Pre-emptive action for our Minds in Business

Authored by Steve Field, Head of Trading, QBE

Employers must be proactive in developing a culture of wellbeing to safeguard employee mental health and promote a healthy workforce

Mental health is this decade’s buzz phrase in the workplace, particularly post-pandemic. But are too many employers tackling workforce wellbeing in a reactive manner, when prevention is better than a cure?

We know that across the world, there have been an additional 75 million cases of anxiety, stress, and depression since the start of the pandemic.  The scale of this statistic is staggering – and many will be struggling with these mental health issues while continuing to work.

In sectors including construction, haulage and manufacturing, the figures are even more alarming.

To give further insight:

• Men in construction are three times more likely to kill themselves than the national average;
• 22% of haulage drivers have been diagnosed with a mental health problem, but fewer than half have told their manager;
• And as the world’s ninth largest manufacturing nation, the UK ranks in the bottom 10% of industries for wellbeing.

Employers and workers are clearly under pressure, and the numbers are growing.

Our own research has shown that a quarter of workers hide mental health challenges from their employers – and nearly a third (31%) say they would not feel comfortable disclosing a mental health issue to their employer. 

Whilst conversation around about stress and mental health is becoming more open, for key sectors such as construction, haulage and manufacturing, pre-emptive care should be prioritised as part of employers’ duty of care to their workforce.

Struggling through: what’s the impact?

The consequences of poor mental health are wide ranging but regarding impact on business activities, one of the most obvious trends is in absenteeism. In fact, new data reveals that 81% construction workers in the UK – that’s over 2.1 million employees – have taken sick leave as they felt they needed to take a break and rebuild their energy. 

Even before the pandemic, mental health issues were the single largest cause of working days lost in the UK, accounting for 54% of lost days. 

But for the construction, haulage, and manufacturing sectors, where physical work forms a large part of business operations, absenteeism isn’t the only mental health risk to companies. Poor mental health in workers can result in a range of potentially damaging outcomes.

“In male-dominated industries such as construction, employees are often less willing and able to open up about their mental health and ask for support,” said Emma Mamo, Head of Workspace Wellbeing at mental health charity, Mind. “This can be problematic because mental health problems often become worse if left untreated, and the consequences can be fatal.”

From a physical risk perspective, a lack of focus may decrease situational awareness; disengagement and increased fatalism may lead to an absence of care about risk; and reduced self-control may actively create risks. For sectors which operate powerful machinery, working at height or with chemical products (and where poor mental health is recorded at above average levels) safety concerns are heightened further.

As an insurer, we understand that human error is often the unrecorded, or ‘hidden’ claims driver. Potential losses covered by casualty, property, motor, and professional insurance policies could easily be influenced by adverse mental health conditions, but we know that customers with mentally resilient workforces have fewer accidents.

Remember:

Mentally robust workforces hold an improved claims profile compared to those where employers and/or employees do not make a link between mental health and workplace behaviours.

It’s a huge mistake to place the management of risk related to mental health below the processes and checks applied to physical and financial risks. Does your business engage in dynamic risk assessment for heavy machinery or large vehicles? Employers should also consider that pre-emptive mental health risk assessments could add as much value again.

Every business is only as resilient as the most vulnerable link in its mental health chain, and if 40% of all ill health in the manufacturing sector is related to stress, depression, or anxiety; two construction workers die by suicide every day; and 25% of HGV drivers experience mental health issues – this is a link that should be reinforced before it breaks.

Three key areas employers should develop to safeguard staff wellbeing and promote a healthy business:

1. Develop knowledge and awareness

• Schedule training to ensure people managers have the appropriate knowledge and skills to identify signs of poor mental health and signpost workers to advice and support
• Understand the influence of personal circumstances on overall wellbeing and offer support for workers which will directly ease pressure
• Conduct a wellbeing survey to track progress, expand employer awareness of pressure points and demonstrate meaningful engagement

2. Build an inclusive culture

• Show commitment to staff wellbeing with specific policies that support good mental health and self-care (flexible working, health benefits, support networks) and events/workshops to help workers navigate issues
• Communicate openly about the challenges of poor mental health (and possible solutions) to improve wellbeing and reduce historical or cultural stigma 
• Promote existing mental wellbeing offerings (such as Mental Health First Aiders or company networks) with regular internal communications

3. Create an employer toolkit

• Establish a mental health risk management strategy and plan for your workforce, including identification and implementation of controls, reporting processes and metrics, mitigative actions and incident investigation
• Identify areas for improvement and create a timeline for revisions of outdated policies, data collection or support programmes to ensure changes are made in a timely manner
• Include metrics for transparency and accountability reporting to grow employee confidence in an inclusive company culture

Minds in Business

At QBE we see a significant need for mental health and wellbeing strategies in many of our customers’ businesses. To help support them – and the various industries they operate in – we have collaborated with the mental health charity Mind, organisational culture and human error specialists Anker & Marsh and resilience specialists Petros, to build a mental health optimisation tool.

Unique in the insurance market, customers of QBE can engage with a series of targeted questions designed to deep dive into leadership, planning (including ESG), support, organisational confidence and capability, and performance evaluation.

Responses to these questions inform the construction of a bespoke risk improvement plan, forming the basis of a wider workforce wellbeing strategy which enables businesses to evaluate their mental health journey and identify areas for improvement. The process also includes access to a suite of resources and guidance, a large proportion of which is offered by our specialist partner provider panel.

Access to Minds in Business is through our QRisk online risk management platform, available only to QBE customers. QRisk offers a wide range of guidance and self-assessment tools to help reduce the chances or impact of an unexpected event. Customers can work through each online module at their own pace, taking what they need, at their discretion.

Even a small positive change in an employer’s approach to mental health and workforce wellbeing can substantially address and change workplace pressure points. In sectors such as construction, haulage, and manufacturing this can result resulting in fewer accidents, an improved claims experience – and happier workers.

Visit QBE’s Minds in Business dedicated pages to find out more – CLICK HERE

The ten most common causes of stress for tradespeople are:

1. Cost of Living crisis (39%)
2. Rising cost of materials (36%)
3. Finances (28%)
4. Tensions with customers (20%)
5. Doing the best job, you can for customers (17%)
6. Job security (14%)
7. Tensions with suppliers (13%)
8. Risk of catching Covid-19 (12%)
9. Making mistakes at work (12%)
10. Too much work (12%)

Further downloads

• QBE Minds in Business
• QBE Minds in Business Manufacturing
• QBE Minds in Business Haulage
• QBE Minds in Business Construction