Reflecting on my 30-year journey in workplace wellbeing, I’ve witnessed numerous challenges and evolving obstacles. This article aims to inform discussions and roundtables focused on addressing poor mental health in the workplace. Drawing from my experience as an Occupational Psychologist and IoPPN neuroscience alumnus, and leveraging data from my wellbeing tech, Cari, this serves as a starting point for critical conversations.
This article is a personal reflection based on my work in the wellbeing sector, offering insights gathered through years of developing tech that provides a unique view into workplace wellbeing across public, private, and third sectors. It’s meant to raise questions, considerations, and practical approaches to a complex issue. Beyond individual health and wellbeing, the imperative for addressing this problem impacts our economic stability and GNP. Poor workplace wellbeing costs extend beyond individuals, affecting organizations, society, and the planet’s future. If we don’t work, nothing works.
Drawing from 30 years of experience, data analysis, and successes in improving workplace wellbeing, I offer these ideas to explore as potential pathways for a Government Call to Action.
The need for data – true presenteeism
The Stephenson Report of 2017 was groundbreaking, providing metrics that, for the first time, quantified the cost of poor workplace mental health. The follow-up reports have continued to focus on and add valuable information. However, the calculations behind the data are complex and difficult for an ordinary business owner, HR, or Wellbeing Lead to reverse engineer. Deloittes has done an excellent job presenting the position, but we lack an easily applicable metric.
Additionally, the risk of mental health factors and the management standards for stress in the workplace, as monitored by the HSE, have never progressed beyond toothless guidance, offering no metrics beyond ‘finger in the air’ estimates. Having conducted what is probably the largest wellbeing survey for the Public Services People Management Association in 2020, with over 4,000 participants, I would like to see a large-scale survey across both public and private sectors. This would help set out the results with less complexity and provide data that offers insights into actual levels of presenteeism, culture, and risk, validated by participant feedback.
Incorporating the latest data from tools like Cari, we can benefit from a clearer understanding of presenteeism and workplace culture. This data-driven approach can help organizations create more effective strategies to improve workplace wellbeing.
Strategy – it must start here
In my experience working with organizations of all sizes, including those employing 50,000 people, I’ve found that their mental health strategy is often more a collection of tactics rather than a cohesive plan. This may be because there is inadequate training in how to put together a meaningful and effective strategy. Anecdotally, many admit they have ‘gone for the next shiny thing.’ This suggests a significant gap in recognizing competent, validated, relevant, and high-impact solutions.
I would welcome the building of a network of strategic providers. There are many excellent freelance and SME consultants who are able to support large and small organizations in making the best and most effective decisions. This would stimulate the market for effective consultancy and ensure organisations make better long-term decisions that have measurable outcomes.
Combining these efforts with peer support networks, such as Wellbeing 1st Responders, can foster a culture of mutual care and strategic planning, ultimately enhancing overall workplace wellbeing. If you are interested in being part of a network of strategic and tactical providers, or if you are an organisation wishing to connect with amazing wellbeing consultants please get in touch.
Workplace stress – HSE Guidelines
When I first started working as a psychologist in the workplace in the 1980s, stress had just become an ‘available condition’; before this, people had heart attacks at their desks. Modern medicine has made heart conditions and other previously life-threatening chronic and acute conditions ones that we can live with and work with.
Maria Paviour, Founder, Wellbeing with Cari
We have reduced the risk of heart attack at work, but we continue to attack the hearts of the people who are working. The current HSE guidelines have remained largely unchanged since the turn of the century, and there has been no significant development in how we view workplace risk. I would like to review the role of the HSE in ensuring that risk is managed more effectively, which brings us back to data.
Leveraging data from modern tools can provide the insights needed to develop more effective risk management strategies. In addition, peer support networks, like Wellbeing 1st Responders, can provide immediate, empathetic support, creating a healthier work environment.
Occupational Medicine – de-medicalising our language
There needs to be a shift in understanding the psychology of stress and risk, moving away from the over-medicalization of the workplace that has occurred over the past 5-8 years due to the dominance of clinical psychology over occupational psychology.
The role of occupational medicine is often overlooked, although it can be very cost-effective even for SMEs if utilized effectively. As a member of the Society of Occupational Medicine, I see that we could benefit from their insights.
It is important to get some perspective on what constitutes a mental health issue versus a mental illness. The 'grey area' between a healthy person and a psychopathology has extended so that many people are self-diagnosing. Most worryingly, it has become normal to use clinical language for normal states: depressed rather than sad or disappointed, anxious rather than worried, psychotic rather than confused. Diagnostic labels are sought because they offer comfort and allow people to have adjustments made; they validate.
By understanding and de-medicalising our language, we can create a more supportive and accurate environment for addressing mental health. Wellbeing 1st Responders can help maintain this balanced approach, supporting colleagues in navigating their mental health without unnecessary labels.
Mental Health First Aid – Single provider monopoly, no evidence, and a flawed Act of Parliament
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) has exploded in terms of the number of organisations that have trained MHFAs, maintaining these are the main vehicle of their mental health strategy. An Act of Parliament was tabled to make it mandatory to have trained MHFAs in all organizations. However, an Open Letter from former MHFA directors and a WHO report highlight that there is no evidence MHFA works, is safe, or provides effective skills. While it is understandable that organizations have committed to this, the proposed Act needs to be reworded or restructured entirely.
Re-evaluating the role and structure of MHFA, supported by the latest data insights, can help organisations create more effective mental health strategies. Peer support through Wellbeing 1st Responders can complement these efforts, offering practical and immediate assistance to employees in need.
The role of technology
Technology has been promising a 'better life' and 'labour saving' since the 'modern age' of the 1950s, but few people feel that their computers, phones, and the software loaded upon them provide a calmer, easier life. Along with increased capability come increased expectations.
As a wellbeing tech developer, I can say that wellbeing tech has yet to demonstrate clear benefits. That does not mean there is no place for it, but establishing clear criteria for how, when, and why technology should be used by organizations to support their employees is important. Deloittes touched upon this in their follow-up 'Refreshing the Case' document.
There has been much development and innovation around wellbeing in relation to technology, and a fair amount of this could be displaced, as it has focussed on social media styled engagement tactics; the very tactics that promote addiction and that are being viewed as potentially negatively impact to mental health.
Wellbeing cannot be solved through an app alone (there is no app that solves racism or misogyny etc) as it is fundamental attitudinal change that needs to shift. Wellbeing is about state of mind and body, and these two are clearly linked in ways we are only just beginning to understand (The Immune Mind by Dr Monty Lyman).
While technology can offer valuable insights into employee wellbeing, it needs to be used thoughtfully. Combining technological insights with human support, such as combining the Cari wellbeing platform with Wellbeing 1st Responders, which ensures that humans providing peer-peer support is central. This can create a more balanced approach to workplace wellbeing and ensure the tech is serving the people – and not the other way around.
Culture and the experience of work
Workplace wellbeing is representative of the experience humans have of a life that provides meaning and joy. Most of our living hours are spent at work. Many people's major objective is to be free of the need to work. We are seeing the need for financial remuneration well beyond the retirement age to which we had previously become accustomed – people are working into their 70s and sometimes beyond.
However, for many, navigating work is a horrifying experience. Workplace bullying and abuse are rife, from the board down. Whistleblowers are still treated as pariahs, and the law often sides more with organizations than individuals.
The HR department has become the quasi-lawyer for the organization versus the employee in many cases. Involving HR does not always create a sense of balanced mediation. HR needs to acknowledge its potential role in these issues, often driven by a need to prove its value to a board historically viewing it as 'soft.'
Clive Boddy's work demonstrates that about 30% of senior managers are corporate psychopaths. This leads to cultures where psychological safety is compromised and ethical behaviour is sacrificed, resulting in high levels of stress and mental ill health.
To address these cultural issues, we need a comprehensive approach that includes peer support networks like Wellbeing 1st Responders. They can play a vital role in creating a supportive and ethical work environment.
Criminalisation of bullying and workplace abuse
Bullying in the workplace is a significant issue that needs to be addressed. Behaviour that would be illegal on the street often goes unchallenged in the workplace. Bullying is the single most damaging behaviour to culture and individuals, as I have seen in Anti-Bullying Think Tanks for NHS England.
Effective measures to combat workplace abuse are necessary. The police's advice to "go to your HR manager or employment tribunal" is insufficient. Making bullying a crime and making it easier to recognize, whether from top-down or bottom-up, is crucial.
Creating a safer work environment where bullying is unacceptable requires comprehensive strategies and good quality data that shows the impact of social-psychological risk factors. Cari, the wellbeing platform, provides granular data and works in concert with peer support networks like Wellbeing 1st Responders. This can provide clarity on where to focus efforts and resources to provide immediate assistance and help foster a culture of respect and support.
Hygiene factors, social justice, and workplace wellbeing
Key factors in population wellbeing relate to individual life experiences, which can impact us both immediately and generationally. Most evidence still comes from white, middle-class males.
To address mental health, we must remove stressors. Herzberg's 'hygiene factors' highlight environmental conditions that alter brain chemistry and nervous systems. Treating workers like machines might surprise some, but maintaining and caring for them like machines would improve treatment significantly.
Addressing social justice issues and ensuring diverse representation at all levels are crucial steps in improving workplace wellbeing. Peer support networks like Wellbeing 1st Responders can play an essential role in creating inclusive and supportive environments.
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