On the run up to World Suicide Awareness Day last year on 10 September, L&Q Group decided to launch an initiative targeting – not its own employees – but its subcontractors and their operatives working on its construction sites.
The employer already ran a wellbeing programme, including suicide prevention at corporate level, but this was the first time it had specifically engaged subcontractors.
“We realised we needed to align this social approach and extend our campaign to construction sites, not only for L&Q employees but for our contractors, so it reached everyone on site”, says Sandrine Rivoal-Pluviaux, Senior Wellbeing Advisor.
“We are all in the same boat, whether they work for us as an employee, or a contractor. We see them all as employees. Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.”
Care for contractors
Charlotte Thomas, Head of Construction Safety, led this campaign on the frontline and says:
“We have got to care for our contractors, even if they are not employed by us, it’s about respecting each individual as a person regardless of whether they’re our employee or not”.
This motivation stems from a moral issue, of doing the right thing by people, but also commercial because as Charlotte says: “if we don’t engage with subcontractors, safety will be compromised, which we’ll see in accidents and ill health.”
Charlotte and Sandrine
She adds that she’s worked in construction for a long time, as well as outside the industry, and says there are specific “massive” differences that can exacerbate mental health issues.
Contributors to poor mental health
As these differences, which contribute to poor mental health, she lists:
- The fact subcontractors are often not working with the same people day in, day out so not building up connections in the same way as you would in a ‘normal’ office environment
- Job insecurity
- Many workers come from abroad so are away from their families and friends, and therefore isolated
- If they don’t work, they don’t get paid, so there is pressure not to take time off even if not well enough to work. This stigma of taking time off can also prevent workers in seeking help for physical and mental health issues
The company wanted to come up with a campaign idea, not just for the awareness day, but for the six months after it.
Talking to the workforce
One of the first actions L&Q took was to bring in an Occupational Health nurse from Rapid Health & Wellbeing called Charlie Foulger. His brief was to talk to the workforce about the importance of looking after their physical and mental health and has been working with L&Q on the inhouse construction sites for nearly two years.
Following these informal talks, he opened up his diary to appointments and health checks for the subcontractors on site during his regular visits.
“I think it helped that he’s male and so personable. The guys absolutely love him,” says Charlotte.
Financial wellbeing
Then a programme of workshops was rolled out. These included sessions which covered colleagues’ personal experiences, as well as support around wellbeing pillars like financial health.
“Financial wellbeing is one of the factors relating to the mental health issue for men on construction sites because they are under pressure to work to support their families abroad, and they are on their own, which makes it harder if they’re struggling,” says Sandrine.
There was also a talk hosted by an employee who was a member of Andy’s Man’s Club, which was delivered across all sites.
Talk to tears
“The talk had me in tears,” says Charlotte Thomas. “The story was heartwrenching but you could see it resonated.”
In terms of buy-in, the team did not have to push hard with the senior management team to fund the initiative; they were aware of the issue of subcontractors not seeking support when unwell and how it was affecting the business and wanted to make a difference.
“They were fully supportive of everything we put forward and there was no blockage from a business perspective in supporting contractors,” says Charlotte.
Saving lives on site
That meant the team didn’t start out with specific metrics to measure in terms of productivity or absenteeism; that is something now being considered entering the next phase. Nevertheless, the team and senior management are confident the investment and time spent on this work has already paid for itself.
“We had one case straight away when a worker was sent to A&E, after having had a health check on site and at that point I knew the campaign had paid for itself already. It had saved a life,” says Charlotte.
However, one of the most tangible differences that Charlotte and the team has seen since launching the campaign, she says, is that the subcontractors “feel valued” and “they are building those key, protective relationships”.
Measuring for success
Anonymised data collected by the nurse shows that the rate of subcontractors attending repeat visits is also improving.
Another measure of success is the fact that the subcontractors are asking for more support.
Consequently, the focus in the next phase of this work is for L&Q to look to collaborate more with the subcontractors’ employers.
“We plan to find out how many of these employers offer anything to their staff in terms of Health and Wellbeing and whether they can offer it while the workers are working on our site,” says Charlotte.
“But the reality is, a lot of smaller contractor employers won’t necessarily be able to afford it.”
Next phase
L&Q is currently compiling a mental health and wellbeing survey to ask these employers about what they provide and whether they’d be willing to collaborate.
Part of the next phase is bringing in public health teams to construction sites.
“The great thing about working with public health is that they have the knowledge of the different needs of different people in the community. We’ve discussed with them at length things like ethnicity, barriers to care, language, expectations, etc,” says Sandrine.
Perception of stress
She gives the example of how stress is perceived and experienced differently between a native worker and foreign workers from ethnic minorities. For example, for a worker who has known war, the same job demands are overlaid with, and often reinterpreted through, the lens of profound personal trauma, making their experience of stress fundamentally different and far more intense compared to a worker who never experienced this.
On top of that, while construction is tough for everyone, foreign workers from ethnic minorities face heightened stress. This is due to the added pressures of adapting to a new country, cultural and religious differences in coping, and potential stigma around expressing emotions. These factors uniquely shape how they perceive and manage stress, setting them apart from their native British colleagues.
Additionally, the employer is working on a web page with resources aimed specifically at subcontractors, as well as exploring in setting up a Men’s support group with the Andy’s Mans Club on one of its sites.
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