Secure leadership buy in

Having someone to champion the wellbeing agenda can be highly effective, especially in larger businesses where getting visibility and buy-in is important. In other workplaces, a committee or team might be best placed to take ownership.

All people managers need to be aligned to the same agenda, otherwise there is guaranteed to be inconsistency in wellbeing support across the organisation.

This can breed frustration among colleagues, as people don’t feel they are being treated fairly. Clarify expected behaviours and attitudes towards supporting wellbeing with managers. We strongly recommend people managers take part in training sessions, as skills in pastoral support don’t always come naturally and need to be developed, even with established managers.

We know members of staff take cues from how leaders behave, which is why you need to ensure a proactive approach comes from the top. Here are a few things managers could focus on:

• Creating a culture of openness with all staff by initiating wellbeing conversations
• Proactively helping teams to maintain a work/life balance and looking positively at flexible working requests
• Being respectful of holidays, weekends and evenings, for example by sharing when they need to leave the office to get to a parents’ evening, or openly switching off and handing over work before annual leave, to encourage staff to do the same
• Supporting events like Mental Health Awareness Week by attending sessions and encouraging others to attend
• Being clear about where to go when staff have wellbeing concerns, whether that’s via an ‘open door’ policy to speak to the manager, HR, LawCare or an Employee Assistance Programme
• Ensuring a clear and accessible support system is in place by having comprehensive policies, and that people are trained to deliver it
• Acting on employee feedback. This is one of the most important elements as it helps staff feel listened to and the culture of the organisation can grow and improve

Alongside adopting a managerled approach to set the tone, good colleague participation leads to wellbeing becoming firmly embedded in an organisation’s culture.

Developing a plan for regular communication will underpin staff engagement. Having regular emails, posts on an intranet, colleague conversations in-person or remotely, or providing information on a noticeboard (physical or digital) are all ways to communicate wellbeing support that is available. You might also want to share stories via blogs or articles or promote events for your staff team to attend.

There are a vast number of free events that relate to wellbeing and mental health that take place throughout the year, whether that is through Lawscot Wellbeing, LawCare or other providers. Many large law firms open events to external attendees. You can promote these events to your colleagues, or you may want to host events yourself. If you have a budget for wellbeing, the sky is the limit when it comes to hosting paid-for events, and you can explore any theme from digital wellbeing to offering Mental Health First Aid training.

Employers have a duty of care, which means they must do all they reasonably can to support their employees’ health, safety, and wellbeing.

There are also instances where a mental health condition may be considered a disability under the law (The Equality Act 2010), if all the following apply:

• it has a ‘substantial adverse effect’ on the life of an employee (for example, they regularly cannot focus on a task, or it takes them longer to do)
• it lasts at least 12 months, or is expected to
• it affects their ability to do their normal day-to-day activities (for example, interacting with people, following instructions, or keeping to set working times)

According to research, the total cost of poor mental health to UK employers has risen in recent years, calculated at £53- 56 billion between 2020-21.

Research also suggests investment in this area is money well spent, with an average £5 return for every £1 spent on wellbeing support.

You can use See Me’s cost calculator to get an instant estimate for how much mental ill health costs your business.

Some of the potential costs to the business:

• Higher sickness absence rates - around 10% of all sickness absences from work are due to a mental health reason. Feasibly, this could be higher due to individuals labelling their illness as something else, usually due to stigma
• Short-term illnesses can lead to longterm sick leave - if a formal support system is not in place, short-term ill-health could turn into a long-term condition, then a long-term absence
• People choose to leave - if poor mental health is caused or exacerbated by work, they may choose to leave the organisation if they feel nothing ever changes. For those who have mental health conditions that don’t relate to work itself, but aren’t getting any support, they may also choose to leave, as work and health become incompatible
• Lack of applicants and lack of diversity - the drawback of promoting or even appearing to be a tough workplace where only a select group of people feel they can succeed is that talented people can be turned off at the outset – from your business or even the sector more widely. This can lead to a lack of diversity of personalities and skills within your organisation, a lack of neurodiversity in your team members, including those who may have long-term mental health conditions
• Lack of productivity and motivation - increased levels of stress and anxiety, combined with a lack of support can lead to a drop in performance, which is not good for the individual or the business and can result in a vicious cycle
• Costs incurred in replacing staff - cost can be high when taking into account recruitment costs, training and reduced productivity

This is the reason we could describe as ‘we’re going to prioritise mental health because it’s the right thing to do’.

Our mental health, like our physical health, is just part of being human. We need to look after ourselves, and sometimes need to be able to access additional support.

Our 2020 research suggests that people working in the Scottish legal profession are likely to be affected by poor mental health. 61% of respondents told us that they have experienced mental health problems, 44% of which said this was while working in their current organisation.