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0 By Tom Wavre
In recent times the subject of mental fitness has seen a dramatic increase in exposure. Celebrities, business leaders and even the Royals have been taking the topic to centre stage. In that time, few businesses in the construction industry have been doing a better job of tackling mental wellbeing in the workplace than the multi-award winning Galliford Try.
Galliford Try is a FTSE 250 business and one of the UK’s leading housebuilding, regeneration and construction groups, with revenues of £2.8 billion. They operate through three strong businesses: Linden Homes, Galliford Try Partnerships and Construction & Investments. With over 5,600 employees from office staff to onsite contractors, the complexities of implementing a meaningful wellbeing strategy are considerable.
Despite, or perhaps partly because of these complexities their efforts have recently been recognised with three prestigious wellbeing awards:
• Inspire Construction Award – Most Inspiring Mental Health Initiative 2018
• Employee Benefits Award – Best Mental Health Strategy 2018
• Mates in Mind – Impact Award 2018
As well as winning these industry awards, they have seen fantastic internal results to justify the time and effort spent on improving the mental wellbeing, or mental fitness, of their employees.
Why Tackle Mental Fitness?
So why did Galliford Try start down this path of improving the mental fitness of all employees? To understand, we must go back to a meeting of the Health in Construction Leadership Group in 2016. Here, the construction industry mental health charity, Mates in Mind, was formed. Representatives from Galliford Try were in attendance and they learnt about the shocking suicide statistics within construction. Such as, while men are three times as likely to take their own lives as women, a low-skilled construction worker is three times as likely to take their own life as the average man. Added to that, construction workers are 10 times more likely to die by suicide than by an onsite accident.
With so many staff and sub-contractors under their care, it became vital for Galliford Try to tackle this significant problem. So, in addition to becoming a partner with Mates in Mind, Galliford Try created their internal ‘Be Well’ programme in 2017.
Making a Difference
Galliford Try focused efforts around a simple mission statement: ‘We recognise that the good health and wellbeing of our people impacts upon the sustainable success of our organisation and we will strive to improve and enhance whole person wellbeing and resilience.’ Reducing the likelihood of suicide was a driving factor but a difficult objective to quantify and understand fully. As such, the leadership team set about forming various objectives that could help indicate that they were on the right path. These objectives were to:
• Decrease sickness absence levels and improve employee retention.
• Introduce smarter, more agile ways of working to improve work-life balance and productivity.
• Improve utilisation of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and Occupational Health Service.
• ‘Start the conversation’ pertaining to mental health and introduce an awareness programme.
• Raise the profile of lifestyle choices that improve health and wellbeing.
With the objectives in place, attention naturally turned to the tactics and implementation phase, and they pushed forward with a multi-pronged strategy.
‘Be Well’ at Work
The benefits and support on offer to all employees were communicated in a comprehensive, yet simple, guide setting out exactly where and how employees can access their benefits. These are based around the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’: Take Notice, Give Back, Keep Learning, Be Active and Stay Connected. This scientifically proven model forms the core of the approach.
One goal of the initiative was to initiate 1,000 conversations about mental health within the workplace. With this objective in mind, 60 internal facilitators have been trained. With almost 400 conversations in the first quarter alone, they remain very much on track to greatly exceed their own expectations.
As part of the ‘Be Well’ launch, Galliford Try implemented a new policy. This promotes, amongst other things, the use of stress risk assessments, line manager awareness and wellness recovery plans. Direct access to mental health treatment is on hand, with no need to see a GP. Additionally, they have 24/7 access to a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme (with a higher than industry average take up).
Encouraging Employees to Talk
Site manager, David Briggs, benefited greatly from this access to mental health services. He says, ‘Stress is a horrible illness which won’t get better on its own, you need help. My manager was fantastic, he told me not to worry, that he and the company would help.’
Having completed his talking therapy treatment, David reached a place where he was no longer struggling with stress. He had this to say, ‘Don’t be afraid of asking for help, as it is out there. If you don’t look after your mental wellbeing it will come back. You need to keep your mind fit and healthy just like your body.’
All employees are encouraged to take two days’ paid leave to volunteer for a cause close to their heart. They also participate in ‘Stop. Make a Change’ days. This is where the business stands down for the day to take time to focus on themes, such as mental health.
Additionally, though not exhaustively, the business has placed great focus on mindfulness and stress awareness. This is part of a bid to stop anxiety and stress developing into larger issues. Employees are encouraged to talk about any issues they may have. They are also directed to mobile apps such as Headspace to help manage their stress on a day to day basis. An important part of the strategy was to ensure staff had easy access to tools that give them the ability to control their own health and wellbeing.
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The Results
With any large business, it is challenging to ensure new strategies and company culture filter down to all staff. To help, they have utilised lunch-and-learn sessions, line manager training and tool-box talks. They also provide Wellbeing Yammer Groups, intranet, video conferencing and an internal mental fitness blog. All of this is to ensure the message reaches all corners of the business. So far, the statistics prove it is having a great impact, with engagement in the various initiatives being hugely encouraging.
Absenteeism is also down, saving a significant sum of money for the business. There has also been a swing away from long-term absenteeism to short term. Staff engagement increased by 500 base percentage points in the last two years. This has helped produce a reduction in staff churn. The picture in terms of cost saving and increased productivity of the employee base proves that these strategies are playing a critical role in the business. This is true both in terms of compassion for employees and business KPIs.
Delivering Impact With Mental Fitness
Why this should have had such a positive impact is clear. Throughout the UK, over half the workforce have considered resigning due to workplace stress. Additionally, a third say work is the largest cause of stress in their life. Absenteeism due to mental health is at an all-time high. Yet over 90% of instances, an alternate reason is given to the employer due to fear of repercussions. By tackling this at its root, instances of stress, anxiety, burnout and depression will almost certainly be reduced. You can be sure that statistics like these are lower in companies like Galliford Try.
Businesses with high levels of staff engagement see vastly increased levels of productivity, lower absenteeism and lower staff churn. It becomes a huge boost to the health of the individuals and the health and prospects of the business. Galliford Try employees are now benefiting greatly from this new approach. And the business is far better positioned for the sustainable success that the initiative was designed to create.
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