Why a new approach to workplace mental health is needed for 2023

Every employee has a right to feel their health and wellbeing is being looked after while they are working. In sectors such as the drainage industry, which involve a lot of manual work and heavy machinery, this discussion often focuses on physical safety - but it is equally important that employers are looking after workers’ mental health.

In the past, workplace mental wellbeing has not always received the attention it deserves, but with mental health becoming a more widely discussed topic since the pandemic, things are changing. Now, forward-thinking employers such as Lanes Group are looking to push this conversation onwards by highlighting the need for new and improved approaches to workplace mental wellness in 2023 and beyond.

Here, Alana Warburton-Whitehead - Lanes Group’s in-house wellbeing lead, national instructor, trainer and coach - explains why mental health at work is such an important topic for businesses in the utilities sector and beyond, and highlights the steps that Lanes is taking to support the mental wellbeing of our team.

Why businesses need fresh action on mental health at work

Mental health has always been an important topic within the workplace, but there is no doubt that it has become more widely discussed in recent years than ever before. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 15% of working-age adults were estimated to have a mental disorder as of 2019. Overall, it is estimated that 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly $1 trillion.

There are many reasons why staff might experience stress, anxiety or poor mental health as a result of their experiences in the workplace. Below are some of the most common causes of work-related stress:

• Excessive workloads

• High-pressure environments

• Workers’ dissatisfaction with their performance or the performance of others

• A lack of managerial support

• Bad relationships with managers and colleagues

• Overlong working hours

• Uncertainty and upheaval in the workplace

• Violence, threats or intimidation in the workplace

Research carried out for Lanes Group’s 2019 whitepaper, “The Current State Of Mental Wellbeing In UK Workplaces”, offered further evidence of these trends, with 80% of respondents to our poll saying they are required to work outside of their contracted hours, 22% saying they have had to take time off work due to stress during their careers, and 27% saying they do not feel able to speak to their manager about mental health issues.

As high as some of these figures are, these trends are likely to have gotten worse in the last couple of years. The WHO estimates that COVID-19 triggered a 25% increase in general anxiety and depression worldwide, with workers across all industries experiencing considerable stress, upheaval and uncertainty during the lockdowns, whether due to the risk of losing their jobs or the pressures of working from home in relative isolation.

Since then, sources of stress outside of work have worsened for many people, from the cost of living crisis and the threat of a lengthy recession to broader anxieties about the war in Ukraine and the climate emergency. All of this has driven mental health to the forefront of conversations about how companies can better support their workforce - and it is every employer’s responsibility to be part of the solution.

What Lanes Group is doing to better support our staff

At Lanes, we recognise the importance of providing sensitive, tailored and proactive mental wellbeing support for our diverse, multidisciplinary workforce. We employ more than 2,200 people across the UK, from drainage engineers and groundworkers to office-based staff, and we understand the value of supporting each staff member as an individual with their own needs.

Accomplishing this requires a thoughtful approach. In male-dominated environments such as the utilities sector, people may be less willing to communicate about mental health - although this is getting better - while staff members in more entry-level roles tend to feel their stresses more acutely. However, we find that, in general, most employees are worried about the same sorts of subject, which enables us to more easily address these areas of concern.

Here are just some of the measures we provide to support the mental wellbeing of the Lanes workforce:

• We have a number of wellness resources available to staff, including the Perkbox rewards platform and a physiotherapy service.

• We offer an award-winning happiness app through Lanes Utilities, which gives staff the chance to report on how happy they feel at the start of every shift. As Lanes’ wellbeing lead, I review the app reports daily and reach out to any employees who have expressed dissatisfaction or unhappiness, to see if they want to talk.

• I make myself available to all staff if they need to talk at any time, whether this is in person or through text or WhatsApp. By making staff members aware of my office hours and on-site availability, I encourage them to get in touch when they need help.

• We offer a series of mental health training modules for staff, and various events designed to help generate conversations and break down barriers around mental health. This includes a winter wellbeing day, a mental health first aid course, and regular awareness sessions and coffee break talks on a wide range of topics.

In order to better address the growing mental health challenges workers are facing, Lanes Group will launch a brand new wellbeing strategy in 2023. It is designed to help all staff across the organisation, including engineers, drivers, groundworkers, office staff and everybody else. As part of this, we are looking to actively engage staff and initiate conversations about how they are feeling, what they want from our resources, and how we can support them better.

We recognise that the key to better mental health support in the workplace is through meaningful action, not just tickbox exercises. Businesses need to lead by example with an inclusive culture that is real, tangible and guided by the individual needs of their workers. They also need to invest in training in mental health awareness for all their staff, teaching people to be accountable for themselves and confident enough to open up and show vulnerability when they need help.

If every employer can follow these principles, workers around the country will have the space to feel seen and supported, and recognise that they are not alone. In doing so, they can give others confidence to feel the same.

Find out more

If you want to learn more from Lanes Group about how companies like ours are working to improve mental health in the workplace, take a look at the following guides and resources:

• Our 2019 whitepaper “The Current State Of Mental Wellbeing In UK Workplaces”, detailing our original research into the main causes of work-related stress, the industries worst affected, and what can be done to support staff more effectively

• How to talk about mental health in the workplace

• Avoiding burnout at work

• Managing the signs and causes of stress at work

• How to manage anxiety at work

If you’d like to find out more about what it’s like to work at Lanes Group, take a look at our information on working for us and our staff stories.

To see the vacancies we currently have available, you can explore our jobs today.