Interview: what does wellbeing at work really mean?

We speak to Dr Chloe Schneider, Clinical Lead at the Keeping Well NWL Staff Support Service, about what wellbeing at work really encompasses.

Dr Chloe Schneider is a counselling psychologist by background, as well as an integrative psychotherapist and a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) therapist. She’s worked in the NHS for over 10 years, and over the past two years she’s led on setting up the North West London NHS England support hub for health and social care, set up in response to the pandemic.

She tells us that she’s a firm believer in the analogy that you’ve got to put on your own life jacket before you can start thinking about saving other people, which is why wellbeing for care workers is so important.

She discusses with us what wellbeing at work really means and shares insight on the NHS wellbeing framework.

How would you define wellbeing?

I would say it's just feeling well. At its basic, it's just feeling alright, feeling able, capable, motivated to do things you need to do.

I'm quite a fan of Maslow's hierarchy of needs; more of the theory of it rather than necessarily the actual different parts of the hierarchy as defined by Maslow. But think about there being the sort of pyramid of different needs that humans have and essentially we all have the same basic physical needs at the bottom; the need for food and water and warmth and clothing and safety. Then we have relationship needs and social needs to belong, and then the next one is a need for meaning or purpose.

I’m a believer that there's no point talking to people about their kind of meaning and purpose needs if they haven't got a roof over their head. So, I would use that hierarchy in terms of what is wellbeing. For me if you can feel that you've got a tick against all those different areas than the person's probably doing well.

Why is wellbeing important in the workplace?

There's a number of reasons really, we're spending a huge amount of our time at work. Many people spend more time with their work colleagues than they do with their own family, certainly more than they do with their friends. Your work relationships are often some of the primary relational figures in your life, so it’s important because these relationships will have a direct impact on how well and able you are.

From an organisational perspective, if you have a healthy and well workforce, they’ll be more productive and they're more likely to stay as well, and it has a knock on impact on patient care. So, there's a whole range of reasons and it also is just the moral and ethical right thing to do to care for the people that you employ.

Tell us about the NHS England ‘Health and wellbeing framework for staff’

The framework has identified seven different areas to consider when thinking about workplace wellbeing. They're not in any particular order, and no one has greater importance than another.

Relationships:

There's lots of evidence about how, if you have good quality relationships in your life, you live longer. You know you have happier lives and you have fewer mental health problems.

So, what does that mean when you translate it into the workplace? Firstly, it’s finding out whether staff experience bullying and harassment at work, and any complaints about diversity or equality or inclusion issues. That’s a marker of there not being great relationships in the workplace and these problems need to be prioritised.

Things to consider to support better relationships would be buddies and mentors, health and wellbeing champions, and whether managers or supervisors have been trained on how to hold supportive conversations and be compassionate. It's the time dedicated and set aside thinking about that.

It’s also much more basic stuff like is there team meetings where people get together and meet on a regular basis and who gets to put things on the agenda? Does the team socialise outside of work; is there somebody who maybe actually has that as part of their role?

Fulfilment:

This is thinking about what can inspire people and how can that be supported within the workplace. NHS England defines that as being things like bringing your whole self to work and celebrating the diversity of the workforce, enabling life balance, flexible work, helping people, making sure that people have a sense of purpose in their work, that people are able to fulfil their potential and that the workplace recognises the work that they do.

There's quite a lot of things just in those statements. You can see how they could be translated down into actions within a workplace in such a variety of ways. Like for example enabling life balance, does an organisation have good policies around flexible work? Thinking about helping support people fulfil their potential - is there continual professional development, is there career progression?

Bringing your whole self to work and celebrating diversity of workforce can be considered in a number of different ways. Are there diversity champions, are people encouraged to talk about themselves at work and is difference celebrated?

One other thing about fulfilment at work that I think is often ignored, is that you need to feel that your job is actually doable as well. Its hard to feel fulfilled at work if you don’t have the resources to do your job properly.

Managers and leaders:

Next is thinking about the role of managers and leaders and making sure that they consider health and wellbeing support as part of their role.

So that encompasses all things around the responsibilities of senior managers and what healthy leadership behaviours are and making sure that managers are all skilled up in how to manage other people in a compassionate, caring, and fair way.

That translates into do organisations have clear cultures? Are the managers and leaders role models? Do they prioritise staff experience of their managers and their compassionate leadership approach?

Environment:

That leads on nicely to the next element which is environment; the physical workspace and the facilities. This is some of the most basic stuff, but often it’s the stuff that when you ask staff what their difficulties or suggestions are, people will raise physical things such as having somewhere to sit and eat their lunch. If there isn't the space to go and have your lunch, then people don't, they just sit and work - and if they're not desk-based workers, then where are they having their lunch? Is the work environment fit for the work to take place within it?

Data insights:

And then the next element is around data insights. Absence, vacancy, turnover, all that quantitative data, but then there's also obviously qualitative data as well. Asking people for their feedback is really important and not making assumptions about what people may find useful within the workplace because that happens a lot, particularly in the arena of wellbeing.

Time and resources are limited, so really anything that happens should either have some sort of evidence base or be coming from the people themselves to make it more meaningful for staff.

Professional wellbeing support:

Making sure that staff can access professional wellbeing support, and thinking about that policy in relation to the organisation, whether that's being supportive of staff, making sure that services are easy to access, fit for purpose, that sort of thing.

This could also encompass empowering people to manage their own wellbeing and health at work. It’s also about making sure there are procedures in place to support staff following traumatic incidents at work and making sure that everybody receives regular line management and supervision.

When each of these seven areas are considered it can help to provide a holistic overview for how employers can approach and manage workplace wellbeing.

For more wellbeing information and support visit our #HappyHealthyWorkplace spotlight.

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