MAD World 2024 last week reflected the rapid, positive pace of change in the sector, with both the government and businesses increasingly demonstrating their genuine commitment to tackling employee Health & Wellbeing.
Speakers from both industry and government were particularly aligned on their desire to move towards a culture of prevention, rather than one where individuals only get help when they’ve reached crisis point.
Insider’s view of government
Delegates were treated to a fascinating insider’s view of the government’s ambitions around mental health, in particular, by closing keynote speaker and Former MP Luciana Berger. Berger is currently undertaking a full mental health strategy review, at Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s request, with a remit to look at what more workplaces can do “to keep people well”.
“I’d say politically now, we have an interest in this area like we’ve never seen before,” she said, adding she welcomed the announcement that the government is going to introduce a new Mental Health Act over the next 12-18 months, which she said is “long overdue”.
“Wider and deeper” interest politically
As evidence of heightened government interest, she gave the example of the recent party conferences she attended. Last year the main topic of interest was “everything to do with planning around towns and homes being built” but this year there was “a wider and deeper interest politically” in what the government should be doing to tackle issues, like employees being out of work due to mental ill health.
“And these discussions weren’t just confined to the Department of Work and Pensions,” she said. “I’m very encouraged by the response so far I’ve had across government.”
But she underlined that, in the current challenging economic climate, “partnership with industry” is going to be crucial. And all the signs at MAD World were that delegates are taking this responsibility more seriously than ever. For instance, the conference opened with a keynote debate on whether the responsibility for employee Health & Wellbeing lies most with the individual or the institution. Overwhelmingly, the delegates voted for it being predominantly the institution’s.
The government is paying more attention
CIPD Chief Executive Peter Cheese was leading the argument for the employer’s responsibility, saying it was an “economic and moral case, as well as a social case and a business case”. He also argued that the fact the “government is paying more attention” should be heeded by industry as a sign of where regulation is headed.
“The new Employment Rights Bill has certainly put indicators in there about expectation and support around Wellbeing,” he said. “We are seeing a demand for greater visibility of what organisations are doing in this regard. This is about responsible business and creating good work for people and Wellbeing is an absolute fundamental of that as we design the future of work.”
But, while government and industry appear to be on the same wavelength when it comes to employee wellbeing and believing in its value, it seems there is a sticking point: the individual employees themselves.
Prevention can’t be achieved without individual employee buy-in
For, while companies can provide all the resources and follow the government’s advice or regulation to the letter, they can’t achieve prevention of ill health without engagement from the individual; Wellbeing can’t be ‘done’ to employees, they have to be active agents.
And, from what delegates were gravitating to talking about in their informal conversations between MAD World sessions, many employees are not buying into the corporate wellbeing messages. Delegates spoke of their frustration at low engagement rates, and how they felt at a loss about how to persuade employees that it’s worth taking time out of their schedules to invest in their Health & Wellbeing.
Some talked of very vocal “pushbacks” and resentment towards mandatory training. Others bemoaned that employees failed to see how Health & Wellbeing is relevant to their jobs, preferring to focus on tasks which relate to how they are evaluated in performance reviews.
Don’t see Health & Wellbeing as relevant to them
Yet others talked of employees who felt it just wasn’t relevant to them (because they’re ‘fine’, not recognising they could be better, see this feature for more on that theme). Some talked about cultural issues for some employees around not wanting to discuss details they perceive as personal at work.
Clearly, the message that good wellbeing leads to better performance and profits – which any professional working in this sector knows to be true, and is scientifically proven – is getting lost in translation to employees.
This was particularly true of ‘hard to reach’ employees, which were discussed in On Wellbeing’s business breakfast briefing, including workers such as fee earners, shift workers and factory employees.
Employers need to provide space for learning
Dr Nicola Eccles, Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing at On Wellbeing, who led the briefing, concluded:
“I believe that it’s the employer’s responsibility to support the learning tools and the space for learning. But you can’t make anybody do anything. So the individual has to think that it relates to them. That’s why you have to be able to let people do it in their own time, in their own space. They shouldn’t ‘have’ to attend something, or feel uncomfortable.”
The fact is that Health & Wellbeing isn’t a tick box solution. It can’t be. An employee can’t turn up to a training course and then be ‘well’ or, if they’re a line manager, know how to manage their team’s wellbeing overnight. The truth is that achieving good wellbeing is hard, managing others’ is arguably harder, and it often takes patience, perseverance, consistency, motivation and discipline…which means you have to be fully bought in to why you are doing it.
Behaviour change happens at an individual level
Dhavani Bishop, Head of Group Colleague Health and Wellbeing at Tesco, talked about this in her session at MAD World, saying that “health habits that improve the productivity in a workplace usually happen outside of the workplace, where the individual is in control”. She cited examples like sleep, diet, exercise and relationships, adding “health habits are probably one of the hardest habits to change”.
She continued:
“Change requires an individual to do some soul searching about their reasons for change. They need to think about what a lifelong commitment and sustained motivation looks like. And, in today’s world, we’ve got lots of distractions and temptations. Yes, we’ve got wellbeing tools as well. But that can be overwhelming.”
Like Dr Eccles, she proposed that organisations can help “motivate, engage and provide individual interventions” but ultimately change happens at an individual level.
Need “bespoke support”
Nevertheless, Bishop did identify something that organisations can do to more effectively to motivate individuals to change and that’s “bespoke support”; tailoring the solution to the employee so it is highly relevant to their particular needs and has a proven track record.
These were key points touched upon in other sessions, too. Kirstin Furber, People Director at Channel 4 plugged for personalisation in her panel debate arguing “it’s all about tailoring it for the individual”:
“When interventions are tailored to an individual, they can make a fantastic difference to their lives. But we all have different expectations of what a healthy wellbeing culture is. Only the individual can experience it and say ‘yes, this is what I believe to be a healthy environment’. It’s very personal so companies must engage on an individual level.”
Evidence based interventions
Berger also touched on this topic, saying another theme of her review is “evidence based interventions”.
“There are too many examples of the public sector, and the private sector, spending money on programmes that sound very nice but that have no evidence base whatsoever. There are some studies showing they are not actually helpful or, in some cases, even making situations worse.”
Clearly if an employer is investing in solutions which the employee perceives, or experiences, as ineffective, irrelevant or unhelpful, then this will cause them to view Health & Wellbeing as a waste of their time and not worth engaging with. They will likely share their opinion with colleagues, too, because humans tend to share their bad experiences with companies more than their good.
Better buying of provision needed
That’s why part of solving this puzzle must include better corporate buying of individual interventions and programmes. Steve IIey, Chief Medical Officer at Jaguar Land Rover, talked about this in his session at MAD World. He hit home the message that employers must get more savvy about buying and really think about whether what they are being offered “really fits the overall strategy”.
He also underlined that part of getting employee buy-in is down to buying quality interventions warning that “you get what you pay for”:
“If you cut costs, you will get a cut cost service. The great majority of providers are trying to give you the best output but if you cut their costs, they will cut the service to you. We’ve had lots of discussions with our procurement department about how buying wellbeing services is not like buying widgets. The cheapest is not the best. It’s been an education process.”
Education process
Indeed, it seems the main challenge at this point for the industry is to embrace the education process on all fronts. MAD World hosted a huge amount of expertise, including speakers and delegates alike, and, if anything, what is now required is pulling back to basics when it comes to engaging employees.
In fact, perhaps what is actually required here is for industry professionals to tap into a well known mindfulness technique called ‘beginner’s mind’, in order to really understand where employees are coming from; to put themselves back in the shoes of someone without so much knowledge and invested belief in Health & Wellbeing.
This is about dropping the ‘expert mind’ and instead seeing the topic with completely fresh eyes and an open mind.
As Zen Monk Shunryu Suzuki said:
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
