questions to the panel please type into the q a box and not the
3:17
chat box though you can use the chat box to network with fellow attendees and please remember to use all
3:24
panelists and attendees in order to share with everyone i'd also like to draw your attention to
3:31
our member benefits and in particular some of our additional resources you may already be aware of
3:37
that can support you in your role as we continue to navigate these unusual
3:42
times we're updating the faqs and resources on our website wall time as information becomes available so you
3:50
need to go to the cipd coronavirus hub for more resources which are available to all our security members
3:57
we can also access individual legal advice irr hr inform helpline which is available 24
4:03
7. and finally sea apd members in uk and ireland can also access our new well-being
4:09
helpline together with award-winning workplaces wellbeing provider health assured
4:15
we now provide cipd members with free help and support 24 7 365 days a year by a telephone or
4:22
online consultations with qualified therapists members can access the phone number and
4:28
the online services via the membership benefits webpage and you will see more details about this
4:33
at the end of the session so now on to the content ben will be our
4:40
first speaker and he'll cover the cipd perspective giving a general overview of our theme for today
4:46
followed by gail who will look in more depth into the impact and well-being challenges for online workers
4:51
together with interventions that work and finally steve will bring the issue to life with a practical
4:58
case study we'll then open up for questions so please send these through as we go along
5:04
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
5:10
try to pick up things and group them so i think that's all from me for now
5:15
i'm going to hand over to ben to get us started thanks ben good afternoon everybody um the issue of
5:23
mental health of the workforce has grown in importance as a business issue in recent years
5:29
as knowledge on the subject has increased highlighting the risks both workers and organizations if not
5:36
addressed and concerns over the issue in stress and in common mental health conditions like
5:42
anxiety and depression has reached across the workforce and become even more of a focus as a
5:48
result of the pandemic and as our outline in my presentation there are particular risks
5:54
for frontline and key workers um next slide please
6:00
the cost and impact of mental health at work was most recently put into
6:05
context by the stephenson pharma review of mental health this estimated that uh the the cost of
6:11
mental health illness um per employee per year was between 12
6:19
about 1200 and about 1500 pounds per per year per employee um and the costs made up of a
6:26
combination of absenteeism presenters and and and staff turnover but there are
6:32
some other wider issues i think around um the cost of mental health as well which may we'll touch on as we
6:38
we um continue the discussion next slide please um this is a slide from our uh recent
6:47
um april uh 2021 health and well-being survey um and what it shows
6:54
is that mental ill health is the number one cause of uh absence
7:02
with stress in that long-term absence with stress in it at number three but it's also stress and
7:08
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
7:16
significant proportion of reported minor illnesses uh actually hide issues around uh
7:22
stress and and mental ill health as well so it is a significant uh cause of of
7:29
absence and um has to be managed effectively
7:34
and next slide please the health and wellbeing survey also
7:40
highlights that presenteeism is becoming more of an issue so this year three quarters of employers said that uh
7:48
they were presenters in their organization with um both um both people who are
7:55
continuing to work in going to the workplace and amongst home workers next slide please
8:05
we've also seen an impact not surprisingly on people's well-being
8:13
as it was out of the pandemic and this slide um shows data
8:18
uh from september 2020. this is employee survey data which shows uh how the pandemic has had
8:26
a negative impact on people's well-being in a number of different ways um but if we look at mental health 45
8:34
of the uh the 2000 employees sampled said that their mental health had or
8:40
worse as a result of the covert 19 lockdown so the pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated
8:46
existing issues around health and well-being and particularly around mental health next slide please i think
8:54
the other and particularly relevant to uh this discussion is that um there are
9:01
particular factors that can undermine the mental well-being of frontline workers
9:06
so we know that um of course anyway interaction with customers
9:11
patients and members of the public can be challenging um you know create some really
9:16
emotionally difficult situations and and those interactions have only been exacerbated
9:22
by the pandemic we know that um frontline workers also typically have less access to flexible
9:30
working including homeworking and of course let's work in can help people manage um
9:36
issues they may be having to deal with outside work improve people's work life balance
9:44
managed care responsibilities so really critical to supporting people's health and well-being the other issue is around
9:51
autonomy because of the nature of frontline workers jobs quite quite often they have
9:58
less control over their work or their workload and they're also
10:03
additional potential challenges around low pay um with um you know for some frontline
10:09
workers uh more likely to suffer from low pay and um to run into issues around sort of their
10:15
financial well-being issues with debt for example and finally
10:21
the issue of anti-social or long hours working which can impact cause additional stress
10:29
impact on people's abilities to make healthy uh lifestyle choices impact on people's
10:35
sleep patterns etc so there are some real risks particularly for frontline workers
10:42
um around mental ill health i think which have been exacerbated by the pandemic
10:47
next slide please now managing and preventing stress is
10:54
critical to an approach to trying to supporting the health and
10:59
wellbeing of staff the health and safety executive defines stress as the adverse reaction
11:06
people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them now we know
11:11
that there's nothing wrong with short bursts of or stress or pressure typically there isn't but it's when um
11:18
stress becomes continuous or you know excessive pressure becomes continuous
11:24
and unrelenting or you know chronic stress that this is linked to
11:30
higher risk of conditions such as anxiety and depression as well as heart disease
11:37
we know that um stress can also have a significant impact on on people's
11:43
performance and and how they um how they they interact with colleagues
11:49
uh in the workplace stress impairs or can impair people's cognitive ability and
11:54
undermine their judgment their ability to prioritize and research from the hsc
12:00
shows leads to behavior that can increase the likelihood of mistakes and accidents so for frontline staff
12:06
managing stress is absolutely critical to supporting the health and wellbeing
12:11
and also to um you know making sure that issues around custom and patient care are
12:16
uh taken into full account next slide please this slide highlights the the
12:24
major cause of stressful work as according to our health and um and well-being at work survey because
12:30
there are some particular cause of stress coming from the pandemic uh so uh you'll see that
12:38
that cobid related anxiety because of fear of contagion the workplace is identified
12:44
as a as a stress for this year's survey as is new work related demands or challenges
12:50
down to homework as a result of kobit 19 but the top two cause of stress
12:55
remain workload and management style as they have done for the last few years
13:00
and we know management style in particular is critical it can help to mitigate issues around
13:06
workload but also some of the other issues around you know how peoples are able to
13:13
deal with non-work issues how they are able to manage caring responsibilities for
13:19
example so that issue of of management capability is critical
13:25
next slide please now the cipd um has conducted significant research um
13:31
over the last few years looking at the management behaviors that underpin
13:37
employee engagement but also support health and wellbeing in the workplace and this has led to the development of
13:44
our competency framework identify five competency areas which are critical to uh trust
13:51
engagement and a positive psychological contract first there is around sort of
13:57
being open fair and consistent so managers um you know managing their emotion emotions not
14:02
passing on stress uh the second area is around handling conflict and people management issues so
14:07
managers um being able to have the confidence to interfere in that early stage for example if there's conflict
14:14
knowing when to use informal um approaches but also when to when they need to use the formal uh
14:21
processes um using that judgment in those sorts of situations they need to be able
14:28
to provide knowledge clarity and guidance so providing constructive feedback real clarity of objectives
14:34
joint problem solving and building and sustaining relationships is absolutely critical so do they really know their
14:40
stuff do they understand the issues that matter to them do they demonstrate that they care about
14:46
them this is about really the essence of building trust if people don't trust you they
14:53
won't disclose if they have an issue or a challenge so unless you get these behaviors right
14:58
then anything else you do to support the health and wellbeing of your start staff is building on sand the final
15:03
areas is around supporting development so do managers ensure do they coach staff do they
15:09
ensure they have access to training do they support the progression opportunities so these are the sort of the foundation
15:16
from the cipd's perspective around health and well-being next slide please but no matter how well
15:22
people are managed employees will suffer um from from mental health
15:28
and it's crucial that managers are also able to spot the early signs that might demonstrate that the people
15:35
have uh an issue um this this quote is taken from our joint guide with mind around
15:41
managing supporting uh mental health in the workplace and i'll touch a bit more on these issues next slide please
15:49
we'll miss this one because of time so managers need to be able to pick up
15:56
the signs of poor mental health and these might be people working long hours not taking
16:01
breaks but it might be you know people being late leaving early taking extended lunches
16:07
it can be you know people taking time off um or it conversely might be not taking
16:13
time off it's about you know what are uncharacteristic changes in emotional response there are people um you know
16:21
reacting differently um you know uh are they moody are they um you know showing
16:27
differences in how they respond are they is it impairment or inconsistent performance
16:33
um or out of conflict colleague with conflict with colleagues all of these might might be indicate
16:38
indicators that all is not well and managers need to be able to have those open conversations
16:43
that can help get under the skin of these issues next slide please
16:49
and so besides that investment in management people management capability then it's
16:55
important you have the the right um support and
17:01
practices available and these are these the some of the the key ones that we know make a difference
17:07
in terms of supporting employees with mental health difficulties um i'm conscious i'm running out of time
17:13
a bit so um i will move on to the next slide
17:18
um i'll just pick out the last couple of findings on this this slide this is
17:25
data from our health and well-being survey and it shows the um and how employers rate the
17:30
effectiveness of promoting supporting positive mental health in the work place and i think the warring sign
17:38
is that the the bottom two findings of our managers are confident to have sensitive discussions and signposts
17:44
after expert sources so just 38 of employers said their managers were confident in
17:49
that respect um and just 31 says managers are confident and competent to spot the early warning
17:55
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
18:02
that are saying that managers have competence in these key areas next slides please and finally i'll just leave you
18:09
with this slide um yeah there is a very very strong business case for investing in in
18:15
the uh health and well-being um of of your uh your workforce and it's critical
18:22
that these this is really fully factored in when when the case for investment in in manager training and access to
18:28
occupational health and other support is uh is made to uh or two organizations i'll leave it
18:36
there leslie i'm happy to take questions later thank you
18:42
great thank you thank you ben um just moving on to gail now because i'm going to look a bit more in depth
18:48
at some of the issues and interventions thanks gail hi everybody and thanks very much for
18:55
inviting me to give this um contribution to your uh really interesting webinar
19:00
okay so i'm going to be uh just talking a little bit about supporting the mental well-being of
19:06
frontline workers and this is drawing on quite a lot of research i've done myself but also
19:11
um a resource uh as part of a series of resources that i've been commissioned to write for the society of occupational
19:18
medicine and public health england so next slide please
19:24
well i'm sure you'd all agree you know we are experiencing a situation of unprecedented demand um
19:31
very very challenging times we know that workers are experiencing considerable difficulties
19:37
from many different sources concerns about their safety their job security etc
19:42
many changes in work practices and locations and also and i think this shouldn't be
19:49
underestimated considerable uncertainty about the future um and unsurprisingly as as ben just
19:55
said you know there has been high levels of mental health problems uh observed in many different surveys
20:03
uh depression anxiety and also loneliness and that can be a particular issue for
20:08
people working at home and people with existing mental health problems as they mentioned that often has exacerbated these existing
20:16
issues now we know that different groups of workers have been
20:22
disproportionately affected and certainly in the work i've been doing recently but there is evidence that younger workers in particular are
20:29
having particular problems uh workers from vain backgrounds workers with disabilities
20:35
but also those doing particular types of work so it's no great surprise i guess that
20:41
health and social care workers are considered to be at higher risk but we also need to acknowledge the
20:46
difficulties that other groups of workers are facing such as security guards drivers in general
20:53
cleaners etc but today i'm going to be talking about healthcare professionals
21:02
so um research sorry next slide sorry about that um research certainly
21:08
shows that during the pandemic um the the workload uh working hours have have
21:15
increased for healthcare workers uh and certainly um reviews of the the
21:21
evidence that i've been commissioned to conduct over the last couple of years on the mental health and well-being of
21:27
uk doctors nurses and midwives show that this was poor prior to the
21:33
pandemic in general so they were at considerably high risk burnout mental health problems etc
21:41
in relation to their work but it has deteriorated during the current crisis now um we've got
21:49
longer hours etc evidence for higher intensity of the job fewer breaks difficulty taking time off
21:55
etc now unsurprisingly it's left the workforce uh in general exhausted and feeling depleted and they
22:02
now have to face a whole raft of other demands uh to catch up with the um the workload
22:10
that has remained undone um during the pandemic so also other issues uh that we found
22:19
discomfort and fatigue um from long shifts spent wearing ppe and obviously
22:24
wearing ppe has um interfered with uh communication with with patients etc and service users and
22:32
also many services many staff um have moved from a face-to-face service
22:39
to a predominantly virtual service and you know we shouldn't forget the needs of those because it's very very
22:44
difficult talking about challenging and personal issues to vulnerable people
22:50
online so um it's important to acknowledge that we know that burnout is certainly a key
22:56
concern but you know there is a high risk of stress depression and anxiety
23:01
research conducted recently particularly by um neil greenberg from kings has found
23:08
that um the scope for ptsd has increased also a tendency perhaps towards problem
23:14
drinking where people are using um substances to as a form of self-medication
23:21
to to manage their stress and their mental health but i think um what's particularly interesting and this is something that
23:27
that we should all be on the lookout for you know when managing people is something called moral injury and
23:33
this may not be something that everybody has come across but uh it's really interesting and it's
23:38
where people feel obliged to act in ways that violate their ethical and their moral code
23:44
and i think in health and social care this has happened and it can be a very extreme uh source
23:50
of distress uh increase the risk of ptsd anxiety um and etc and there are some
23:57
interventions uh that can be put in place but obviously the stigma can be a particular problem
24:04
so people should be encouraged to speak up about this uh compassion fatigue is also
24:10
um another issue that's linked with ptsd and burnout and this is something where you know
24:15
basically what it says on the tin it's where it's where people are unable to
24:21
process um all of the emotional demands they experience so they tend to get a
24:27
bit emotionally blunted and cynical and may depersonalize their um recipients of
24:32
care there has been um copic related stress also experienced by people working in in
24:39
health care uh because obviously the concerns for their own health and their families health and safety
24:46
have to be balanced with their you know demands for um and they wish to to treat other
24:51
people and put themselves in in harm's way often and uh there's also some evidence that um
24:59
insecurity can be a concern for people at the lower levels in in organizations
25:05
particularly hourly paid staff there has been an increased demand from counselling and support
25:12
certainly um the use of the um bma's mental health helpline rose by
25:19
80 percent um fairly early on in the the pandemic which suggests that people are
25:25
very much looking for support but often people may have problems accessing support because
25:32
perhaps they may not know where to go um you know information can be dispersed
25:38
very widely so it's quite difficult sometimes to find out where you can access support
25:44
and they may have uh no time or feel that they lack time to enable them to access support now as we know
25:52
um experiencing job-related stress burnout and mental health difficulties
25:57
can lead to impaired performance and this can have very severe implications for patient care in terms
26:05
of perhaps error making etc and also patient satisfaction where
26:11
the rapport that staff can have with patients sometimes can suffer there is um
26:18
high sickness absence and certainly the scope for sickness present season in
26:24
healthcare is much higher you know quite a lot of the evidence certainly reviews that i've conducted in this particular topic
26:32
suggests that presenteeism can be a very major problem for lots of different reasons you know high workload
26:38
also um low staffing where people may not have cover perhaps when they're off sick
26:46
uh a sense of duty and responsibility for the well-being of others is also a very high driver
26:52
towards continuing to work while sick ours is a reluctance to let colleagues down too so you know
26:59
it's it's definitely worth considering the uh the drivers of presidencies in
27:05
your organization also concerns about retention um we do know that
27:11
uh there is a recruitment problem at the moment in in health and social care the national shortage and the demand is
27:17
expected to rise so a very common reason for wishing to leave this type of work
27:22
is stress and and high workload etc okay next slide please
27:30
right so um what can we do about it now i'm going to make various suggestions
27:36
obviously we don't have a huge amount of time so i will just be um
27:43
taking every superfinish if you like but if you do have any
27:50
questions please um get in touch with me and i can help so as we know uh
27:56
we we need to take a multi-level approach organizations must have
28:01
evidence-informed interventions at all levels uh from the primary where um organizations tackle the
28:08
sources of stress at source secondary where we build up
28:14
individuals ability to cope and tertiary where we're supporting individuals return to work but
28:21
unfortunately most of the interventions tend to be bundled up in the secondary
28:27
level so we are expecting um individuals to um learn how to manage stress more
28:35
effectively if you like counseling etc which is undoubtedly important but we would certainly argue that many
28:41
more interventions are needed at this primary level so next slide please
28:48
uh apologies for the the multicolored here but it'll keep you awake certainly over
28:53
lunchtime so uh we need to consider what works and these are some suggestions that uh
28:59
we have based on the evidence at primary secondary and tertiary levels
29:04
now i know that steve is going to be talking quests a lot about some interventions that are in place
29:11
afterwards um so i won't be focusing that much on secondary but i do really want to focus a lot on primary
29:19
uh very important to have a whole organization approach and promote a safe working environment
29:24
that supports mental and physical health tackling stigma is obviously
29:30
very very important and you know i think we're all hoping really that the stigma that previously existed
29:36
about speaking up about mental health problems will have reduced a lot following the
29:42
pandemic because people are much more likely to talk about it now so
29:47
hopefully that that will remain we need to assess risk diagnose the hazards possibly by using
29:54
the health and safety executives management standards now some of you who may not be aware they have recently
30:00
introduced a talking toolkit that goes alongside the health and safety executive
30:06
management standards where you can have conversations with staff about that
30:11
the other thing that i did want to pick up is spotting signs of struggle now this is absolutely vital and
30:19
certainly ben mentioned a few things about that in his talk but it can be much more difficult to do
30:26
when people are working remotely certainly
30:32
things like you know spotting extreme levels of distress where people you know having
30:38
um um crying fits etc or you know um angry outbursts that's
30:44
much more easy to spot but it's a particular problem when people are working uh um at home and when they're new
30:51
starters so colleagues and managers don't really know um what's normal for them and the support
30:58
that they need and certainly i would recommend here that mind have a really really good wellness action plan
31:05
based uh targeted for people working at home and um that's really excellent for employees
31:11
to identify the signs that they are likely to show if they're struggling so that could be very useful um present
31:18
he is more so is is another issue that should be considered and also
31:24
change fatigue which is uh endemic in healthcare uh so it's spotting these these issues
31:32
secondary um include things like psycho education mindfulness etc
31:38
reflective groups like um schwartz rounds very very helpful indeed
31:44
providing mental health tools and encouraging access now what we found in our work certainly and
31:50
the reviews and the primary research was that people are often very unaware of what's
31:55
available to them so it's really important to have almost like a sort of one-stop shop where
32:01
people can see what's available in one particular place and also they need to be encouraged to
32:07
use it and senior leaders and managers should also role model this desired
32:14
behavior and show that they are accessing help themselves help and support themselves above all
32:21
ensuring interventions are evidence informed that goes without saying our appropriate analysis that are
32:27
accessible tertiary well um occupational health services have been
32:32
very much um used i think during the pandemic
32:37
um and in some areas they can be under-resourced
32:42
and there is some concern that occupational health staff feel they lack knowledge and training on
32:49
spotting and treating mental health issues and burnout amongst workers so i'm working i'm going
32:56
to be working on a project on that uh soon to um upskill people uh in that particular area ensuring
33:03
access to support etc ensuring return to work is as smooth as possible now this is going to be a particular
33:09
issue when people are experiencing things like long covered um and as we know managers have uh have
33:15
a key role to play here and also better communication between occupational health staff and
33:22
managers working together to negotiate a return that's acceptable
33:27
for everybody and adjustments that are likely to work okay so that's just a very brief
33:33
overview of what is likely to work um and i shall hand you back
33:41
thank you thank you gail gosh there was a lot in there wasn't there we'll talk about some of that in the
33:46
q a um steve over to you now thanks okay thank you good afternoon
33:52
everyone and thanks very much for inviting us along to talk to you today to share we've got to really on our kind
33:58
of health and well-being uh journey so uh my name is stevie i'm on loan at
34:04
the moment from public health england to nhs england and nhs improvement um
34:10
before working in public health england i've worked in a number of regulators including the mhra who you'd have heard of
34:15
in terms of licensing the vaccination before that worked in health and safety executive developing management standards on
34:21
stress i could get the next slide please so i joined a team in october
34:28
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
34:36
number of app developers and providers had come to us to offer their services we'd created a devoted website we'd
34:43
created helplines with the support of samaritans and hospice uk
34:48
and you can see that and the number of hits number about downloads has been significant up to this point in
34:55
time uh worth saying that those interventions though require an individual to decide what type of
35:00
support they need a given point in time and there's no real feedback route to the organization so that's something
35:06
that we're we're moving towards uh shifting at this point in time
35:12
we've also provided coaching sessions for staff um specific support for bme colleagues
35:19
and every time we put out an offer they're over subscribed so that's something that there's clearly appetite
35:24
for across the nhs as well as that um to build on our inclusive health and well-being offer
35:29
we're ensuring that any physical well-being offers that we put forward are
35:35
accessible to all so at the moment we've got an initiative called 5k our way so whether you cycle whether you
35:41
run walk it's entirely up to you how you participate working on that project with the
35:47
invictus games foundation and that helps us in terms of being seen as not being instructional so that we're
35:53
working with partners to kind of encourage physical activity um in addition
35:58
because of the ways of working at the moment we've we've held webinars which have been again kind of over subscribed
36:04
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
36:11
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
DISCLAIMER: The materials provided here are for general information purposes and do not constitute legal or other professional advice. While the information was considered to be true and correct at the date of publication (3 April 2020), changes in circumstances, including the end of the furlough scheme on 30 September 2021, have impacted the accuracy and validity of the information. The CIPD is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for any action or decision taken as a result of using the guidance. You should consult the government website for the very latest information or contact a professional adviser for legal or other advice where appropriate.
Tackling barriers to work today whilst creating inclusive workplaces of tomorrow.
Discover our practice guidance and recommendations to tackle bullying and harassment in the workplace.
Watch our webinar for an outline of the changes, guidance and advice from our panel of experts
Explore how you can normalise conversations about menstruation and menstrual health in the workplace to better support women at work
Explore how enabling employee voice can help create a safer and more inclusive working environment
Explore how to create a menopause friendly work environment and empower employees to continue to work and thrive whilst experiencing menopause transition