In the latest episode of HR in Review, Richard Lucas tells Bill Banham how HR leaders can get better at identifying employees who need support.
Richard, CEO and co-founder at Govox, outlines that HR plays a pivotal role within the wellbeing sphere, because they are the people-champions and they understand the culture there.
What regularly prevents employees from seeking support?
Richard outlines that the ability of people to feel comfortable and seek support is really important.
At one end of the scale, there are very toxic organisations out there. When people have worked in toxic organisations, they are concerned to let others know that they are struggling. This may be, for example, if there was a restructuring, they would then be concerned that they would not make the cut if someone knows they have a mental or wellbeing issue.
As a society, we talk about happiness, engagement and fulfilment. Rarely do we speak of suicide, mental health and unhappiness, says Richard. As a result, there is a lot of work for organisations to do to get the culture right.
“THERE IS ALSO WORK TO BE DONE WIDELY, TO ENSURE INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT AFRAID OF SEEKING HELP WHEN THEY’VE HAD A BAD WEEK, OR ARE FEELING MENTALLY LOW.”
– Richard Lucas
The question should be, why should talking about mental health be any different than talking about a broken leg?
What sort of changes has the workplace wellbeing space seen over the past few years?
At the very start of the pandemic, there was an explosion of wellbeing apps and wellbeing training. The fact that organisations were bringing in tools to support people was brilliant.
However, very quickly it was evident that organisations needed programs to ensure that those tools were understood, accessible and actually utilised.
“A LOT OF THE UTILISATION RATES OF THOSE TOOLS PROVIDED IN EARLY-PANDEMIC WERE REALLY QUITE LOW. ORGANISATIONS WOULDN’T GET A GREAT TURN ON INVESTMENT ON THAT TYPE OF ENGAGEMENT.”
– Richard Lucas
To take a deep dive into workplace wellbeing, click here to listen to the full episode.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
