Recognising the signs of psychosocial health issues

How do you know when your business is impacted, or more importantly could be impacted in the future by psychosocial health and safety issues?

Do you recognise presenteeism when you see it? When an employee is absent, it becomes a lag indicator which has affected the business. Even then, many organisations do not recognise the impact unless there is a direct cost to the business. If there is a customer complaint or money is lost. However, in many roles lost time does not have an immediate obvious impact. The customer will accept a less than perfect service for a finite time, but if they reach a point where they don’t then a lost contract, or no repeat business, can be a significant cost to the business. A poor reference to potential clients can also be very damaging.

Employee consultation, through good leadership and effective use of Employee HSE Representatives feeding into a HSE Management Committee (comprising all senior leaders), can ensure that the warning signs are heard well before an issue is realised. Developing a culture of trust and openness to raise concerns is vital in todays businesses.

Managers who take an interest in knowing the wellbeing of the individuals in the team and creating an environment of trust which encourages consultation, collaboration and is absent of fear will reap the benefits of reduced absenteeism, presenteeism and the costs associated with attrition.

As a first step, Training managers in Mental Hearth First Aid is a miniscule cost when compared with a single work cover case which can amount to millions in extreme cases. It is also significantly less than the cost of replacing a stressed or disillusioned employee.