E M P L O Y E E R E S I L I E N C E A N D I T S I M P A C T O N P E R F O R M A N C E

D I N N E R D I S C U S S I O N

In partnership with

R E P O R T

Windle (1999) captures the essence of resilience succinctly and describes it as:

‘the successful adaptation to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or highly adverse conditions’

According to the labour force survey, Office

for National Statistics**, 11.3 million working

days were lost due to stress, depression

or anxiety in 2013–14, an average of 23

days per case. Mind* found out that 1

in 6 workers is dealing with ill mental

health. While resilience is not something

an employee is born with, it is something

that they can learn and the workplace can

be crucial to this. The vital part is to have

a comprehensive workplace resilience

strategy and organisational culture.

MetLife and Maudsley Learning came together

to host an evening to draw reflections and

learnings from experts on building an

organisational strategy and culture which

will enable the development of a resilient

and productive workforce.

This report outlines the key themes that

emerged from the evening, drawing on

perspectives from the armed forces, NHS,

finance and insurance industries.

1 in 6workers affected by poor mental health*

11.3 millionworking days lost due to stress**

56%employers want to improve staff wellbeing

Professor

Department of Psychological Medicine

Head of Workplace Mental Health

Head of Mental Health Promotion

South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Director

UK Employee Benefits

MetLife

Tom Gaynor

Our Expert

Panel

Neil Greenberg Jonathan Naess Tony Coggins

PANEL CHAIR PANELLISTS

‘RESILIENCE AND WELLBEING SHOULD BE A HOLISTIC STRATEGY’

TONY COGGINS:

Employee GroupsIt is important to look at these employee groups:

Those who are struggling with mental health (maybe have a diagnosable mental illness)

Those who are ok in turning up to work, but not performing as well as they could be

Employees who are flourishing

2

Understanding ContextFind answers to these questions:

What is it like to work in the organisation?

Where are the pressure points?

What is impacting people’s wellbeing?

Where is it going well?

What are the assets in our organisation?

“Across healthcare we found that staff

are feeling under pressure, going through

huge changes and reductions in budgets.

Staff are saying that they can ‘only deal

with what is in front of me’ when we ask

them to change”

‘AT THE MOMENT THE FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH IN NHS IS MINDFULNESS. I AM A BIG FAN OF MINDFULNESS BUT I DON’T THINK IT SUITS EVERYBODY’

Tailoring InterventionsWhat will you be doing in the context of the present?

2

Team FocusWhat to focus on?

Think about - individuals, teams and the organisation: these 3 levels are important

Line Manager Training: line manager’s wellbeing is impacted because of managing staff who have poor mental health and lack of tools/training

Recognising and rewarding good practice

Peer Support:one of the challenges for HR is how to encourage peer support

Engagement and TrustAlways aim to:

Be transparent about the process

Engage with staff

Build trust

Feedback loop between staff and senior management

Remember the physical environment as a really key issue to people’s wellbeing!

“When we are experiencing negative

emotions and stress our peripheral

vision closes down, and as we work in a

complex situation, we want our staff to be

creative and collaborative in coming up

with different solutions. That is part of the

challenge”

‘RESILIENCE IS A SUM OF MANY THINGS

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT IS DYNAMIC’

NEIL GREENBERG:

For example, a young helicopter pilot joins the

Navy aged 24 and is excited at the opportunity

of flying a helicopter from the back of a ship. He

is highly resilient and performs his job in bad

weather and difficult physical circumstances.

HMS Warf hit a rock off the coast of Australia in

2002 and was grounded. The same helicopter pilot

was working on the ship and making flights on and

off it as it listed in very bad weather conditions.

If covered by the Civil Aviation regulations he

wouldn’t have been flying back and forth but he

carried on doing so and because of his brave

efforts the ship was saved.

Let’s forward wind to the present and this pilot

is now 33, has a family and has been working in

a shore based job for a while. All’s going well.

However in order to progress his career he would

have to go back to sea and fly helicopters as a

Flight Commander. As we all know, what was

exciting at 24 is not so exciting when you’re 33,

things are different. Does this mean this person

isn’t resilient anymore, or have circumstances

changed?

‘THE PREVENTATIVE SIDE OF CREATING RESILIENCE INVOLVES LINE MANAGEMENT TO A GREAT DEGREE’

“Resilience is often

seen as an individual

thing but resilience

lies between people

rather than in people.

And the military does

a good job by trying to

create people who can

rely on each other”

“From an organisational

point of view people

often have a view of an

individual and they kind

of see that person as

being static when they

of course have other

experiences of home

and family life”

Academic research on why people develop Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder after traumatic events shows that it is often not what

they were like beforehand, their upbringing, their mental health

or how bad the incident was. The 2 biggest factors that

determine this are what happens after the event:

- How much support does the person gets from their family

and colleagues?

- How much pressure is the person put through as he/she

recovers?

For organisations who have been through traumatic events, the key

to maximising the opportunity for employees to remain resilient

and healthy are in:

- Supporting and looking after them

- Making sure that while supporting them they minimise additional and unnecessary stresses

“The intuitive of throwing mental health professionals at it (employee mental health issue)

to make it better, seems to make sense but evidence shows that it's the wrong thing to do.

Investing in your managers to understand what is going on is important.”

Data* gathered in Afghanistan in 2010

showed that 3% of British troops there at

that time had PTSD.

The troops were asked about their mental

health and perceptions of leadership:

- Is your leader a caring leader?

- Do they treat you fairly?

- Do they embarrass you in front of other

unit members?

- Do they take on extra duties to make

themselves look good at the expense of

the team?

- Do they give you information in a timely

manner?

When we looked at people who rated

their leader as good or bad, there was a 10

fold difference in the rate of PTSD. Troops

who thought they had a good leader had a

rate of 0.5% in comparison to 5% for those

who thought theirs was bad.

*(Norman Jones, Rachel Seddon, Nicola T. Fear, Pete McAllister, Simon Wessely, and Neil Greenberg, 2012, Leadership, Cohesion, Morale, and the Mental Health of UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan)

‘INVESTING IN PEER SUPPORT IS IMPORTANT’

The British military developed the TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) which is a peer support

process, started in the Royal Marines and rolled out across the armed forces at first and now

other organisations as well. This is a way of not having to fly in a psychiatrist when someone

has had a problem. It focuses on training the people who are there to look after each other.

JONATHAN NAESS:

“When we talk about training and changing the culture of the organisation we identify the line manager as a key person to drive that change with the support of top management. I have also found that working with grassroots can help get to the top management straightaway.”

“The fact that helped me most

was talking to people who

were completely different,

my dad joined in too. The

feeling that I could be joined

up with family and workplace

helped me move forward”

‘THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO THE FIRST SESSIONS TOOK IT BACK TO THEIR WORKPLACES AND IT JUST GREW. IT IS INTERESTING TO SEE JUST HOW MUCH POWER GRASSROOTS CAN HAVE’

“We have got evidence from

FTSE 100 companies showing

that when you train people

across the organisation you can

achieve up to 15% reduction in sickness absence.”

We asked the attendees of this dinner event

Which topic should we discuss next?

Organisational Culture and Leadership that Enables Employee Wellbeing

4.57 Average

Employee Engagement in the Workplace

3.86 Average

Here is what they said:

Employee Wellbeing and Productivity

4.00 Average

Building a Workplace Wellbeing Agenda

4.43 Average

Continue with the discussion on Employee Resilience

3.57 Average

We asked the attendees of this dinner event

What did you think of the event?

Here is what they said:

“I thought that the format was just right, a nice relaxed environment, covering a very interesting topic and very knowledgeable expert presentation.”

“Very positive - relaxed but extremely informative and a good opportunity to share learning in small groups.”

“Useful - well structured and well paced. Nice balance between information, Q&A and discussions”

“Really well thought out, and I thought it worked well to have speakers followed by dinner”

“Fantastic - great atmosphere and good food.”

Health, Safety & Wellbeing Specialist

Health & Wellbeing Specialist

Workplace Health Consultant

Head of Health Management

Managing Director

Head of Workplace Mental Health

Senior HR Manager

Director

HR Manager

Protection, Health & Wellbeing Consultant

Associate Director: HR

Professor

Director

Senior Group Risk Consultant

Managing Director

Training Programme Manager

Commercial Development Manager

HR Director

Employee Benefits Director

HR Director

Founder

Group Risk Account Manager

Director & Founder

Director of Mind Matters Initiative

Head of Mental Health Promotion

JSL

American Express

Barnett Waddingham

Capita

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Connecting With People

De Beers

EOH Business Solutions

Fujitsu

Johnson Fleming

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

King’s College

KPMG

LEBC Corporate Healthcare Solutions

Maudsley Learning

Maudsley Learning

Mercer

MetLife

MetLife

News UK

ORRB Technology

PMI Health Group

PTHR

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

SLAM

ATTENDEES:

MetLife employee benefits is building on its strong base among small and medium

sized enterprises (SMEs), leveraging its global expertise to provide solutions for

multi-nationals. The parent company MetLife, Inc. is the number one employee

benefits provider in America covering nearly 40 million employees and their

dependants. MetLife is committed to:

• Delivering on our insurance promise

• Providing excellent service

• Listening to our customers

• Making a positive difference in our communities

Partnering with advisers and employee benefits consultants, MetLife provides

solutions to companies that help them manage the risks of illness, injury and

death during the working lives of their employees.

Contact us to find out more about how we can help with employee benefit solutions:

T: 0845 603 8899*

E: ebnewbusiness@metlife.uk.com

W: www.metlife.co.uk/atwork

* calls cost 5p per minute plus your provider’s access charge.

Why Mental Health Matters 2016- a conference for HR and wellbeing practitioners

3rd annual conference Thursday 28 January 2016

ORTUS learning and events centreLondon, SE5 8SN

Tickets are available: www.maudsleylearning.com/events

Leading Partner Technology Partner Exhibitor

Do you have knowledge and/or experience you would like to share?

For speaking opportunities please contact:Pratima Fransua

Conference Producer

pratima@maudsleylearning.com

Interested in delivering a similar event?

For partnership opportunities please contact:Vlada Penlington

Partnerships Manager

vlada@maudsleylearning.com

This conversation is only a start to another more in depth deliberation on employee mental health and wellbeing.

To register interest in attending one of our future events please contact Victor Voutov at victor@maudsleylearning.com

ORTUS learning and events centre

82 - 96 Grove Lane, London, SE5 8SN

Tel: 020 3701 1641

Twitter: @MaudsleyLearn

www.maudsleylearning.com

HEALTH . MIND . MATTERS