We Must Change the Narrative

Author: Stuart Mace, Occupational Health and Wellbeing Lead, Skanska

Last month (October 2024) saw the government unveil their Employment Bill of Rights, citing it as the “biggest upgrade in employment rights in a generation” to “support the government’s mission to increase productivity and create the right conditions for long-term sustainable, inclusive and secure economic growth”. With 2025 to see a year of consultation and the bill to take effect in 2026, much of the content is creating a fairer deal for employees and is a creditable start…but does the bill really tackle core issues that are impacting employees’ productivity and sustainability?
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As the COVID pandemic took hold, we saw organisations grabbing at the mental health first aid - EAP - individualised support straw which has unravelled due to initiatives not being fit for purpose. More recently, we seem to be stuck in a chamber echoing that we are to bring our whole selves to work, our leaders need to be vulnerable and psychological safety will make the world of work kinder and more empathetic. None of which confront the reasons why such distracting rhetoric and virtual signalling is happening in the first place.

Now, let’s be clear, there are wellbeing initiatives that are worthy of implementation and can have a positive impact on work, should the data support the reasons for introducing, despite what Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre may tell us.
But there is a flip side.

In the industry I am currently working in – the construction industry – the emphasis on risk and keeping people safe is paramount. A lot of time, effort and resources are spent to prevent harm, incidents and accidents from happening. The loss of health is more imperative than trying to improve it…and let’s remember, these are different.

And this is where the narrative must change. We have to stop trying to make things better without paying attention to what is making things worse…and in many organisations, this is not managing psychosocial hazards.
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Psychosocial hazards are things that can be perceived to cause harm to mental health. These hazards can create stress, which can cause psychological and/or physical harm. Stress itself is not an injury, but if workers are stressed often, over a long period of time, or the level of stress is high, it can cause harm.

To help identify psychosocial hazards, a few frameworks* have been developed and cover work factors such as: Demands, control, support, harmful behaviour, change, role and development, physical environment and organisational justice.
If left unmanaged, they can and usually do, cause havoc in an organisation being reflected by absenteeism, dysfunctional and overachieving presenteeism, grievances, attrition and underperformance.
 
We will see if the Employment Bill of Rights will be amended over the consultation period, let’s hope they remain as favourable to employees. One notable absentee from the bill, however, is the ‘right to disconnect’…which, in my opinion, aims to tackle a symptom of unmanaged psychosocial hazards and not root cause.

(Please note, the views expressed are my own and are not that of my employer)

* Factors align to ISO45003, HSE Management Standards, WHO PRIMA-EF, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and SafeWork Code of Practice