Francoise: This time to talk day is a perfect opportunity to have
an open and honest conversation about mental health in the
workplace. Ask yourself, What are you doing to support staff
with their mental well being? At Acas we have a framework for
promoting positive mental health in the workplace. And it looks
at the role of the organisation, the manager, and the individual.
All three have an integral part to supporting the mental well
being of your staff. It can be really difficult to know where
to start to support the mental health of your staff, especially
if you're a small business with limited resources, it can
actually be quite daunting. Our framework and our advice can
help you look at the steps that you can take to make mental
health and well being an integral part of everyday
working life. We've been working with key partners stakeholders,
to try and understand what the issues are for mental health for
small businesses at this time. We want to make sure that we can
do everything we can to support small businesses.
Ian MacArthur: The Acas framework is also of great value
to SMEs providing employers and managers and employees with
insights on how to develop people centric approaches that
build rapport and confidence. The confidence needed to deal
with what can sometimes be really difficult conversations
in the workplace.
Audrey Williams: So what can managers do now? Well, remain
alert, have open conversations. Know your staff, be willing to
ask about mental health issues, but also personal issues. The
Acas house framework encourages managers to build rapport with
their staff for this reason, and it recognises the need to
support work life balance for mental health benefits. Often an
individual might need a temporary arrangement, perhaps a
later start time, modified objectives or targets or a
phased return, particularly if they've been absent from the
workplace.
Becci Martin: The Acas framework is incredibly helpful. It really
connects with what we're about, it connects with how we lead,
and it helps us in a really straightforward way to ensure
that we're doing what we can not only for our team, but also when
our team are well and they're healthy, and how that has a
really positive impact on our colleagues and our customers
across all the services that we support. If we don't put mental
health front and centre for SMEs, and for leaders of those
organisations, then we're not going to have a thriving SME
community. And we're not going to be able to contribute as well
as we'd like to, to the communities that we serve as
well. So I fully support that the Acas campaign,
Chris Mairs: The most important thing is to build positive
relationships, positive, trusting relationships with your
team, making sure that you have that kind of dialogue and making
sure that you can kind of speak to each other on a trusting and
honest and open basis. We're not here to judge. We're not here to
decide on whether it's right or wrong. We're here to listen,
we're here to support, we don't realise sometimes the impact
that personal issues can have on individuals, and how those
affect us in our working lives. It's really, really important
that we make sure that we're spending the time with people to
listen and support them through what can be very, very difficult
times for people.
Gina Tomlinson: But if there is things that are going on, either
in the workplace or at home, that's impacting on, on people's
well being and on their productivity and work, that
you've created that environment where your employees think they
can come and tell you about that, and that you won't be
judged. And that, you know, you want to get the support that you
need to, you know, get yourself back into a better place.
Zack Grimes: Leaders who can be open and share their experiences
on how they deal and look after their own health and well being
can really set a good example for us to follow and challenge
those stigmas that we all face.
Francoise: It's time to talk but it's also time to act. For more
information on how please go to our website www.acas.org.uk. And
please look out for blogs from our key partners who are sharing
tips and advice on how they support mental health and well
being in their workplace.