Transcript - Introduction

Welcome to this interactive training CD, which will guide you through the process of creating and maintaining a mentally healthy work-place and inform you of the business benefits of doing so. Many businesses and organisations might wonder how relevant or important a mentally healthy work-place is for them. A common question will be "What's in it for me?" - well the benefits for your organisation will be improved productivity and profitability. You can also expect reduced absenteeism and staffing costs. On the other hand, the cost of taking no action could be considerable. Work-places that are not mentally healthy are likely to suffer from higher rates of sickness absence, staff turnover and poor performance. Research suggests that people affected by mental health problems that are caused by, or made worse by their work may take on average almost 6 weeks sick leave over a 12 month period - so it pays to take good care of your employee's mental well-being.

John Rosey: Hello, my name's John Rosey, I'm the managing director of a small media production company - we've been established about 20 years and I like to think we're fairly successful so when somebody asked us to review this CD-ROM, I did think "What's mental well-being got to do with my business?". I have a small staff, I think I know them all individually pretty well so when people ask me things like "Do you have a mental health policy?" or "How do I address mental well-being in management?", I kinda think it's all a bit hairy-fairy, but as a business man, I don't want to miss an opportunity to improve my business or perhaps improve the performance of the staff so I thought I'd better speak to some people who perhaps know a little bit more about it before I make a snap decision.

John Rosey (with John Hobson): Why is positive mental wellbeing important to me as a manager?
John Hobson: The first reason is productivity and just happiness in your work-place - it makes such a difference to how an organisation functions at every level really: turnover, absenteeism, profitability. I think the culture of your organisation is very important if you foster a positive and caring culture and your employees feel that they're listened to and understood and they're valued then those are probably the most important things and I think the organisatinos which have good cultures and strong management systems don't tend to have problems with stress and mental health problems.
John Rosey: How can I do something? What can I do?
John Hobson: Well, there is a legal requirement to do something, you have to do a risk assessment now for mental health problems in the work-place as for any physical hazard or any other hazard your employees might be exposed to so you have to do something, even if it's a sheet of paper to say you've thought about the risks and what they might cause in terms of problems to your work-force. I think going through the process of a risk assessment if you follow the steps is often quite productive and is a positive thing in itself in that you have to involve your employees, talk to them about what they see as being a risk and they will find that that is a step to having a positive culture, so it's worth doing. But if something did go wrong and an employee became disenchanted and took you to court and you hadn't done a risk assessment you wouldn't really have a leg to stand on. And again, it's for you to judge that risk so you need a risk assessment of the risk assessment but legally you are meant to do a risk assessment on all hazards in the work-place that your employees might be exposed to and that includes mental health problems now.

Neil Hursthouse (with John Rosey): A lot of business tend to have a little bit of tunnel vision. I think they tend to believe that by forcing people to improve they actually are going to get the best out of them, when in fact you can treat that with a bit of reverse psychology. It's more important to develop relationships with people where they will voluntarily give you their all because they trust you, they respect you, they understand you and I think that more and more the demands of the corporate world now-a-days means that it's profit at any cost and I think a lot of businesses are suffering from that and I think a lot of businesses are recognising now that there's a real need for a new way of managing and leading people and a new level of understanding. It's a competitive market out there, it's a jungle out there, there are a lot of tigers out there who are willing to bite your ankles if you don't shape up quick enough and I think the perception of people who suffer with mental health problems is that we're going to be treating them and sort out their mental issues or their health issues and it's going to take too much time and we can't afford the time to do it. Where-as actually, if you're able to afford the time, you might very well find that you've got a really effective individual, somebody who's quite talented and who's commited and you might be saving yourself a great deal of money on the recruitment side.
John Rosey: I was going to say, do you think somebody who has had experience of that, that they actually may be a benefit because of their experience, because of their background?
Neil Hursthouse: Absolutely; there is a lot of talent out there, and lot of people with mental health issues have got an awful lot to give in terms of their capability and their experience and I think if we just gave people that little bit more time and more consideration and more of an effort to help them, you might you've got a bit of a goldmine on your hands.

John Rosey: I think there is something definitely to this - running a business is not easy, I think I look after the staff pretty well and I suppose it makes sense if they're happy, then I'm happy and the business is running smoothly. If someone's off sick, the fact of the matter is that it costs me, it costs the business and puts everybody else under pressure so I suppose if there's something that I can do that makes people more positive, it can't be a bad thing. I think running a business is a good feeling, running a successful business is a good feeling so how's your business feeling?

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