Supporting mental health in the workplace

When you hear the phrase ‘mental health’ how do you as a manager react?

Mental health can vary just like an individual's physical health. For many, mental ill-health can prove a short term blip in the same way as breaking an arm. For others, it can be much longer term with severe, debilitating consequences. It is estimated that nearly three in every ten employees will experience a mental health problem in any one year, according to the Mental Health Foundation (MHF). It warns that the recent and dramatic rise in Britain'€™s working hours suggests this is likely to increase.

According to the MHF, "The pressure of an increasingly demanding work culture in the UK is perhaps the biggest and most pressing challenge to the mental health of the general population. The cumulative effect of increased working hours is having an important effect on the lifestyle of a huge number of people, which is likely to prove damaging to their mental well-being."

The MHF's campaign highlights that work related stress costs Britain 10.4 million working days per year. There is also the human cost of unmanaged work related stress. It reports that 13% of the UK working population work 49 hours or more per week. The MHF recommends that a healthy work-life balance is a key way to protect your mental health against the potential detrimental effects of work related stress.

How can my organisation support managers and staff?

Guidance and training to support employers and managers is available through professional institutes and a range of organisations.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) offers briefings and insights to help managers improve awareness of the mental health and well-being of their staff.
Chartered Management Institute's Management Direct resource library

ACAS and the NHS have teamed up to offer a training package and guidance to encourage positive mental health at work.
ACAS' Advice and Guidance on Mental Health

The charity MIND offers advice and workplace training as do many other providers.

Workplace mental health well-being programmes, such as those offered by the charities MIND and Business in the Community, are becoming more commonly used by employers. The programmes can also enhance the attractiveness of the organisation as an employer.

MIND - Workplace Wellbeing
Business in the Community Workwell Model

What's your workplace approach?

How does your organisation support mental health in the workplace? If you are manager in the region and could suggest or write about additional resources, contact Jo Strain, CMI Southern Region lead for Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace.

Could your workplace run an initiative or raise awareness during the annual World Mental Health Day or Mental Health Awareness Week?

World Mental Health Day - 10 October

The campaign organisers aim "every year on World Mental Health Day to get the nation talking about mental health, which is one of the best things you can do to look after your mental health."
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/world-mental-health-day
You can follow the campaign on Twitter by following #WMHD16

Exploring how we use time

In autumn 2016, the Mental Health Foundation is exploring the theme of time and how the use of time can profoundly impact on the quality of an individual's mental health. It will be working with a number of organisations to highlight the importance of 'being mindful and taking time out of our busy lives to focus on our own wellbeing.'

Work life balance, Mental Health Foundation

The next Mental Health Awareness Week will be from 8-14 May 2017.

Further reading

These are just some of the resources and articles available online.

(1) MIND http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/

Four ways to improve the mental health of your staff - CMI Insights article (August 2016)

'How not to discriminate - what every manager needs to know' - CMI Insights article (May 2016)

'Managers struggle in always on work culture' - CMI Insights article (January 2016)

Call for mental health first aid - CMI Insights article (2015)

'Bosses are ignoring staff with mental health issues' - CMI Insights article (November 2014)

Article authors: Jo Strain, CMI Southern Region lead for Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace, and Abha Thakor. Thank you to the Mental Health Foundation for materials about its Work-Life Balance campaign.

What IP myths have you heard?

Intellectual Property Myths   

Think you know about intellectual property (IP) rights? Here’s the top 5 myths I hear all the time, writes Jo Strain, CMI Southern Board member.

Myth 1

"If I pay for something to be created, I own the intellectual property and can use it however I wish."

You don’t and you can’t – unless you negotiated this upfront. This is a very common misunderstanding I hear from companies who have commissioned all manner of items from the design of a new widget or a painting to marketing materials and software.

Myth 2

"If it’s on the internet then it’s in the public domain and anyone can use it."

Not unless it explicitly says so and you follow the terms of use stated. 
 

Myth 3

"If I copy something and change it, I own the IP."
   
Nope. Technology enables individuals and organisations to spot and prove bootlegging / imitation easily. Comparison tools in Microsoft Office make it child’s play to see the commonality and differences in written items. I have worked for organisations who have specialised technology to reverse engineer software and hardware products to establish the degree of commonality in the design and construction of the company and others products. Exam boards have highly effective software that spots plagiarism. Ditto organisations who own music rights etc.
  
If the intellectual property is an individual or organisations livelihood or part of their reputation they are likely to fight to protect it.

Myth 4

"Why bother protecting Intellectual Property?" 

To stop other organisations copying your idea and doing it better, and potentially to create a new income stream from licensing your intellectual property. This can be seriously lucrative - IBM made $682m revenue from IP in 2015. *

* IBM Annual Report 2015

Myth 5

"Does it matter?"

Infringement of IP may be a criminal as well as civil law offence. Fines can be up to £50,000 and custodial sentences upto 10 years. The associated reputational damage can be devastating for an organisation.

What IP myths have you heard?

Join our discussion on CMI Southern LinkedIn or email us.

Want to know more about IP?  CMI Southern, CIPR Local Public Services and the UK Intellectural Property Office will be running a webinar later this year on this subject.

Send us your questions for the webinar

These are some of the questions we have received. Send us your questions for our webinar speakers.

 

• What kind of intellectual property can be protected?
• What's the difference between a copyright, trademark and patent? 
• What sort of protection do they provide?
• How long does it take to protect a piece of intellectual property?
• How much do they cost?
• Do I automatically own the copyright or patent associated with something I commission e.g. if I pay an organisation to write a piece of software, do I automatically own the copyright of the software because I paid for it to be created? 
• What are the key benefits of protecting IP?
• Is IP ownership enforceable at a reasonable cost?
• What does the UK IPO office do? 
• Where can I get help? 

3 October 2016 Leadership event, Bournemouth

3 October 2016 Leadership event, Bournemouth

Please note the link on the earlier version of this blog is currently not working, please use the event link below for any booking.

http://www.managers.org.uk/events-and-courses/2016/october/the-four-leadership-challenges-facing-managers-today

Join us on 3 October 2016 for this CPD event to learn how leaders face the key challenges facing them in today's workplace. This event, to be held in the evening in Bournemouth, is part of a series of events developed by the Chartered Management Institute's Southern Region to help support managers and leaders in the area. CMI members are able to take advantage of discounted tickets.


We are grateful that leadership speaker Steve Barker has agreed to present this event for the region and share his expertise. He said: "The real challenge for today’s business leaders is to find the time to master and control the sail when too many things seem to be conspiring to blow you off course and on to the rocks!
"Over the years I have found that at the very core of successful individuals is the sheer passion to learn, develop, take risks and grow. It is my view that what really differentiates the successful is the determination to remove the ‘blockers to success’. They don’t just talk about IT they DO IT. And this applies particularly to their drive to ensure they are fully prepared for whatever it takes to achieve success.

He added: "For more than twenty years I have been working side by side with business leaders and helping them to take control, build on success AND create time to live their life."

The Four Challenges of Leadership

Steve Barker writes: "As Britain faces the greatest economic and social challenge of the last 100 years there is no doubt that business leaders are in for a hard ride. However the one constant is that our economic wellbeing will depend heavily on small businesses and entrepreneurs. As usual it will be down to them to continue to create jobs and prosperity for the vast majority of our working population.

"It’s fair to say that these business leaders really should have help available to them. And it's fair to say that, when it comes to being a leader, most of them will shout “where is this help – knowledge, experiences, emotional and practical help!” Our recent leadership survey found many directors feel isolated and lonely.

"With all the books, research, wisdom, advice and examples of greatness available why does every leader we have worked with in the last 25 years find the role challenging, demanding and occasionally (seemingly) impossible?

"We believe that four of the real challenges of leadership are not about business strategy, investment, product development or profit margin and the like. The ‘looking in the mirror’ challenges are about ‘me as a leader’
"The four challenges we constantly hear are:
• who can I talk to that does not have their own agenda for my business?
• how do I address the feeling of isolation and loneliness?
• where can I ‘safely’ express vulnerability?
• where do I get advice from ‘wise’ people who have faced similar issues? "

If you are interested in this area of management and leadership, but are unable to attend this event, please contact us with your name, email address and whether you are a CMI member, and we will arrange for you to be included in an advance mailing list for future events on this theme. Your details will only be used by the Region for this purpose.

Management learning opportunities this term

Republished 9/2016   As we head deep into summer many of us will be taking a well-earned break. These moments offer the opportunity to catch up with friends and family, that book we have been meaning to read, and to reflect on what is important to us and where we are headed.   It is also a good time to consider which skill or experience you would want to develop to help you achieve your goals. CMI offers you a wide range of opportunities to develop your skills and experience. For example our webinar programme includes Shared Parental Leave on 8 September 2016,  Courageous Conversations on 21 September 2016  and for our Consulting members in particular, Specialisation secrets & value propositions on 13 October 2016. For more personal development how about joining CMI mentoring programme as a mentor or mentee? Or volunteering to support your local CMI Southern team? We are always looking for additional volunteers with all level of management experience and skills to help support CMI members in the region. Contact us via email to discuss opportunities. We would like to hear your views, do join the conversation on our blogs or get in touch via email.

Speak up against discrimination in the workplace

Don't we all think that discrimination is something that other people suffer from but not us? You will be aware, of course, of the better known areas of discrimination: race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and the lesser known: creed, origin, source of income (in some US states and Canadian Provinces), culture, physical appearance.

But the most common form of discrimination in the UK is ... accent! Do you know when you might have been discriminating against because of the way you spoke? Was that just bad service the other day or was it because you sound ‘posh’ or ‘northern’? Why didn’t you get that job/promotion/course? We often don’t realise when we are being discriminated against. 

We probably do notice or hear about it when someone else is suffering though! That’s why it is important to speak up when we see any discrimination. Edmund Burke reminds us: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing." 

I used to say to Canadians, during my two years military service there, that we didn’t have Human Rights in the UK (pre-2000) we instead had good-manners and common sense! They were impressed but I was naïve! How is it good manners to pay women an average of 84% of what men are paid – despite a law against it for nearly 50 years. Common sense to not have sensible representation on Company Boards: ‘pale, male and stale’ is the cry and not so long ago a major national company whose products are aimed at women was recently derided for only having one woman on the Board, and this was in a non-executive director role.

So let’s work on that common sense and good manners – speak-up when you see what you even think is discrimination.

Blog by David Sullivan, CMI Southern Board Chair

Information on the Gender Pay Gap

Mind the Pay Gap, CMI campaign 2015

Gender Salary Reporting, a downloadable guide on the CMI website

Join the discussion on Twitter @cmi_managers using the hashtag #mindthepaygap

Do you care or want to care?

Over the next few years, it’s anticipated that 60% of working age people will have a ‘caring’ dependency. What does that mean? Caring could involve a child with a disability, a partner who had a stroke last night, an elderly parent, a neighbour or a relative with Dementia. When do you help? The caring could be 24/7, just at weekends or Tuesday afternoons. All kicking off within a timescale that’s now, tomorrow or the future. 

Can you plan for this? Perhaps. 

Will it change you as a person? Maybe not. 

What about your work, your source of income? What about your capacity or capability to maintain your job? Is that going to be a problem? 

Do you tell anyone? “It shouldn’t be a problem these days?” Can you cope and continue ‘business as usual’, afraid to speak up in case you’re side-lined or seen to be ‘different’. Sound familiar?

As managers, can we identify team members with these responsibilities or the support they need? “But it’s their problem!” or “I wouldn’t want to employ someone with those issues” …really?

So what if the carer is you? Tell us how you would want your organisation to respond. Send us your thoughts on the CMI Southern LinkedIn Group.

Blog by Simon Howlett, CMI Southern Inclusion working group

Get help

Why is supporting working carers so important? (Carers UK resource)

If you are looking for practical ideas book for the webinar on diversity and inclusion in the workplace on Mon 6/6/2016, 6.30pm to 7.30pm. It will explore how your organisation can better support the growing proportion of the workforce with an impairment, disability or caring responsibilities.

Join us for practical advice to help you take the next steps and gain one hour CPD.

One-tenth of a second

As a manager do you dress for work without hesitation? Or do you consider how your appearance influences the perception and reactions of others? Or how the way you dress might influence you? A few weeks ago, someone challenged me. “Do people really care what people wear these days? Surely managers can see beyond a person’s appearance and focus on the individual’s knowledge, skills and achievements.” Well, yes and no.

Performance-based management should focus managers and employees on achievements, not effort. As long as an individual is delivering against their objectives, relationships with customers and colleagues are good, and their approach is legal, everything else should be unimportant.

Unfortunately numerous psychology studies demonstrate we judge each other very rapidly based on appearance. In one-tenth of a second. Or less. Longer exposures don’t significantly alter these first impressions (although they may boost confidence in your initial judgments).

Professor Karen Pine’s research and associated book from 2014 suggests that what you wear can boost or lower your self-esteem *. Not only that, the clothes we wear can influence the way we think.  Research teams from California State University, Northridge and Columbia University in 2015** found that “the formality of clothing might not only influence the way others perceive a person, and how people perceive themselves, but could influence decision making in important ways through its influence on [cognitive] processing style”. These preliminary findings have extraordinary implications. Processing style can influence many important factors in the workplace, from the way people approach decisions to the way people focus on a task.

The industry you work in, the culture of your organisation, the nature of your job, specific activities coupled with your personality, figure and personal style all influence your choice of dress.

Blog by Jo Strain, Women in Management Lead for CMI Southern Region

Update (19/5/2016)

At CMI Southern 'Dressing with Confidence' event 19 May 2016, Linda MacDonald, formerly Dressmaking and Promotions Co-ordinator for McCall, Butterick and Vogue Paper Patterns, explained the basics of figure types, garment shapes, lines and styles, and looked at the options for what to wear when based on the scenarios that managers may encounter. 

 

There is no right or wrong way to dress. The event gave insights for developing your own style of confident dressing.

Tips for what to wear for media or corporate videos were also featured as part of the event.

 

External links

Dressing with confidence in the fight for the vote - Dr Maureen Wright's blog on the use of dress by prominent suffrage leaders
 

Sources

* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2644076/You-DRESS-Clothing-significant-effect-self-esteem-confidence-claims-expert.html

** http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/minds-business/when-clothing-style-influences-cognitive-style.html