Create a plan

Depending on the size of your organisation and resources available, you may want to keep your action plan tightly focused, to deliver the maximum impact. The previous information-gathering stage is so important to understanding what matters most to your employees. Adopting a ‘you said, we did’ approach might help people buy in to the value of a wellbeing strategy.

Supporting colleagues with a mental health condition

Either through your research, or through having one-to-one conversations with staff, you might find that some colleagues require more tailored support, for example if they have a diagnosed mental health condition.

All employers have a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to provide reasonable adjustments for those who have a disability, which covers mental health.

Communicating to all colleagues how you can support people with reasonable adjustments, having clear policies and approachable managers can encourage people to come forward and disclose if they have any mental health concerns. Therefore, showing you can have the support and signposting in place is essential to developing a successful mental health strategy.

Identifying actions and goals

To help illustrate the plans you might make, we have created three case studies based on differing sizes of firm/organisation. Regardless of the size of your organisation, your actions will vary depending on the feedback you get from your colleagues. Some of the examples we used, were drawn from responses to our 2020 survey where members identified areas that they felt their own organisations should focus on.

Colleague feedback:

The organisation carried out an anonymised online survey and identified the following key issues:

  • A high proportion of people felt leadership wasn’t committed to wellbeing and they were paying lip-service to it, rather than delivering any meaningful support
  • Many people felt that they would not or had not chosen to disclose any mental health conditions, due to concerns about the reaction they would receive
  • Many people felt the organisation should be doing more to support staff wellbeing by delivering more opportunities to get involved and access support
  • High client expectations and pressure to meet unrealistic deadlines were noted as causing high levels of stress, in many cases to an unmanageable level

Actions:

  • The organisation introduced an Employee Assistance Programme, to offer tailored support to employees ondemand. They selected a service with a wide range of 1:1 support available for employees, from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to health and financial advice
  • A new process for assessing projects and casework was implemented, with a traffic-light code showing potential risk areas where challenges may arise, eg, insufficient people resources, tight deadlines, and pinch-points. These are then updated in consultation with staff, then used in leadership meetings to easily identify issues
  • The organisation decided to sign the Mindful Business Charter, with the goal of introducing a framework to work with clients on a more open basis to limit levels of unnecessary stress. Showing how the Charter had been adopted by teams and used in client meetings was also incorporated into Managers’ performance reviews, to boost uptake and engagement
  • The organisation trained Mental Health First Aiders at a ratio of 1:50 staff to support colleagues with an outlet for immediate support 
  • A staff wellbeing network was created, led by a senior level sponsor, to deliver wellbeing events and signpost support regularly throughout the year
  • Policies and procedures in relation to mental health support were redrafted in a more accessible format

Colleague feedback:

The firm conducted a survey with their staff and identified the following key issues:

  • Staff felt mental health and wellbeing weren’t actively considered and didn’t know what support would be available
  • People felt conversations between leadership/management and other colleagues were always focused on workload and outputs, never wellbeing
  • Managers broadly felt unequipped to have conversations about mental health

Actions:

  • One of the firm partners was nominated as the person responsible for taking wellbeing actions forward
  • A new process was built into scheduled catch ups between managers and their team members, whereby the first part of the meeting is dedicated to a friendly chat about personal lives and how someone is getting on, before turning to workload, to encourage openness and a culture of support
  • All managers had a series of training sessions focused on pastoral skills involved in supporting staff, to raise confidence and skills
  • A few colleagues volunteered to be ‘wellbeing reps’ and will organise an internal event every six months focused on wellbeing and will keep staff informed about LawCare support and Lawscot Wellbeing events

Colleague feedback:

The firm held informal conversations with team members rather than doing a survey due to its size and identified that:

  • People felt unwilling to disclose any mental health concerns
  • Two junior members of staff felt they were approaching burn-out
  • People felt a lot of workload pressure but no-one to share the load with, as each person had their own designated cases, and everyone was busy

Actions:

  • One of the firm partners was nominated as the person responsible for taking wellbeing actions forward
  • A new process was built into scheduled catch ups between managers and their team members, whereby the first part of the meeting is dedicated to a friendly chat about personal lives and how someone is getting on, before turning to workload, to encourage openness and a culture of support
  • All managers had a series of training sessions focused on pastoral skills involved in supporting staff, to raise confidence and skills
  • A few colleagues volunteered to be ‘wellbeing reps’ and will organise an internal event every six months focused on wellbeing and will keep staff informed about LawCare support and Lawscot Wellbeing events

Post-implementation

An effective wellbeing strategy only works if the initiatives are not just maintained but reviewed regularly. The more it is embedded, the more normalised it becomes, the greater the benefit to your colleagues – and your business.

It is hard to overstate the importance of evaluation to know what is working and what isn’t. It is critically important to regularly review progress.

A commitment to supporting wellbeing long-term in your organisation means revisiting your strategy, surveying your staff periodically (formally or informally), and updating your action plan as things develop.

Doing this will help sustain your wellbeing strategy within your organisation in the longer term and will help to generate good working practices and enhanced wellbeing for those who work there.

What about the clients?

Balancing wellbeing initiatives with client relationships and expectations can be a challenge.

The Mindful Business Charter was established between law firms and some of their major in-house clients, to encourage positive working practices to flow between those working either side of a transaction.

Many of the principles of the Charter are specific to legal transactions and client relationships and directly address the challenges that can exacerbate stress and other mental health issues at work. A small sample:

  • Discussing upfront with colleagues, clients and contacts their preferred method of communication and clarifying any relevant implications of an individual’s working patterns
  • Avoiding over-use of email and instant chat and avoiding copying people into messages that they don’t need to receive
  • When sending emails outside of business hours, being clear in the title whether it needs to be read / actioned promptly or considering sending pre-timed emails (so emails are not received late at night and at weekends)
  • When being instructed on a task, being confident to flag when a deadline is unrealistic and / or unachievable

Becoming a signatory to the Charter might not be right for your organisation, but it may provide inspiration for developing your own set of values or strategy that deals directly with unhealthy working practices More information is available here.