What tools and methodologies do you use in SCS Railways in order to gather the data needed to measure health and wellbeing? 

We measure the health and wellbeing of our staff using a number of sources and for a number of reasons, including profiling of the workforce, in order to ensure their specific needs are addressed and measuring the effectiveness of interventions. All workers are invited to complete a questionnaire regarding occupational and personal health risks, including associated lifestyle, on induction. Our aim is to enable individuals to improve their health score. Analytics from our Wellbeing Medicals and Wellpoint Kiosk give an overall picture of any trends and pinpoint areas of concern that need to be addressed through specific wellbeing events and/or programs. In order to measure the effectiveness of health and wellbeing interventions and ensure we are targeting areas of need we run an annual wellbeing survey.An ‘in the moment’, stand up poll is also held from time to time using Slido. Stats from our Employee Assistance Program and Sickness Absence figures provide further information/data.

What strategies do you need to have in place in order to ensure the wellbeing of employees at your company and keep the momentum going?

We have a Wellbeing Steering Group that is very collaborative including our Project Director, Head of Health and Wellbeing, Head of HR, Director of H&S, EDI and representatives from a number of departments. The Wellbeing Steering Group looks at the analysis of our health and wellbeing data to identify trends and have brainstorming/discussions about innovative initiatives to address these. The Wellbeing Steering Group sets the strategy in liaison with our Mental Health First Aiders, Health Champions, Social Committee and Comms team who help with roll out of events and monthly themes.

What is the right recipe for implementing a mental health programme?

There needs to be an organisational belief in the importance of mental wellbeing. This belief is shaped by the senior leadership team and sets the values and behaviours which represents the day to day culture of the organisation. A culture of openness, trust and support will ensure buy in for the program. It is especially important to have Line Manager buy in, (KPIs can be a way of achieving Line Manager buy in). As with any wellbeing program, a Mental Health Program should follow measurement of existing mental wellbeing in order to determine its effectiveness. Collaboration is key.

How do you think the new work-life trends affect wellbeing?

New work-life trends include an increased ‘blurring’ between home and work life as access to emails via laptops and phones means we can access  our work inbox anywhere at any time; albeit on the train, in a hotel or in our kitchen. This ‘hyperconnectivity’ can lead to people never switching off and having down time in which to rest and re energise. A very positive development to have arisen from the ability to connect with work from anywhere has been the move by many firms to adopt flexible working. Flexible working (or Agile working) is not just about working from home but more to move from measuring attendance to measuring output. This has been a real benefit for the health and wellbeing of staff and has been proven to increase performance. Flexible working helps to ensure that people have essential down time and are able to keep a healthy balance between home and work life.

What would you like to achieve by attending the Mental Health & Wellbeing: Impact on Business

I hope to learn from others experiences of wellbeing at work and to give people some ideas about how they could introduce a wellbeing strategy and program. Also to suggest some tools to help with this. If more businesses adopt wellbeing initiatives such as flexible working that would be a great achievement!