How to deal with health crises in the workplace

From paid lock­down leave to encour­ag­ing set lunch breaks and even meet­ing-free days, cor­po­rate well­be­ing poli­cies are receiv­ing more atten­tion than ever, with the image of the ide­al employ­er sig­nif­i­cant­ly remod­elled over the course of the pan­dem­ic. 

While the wide­spread effects of Long COVID are prompt­ing calls for greater employ­ee sup­port, address­ing oth­er sit­u­a­tions that can cause dis­rup­tions to work, such as grief and menopause, are see­ing empa­thet­ic employ­ers step up. Here we spot­light com­pa­nies remov­ing the stig­ma around need­ing help.

Dealing with grief

Tech giant Siemens has received more than 600 for­mal requests for com­pas­sion­ate leave in the past 12 months. This is part of the rea­son why it has joined a coali­tion of MPs, char­i­ties and busi­ness lead­ers call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to intro­duce a min­i­mum two weeks’ paid bereave­ment leave fol­low­ing the death of a close rel­a­tive or part­ner, in light of the mount­ing coro­n­avirus death toll.

“We believe in com­pas­sion and dis­cre­tion on this issue and encour­age a sup­port­ive and relaxed view on this. Our approach has enabled our peo­ple to ‘bring their whole selves to work’, know­ing that, as an employ­er, we care about them. This has had a pos­i­tive impact on the company’s goals, its rep­u­ta­tion and attrac­tive­ness as an employ­er,” says Valerie Todd, human resources direc­tor for Siemens.

The company’s pol­i­cy, which includes reg­u­lar man­age­r­i­al train­ing, has been in place for more than ten years. It offers five days’ paid leave as well as time off to attend the funer­al for fam­i­ly mem­bers, with fur­ther time grant­ed at a manager’s dis­cre­tion. It also offers two weeks parental bereave­ment leave for those who lose a child under 18 or suf­fer a still­birth after 24 weeks’ preg­nan­cy.

Its Employ­ment Assis­tance Pro­gramme offers free bereave­ment coun­selling for employ­ees, with inter­nal Men­tal Health First Aiders on hand, plus com­pa­ny-wide train­ing on men­tal health aware­ness, includ­ing a Well­be­ing Fes­ti­val. 

“Being explic­it about sup­port­ing your employ­ees dur­ing such peri­ods in their life and show­ing that, as an organ­i­sa­tion, it’s good to talk about what you’re going through when you lose some­one, will help our peo­ple cope bet­ter with their sad loss. It also enhances the sense of belong­ing and the long-term com­mit­ment to our com­pa­ny and its val­ues,” says Todd.

Support through menopause

Almost a third (30 per cent) of women expe­ri­enc­ing menopause say their symp­toms have wors­ened dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, accord­ing to The Menopause Hub. But 90 per cent of UK busi­ness­es don’t offer spe­cif­ic sup­port. Yet 59 per cent of work­ing women between 45 and 55 with symp­toms say it neg­a­tive­ly impacts them at work, accord­ing to the Char­tered Insti­tute of Per­son­nel and Devel­op­ment, whose insights show women over 50 are the fastest grow­ing work­force demo­graph­ic, while the aver­age age for menopause tran­si­tion is 51. 

With 13 per cent of its work­force women over 45, the launch of Chan­nel 4’s ded­i­cat­ed menopause pol­i­cy in 2019 has result­ed in 78 per cent of the TV channel’s staff feel­ing bet­ter about the com­pa­ny as a place to work, while 10 per cent of female employ­ees have used or plan to use the pol­i­cy. 

Launched on World Menopause Day with a pan­el event and employ­ee videos, it includes flex­i­ble work­ing, paid leave, qui­et work­spaces when in the office, aware­ness brief­in­gs to lead­er­ship teams and a Menopause Cham­pi­on, along­side its in-house gen­der equal­i­ty staff net­work 4Women. It recent­ly part­nered with Bupa Occu­pa­tion­al Health to intro­duce cov­er under a new Menopause Plan and made its menopause pol­i­cy pub­lic last year to inspire oth­er com­pa­nies to fol­low suit.

“What’s excit­ing is that pub­lish­ing the menopause pol­i­cy has meant oth­er organ­i­sa­tions and part­ners are keen to hear our expe­ri­ences and share theirs and, impor­tant­ly, are increas­ing aware­ness and shar­ing what has worked,” says Kirstin Furber, Chan­nel 4’s peo­ple direc­tor, who is also the exec­u­tive spon­sor of 4Women.

A key part of the process has been to embed the pol­i­cy in com­pa­ny cul­ture through reg­u­lar, open con­ver­sa­tions, while active­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing how employ­ees can access what they need. 4Women is now look­ing at oth­er health issues affect­ing women, start­ing with a staff sur­vey to bet­ter under­stand where to focus sup­port.

Understanding Long COVID

Flex­i­ble work­space provider Clock­wise has sup­port­ed around 10 per cent of its work­force with issues direct­ly relat­ed to COVID-19, with half expe­ri­enc­ing ongo­ing needs. Clock­wise is address­ing each case indi­vid­u­al­ly, enabling a bespoke approach through a com­bi­na­tion of com­pa­ny sick pay, flex­i­ble work­ing, and access to phys­i­cal and men­tal health sup­port. 

“Long COVID is a seri­ous con­cern; those who are expe­ri­enc­ing this ill­ness are in effect ‘patient zero’. It’s such a new ill­ness, with no clear path to recov­ery, so we’re mind­ful to work in col­lab­o­ra­tion with those suf­fer­ing with this ill­ness,” says the company’s chief oper­at­ing offi­cer Alexan­dra Brun­ner.

“We want our peo­ple to rebound from any chal­lenges, how­ev­er we must appre­ci­ate this may be a longer process and the route to recov­ery may not be direct. This can intrin­si­cal­ly lead to frus­tra­tion, so it’s cru­cial con­ver­sa­tions are ongo­ing and expec­ta­tions are man­aged flu­id­ly.”

Recog­nis­ing the emo­tion­al impact of such a debil­i­tat­ing, pro­longed decline in health is just as cru­cial as deal­ing with the phys­i­cal aspect, Brun­ner adds. All man­agers are there­fore pro­vid­ed with men­tal health first aid train­ing to take action pre-emp­tive­ly to avoid a fur­ther decline in a team member’s men­tal well­be­ing. 

But she notes it’s also impor­tant to under­stand instances when, as an employ­er, it’s not their place to solve an issue, but pro­vide access to pro­fes­sion­al help. 

“We are their employ­er and, while we might become trust­ed col­leagues and friends, we recog­nise we mustn’t act as par­ents or encour­age this with­in the team,” Brun­ner explains.