Utility Week

20 | 17TH - 23RD JANUARY 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Event Utility Week Health & Safety and Wellbeing Conference continued from previous page ☛ The trick is to work smarter, use the tech, get your IT guys to help your business work better." ANDREW GRANT, HEAD OF SAFETY AND QUALITY, NORTHERN GAS NETWORKS Crucial advice: the pressing questions Improving mental health: Who should lead? One question posed to the panel was who should lead on mental health? Traditionally, health and safety teams have not had a close relationship with human resources, where issues of wellbeing and absenteeism oen reside. Dame Carol said: "I don't think it matters who leads, what matters is that it's given importance right at the top. And then if it is more appropriate in one company that occupational health should lead it, in another com- pany it may be HR leads it, or indeed a manager leads it. It must be what is most appropriate and comfortable for your company. "But then it needs to be absolutely joined up, and it has to have that element of a leader who does more than tick the box, it needs visible leadership." Judith Grant, director of health and wellbeing at Mace, agreed, saying: "I sit within the health and well- being team at Mace, but I also attend the HR leadership team meetings, as well as the health team meetings, and our sustainability meetings, because each of those three specialisms has a role to play in the wellbeing of the organisation. And the key thing is collaborating, and people not working in silos. We also have one of our board members as the champion for health and wellbe- ing, and having that visible leadership is critical for the other senior directors to take it seriously." Capturing data – where to start? Measuring staff wellbeing and how it can impact the running of an organisation is difficult, and particularly so when correlating this with presenteeism. But the audi- ence heard that success lies in involving teams as much as possible and sharing results. Nicola Johnson, director of HSSE and engineering governance at Eon, said: "One of the trials we've been doing this year has sought to change the ways of work- ing within a team, and that has had very positive results, both in a lack of absenteeism, but also on productivity within that team, because they feel more empowered. "And that's something we're now expanding further, because what we found is that giving people the feeling that they're being treated as an adult, and are part of designing the solution, is one of the most powerful fac- tors in making that change within your organisation." Mace's Grant said that her company was working with organisational psychologists and using a number of different measures, reflecting the fact that wellbeing means different things to different people. She said: "I don't think there is a silver bullet meas- ure. The Office of National Statistics has got its happi- ness measures, which we include within our survey, but we're looking at all the different drivers of health and wellbeing." She believed it was essential to have a tailored approach that suited the wellbeing drivers of individual teams. "At the moment we're changing our approach to mental health training within the business. We're moving away from mental health first aid training, and introducing a more focused approach to line manager training." For Southern Water's Joe Murphy head of health, safety, security and wellbeing, there was a very simple measurement: "I would say all of that, plus watch how people walk into work. If they're walking in with their heads down, like they're going to the next level of hell every morning, they're upset, they're not engaged, they don't want to get involved with events at work. That's the best measure you can get." Overload and mental health – the answers? It was acknowledged that utility firms are in a tougher economic environment than previously and staff are being asked to do more. The answer from our panel to these pressures was technology, smarter working and better communication. Northern Gas Networks' Grant observed: "The trick is to work smarter, use the tech, get your IT guys to help your business work better. Look at exploring new ways of doing your work so that you can do it faster, safer, in a way that puts less stress on your team." For Eon's Johnson there was merit in applying meth- ods used to ensure safety. "We encourage people to step back, and just stop and think and check whether it's safe to proceed. We could have the same sort of approach in terms of redesigning processes to think about it a bit more holistically, and ask is there is there a better way of doing something." Southern Water's Murphy advised: "There's a lot you can do that's low cost. Flexible working is a big one. I start work at 7 in the morning and I leave the office at about half 3. And when I leave, I 'leave loud' – I let eve- ryone know that I'm leaving because I don't want to get stuck in traffic, which empowers my team, and it doesn't cost anything." Is mental health getting worse? "It is certainly more exposed, and it's become more acceptable to talk about it, which has partly happened because people at the top of companies have given sto- ries of their episodes of depression," said Dame Carol. "I tend to think that in young people it is now worse, based on what I've seen in universities. I think too there's a lack of resilience. Some people don't like that word, but I personally think it's a good word. "Students are on their machines all the time. There's pressure to do well, work-wise. They've all got to look beautiful. And all these pressures to be at their best all the time is not particularly good for their mental health." Denise Chevin, intelligence editor, Utility Week "Having visible leadership is critical for the other senior directors to take it seriously." Judith Grant, director of health and wellbeing, Mace "If staff are walking in with their heads down, they're upset, they're not engaged." Joe Murphy, head of health, safety, security and wellbeing, Southern Water

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