O
ON TOPIC
co-CEO Charlie Kim told Conscious
Company magazine in 2016.
“We got to a point in 2012 where
we found there were surveys going
around the office of who was
going to get fired. But at that point
we had hired so well we actually
hadn’t planned to let anybody
go. I remember we sat down as
the leadership team and said,
“what would happen if we didn’t
fire anyone?’”
Job security has a proven impact
on mental health. A two-year study
of 23,000 employees by Australian
research company Roy Morgan
found that employees who rate
their job security as “very poor”
are more than 50% more likely to
suffer anxiety, stress or depression
Looking after
health and
wellbeing
pays
dividends
in terms of
engagement
and
productivity
than those with a “very good” sense
of security.
That’s not to mention how
removing the fear of dismissal could
potentially improve productivity,
cooperation and the flow of creative
juices. Next Jump’s approach might
sound like Shangri-La, but might it
be practical, too?
44 //
Future Talent
t’s easy to assume that
such radical thinking is
easier for small ships –
businesses agile enough
to manoeuvre sharply – than big oil
tankers; that geographically diverse
organisations with thousands of
employees are encumbered by the
processes and structures needed to
keep them afloat. Size, though, is no
excuse for not spinning the wheel
hard a-starboard.
“People don’t believe me when I
say that it’s no different,” says Karl
Simons, chief health, safety and
security officer at Thames Water,
a company with 6,500 employees,
10,000 contractors and more
than 7,000 sites.
“You can make changes very
quickly once your managers
are educated to understand the
outcomes that can be achieved
by creating a culture of care; how
people being more open will i
ncrease productivity.”
Simons, who joined in December
2012, has been the driving force
behind a profound overhaul
of the company’s employee-
welfare practices, inspired by
an unacceptable number of
lost-time injuries. He convinced
senior management of the link
between psychological pressures –
both at work and at home – and the
human error that invariably causes
such injuries.
The company now has a ‘time
to talk strategy’ that encourage
openness and honesty, a mental
health Yammer group, hundreds of
mental health first aiders, and staff
go through Mind Fit awareness
training. It doesn’t stop there.
Simons’ open mind to wellbeing
solutions (when we speak, he’s
just emerged from a sleep pod the
company is trialling) led to Thames
Water commissioning its own virtual
reality (VR) training film aimed at
creating an immersive experience
of everyday stresses that can harm
mental health.
“The only way to do that is
VR,” says Simons. “We build the
frustration. You’re at home, laptop
open, glass of whisky on the table.
Your phone is ringing, the emails are
I
coming up. The kids are playing and
arguing, your wife is complaining
about you working late.
“Then we transport that into the
workplace. You’re sat in the car, the
boss is phoning. Then he comes
out and says, ‘get in here, we’ve
got a meeting.’ In the mess room,
somebody’s saying, ‘you’re meant
to get tea and coffee’. Simple things
constantly building up to where,
eventually, you’re on the roof, folding
up your gear, going to jump.”
Impactful stuff, but Simons’
methods have been so effective
(injuries have decreased every year
for six years) that he’s delivered
training to more than 50 other
companies across several sectors
and is consulted on workplace
mental health by the Department
for Work and Pensions.
Thames Water isn’t the only
example of a major employer
making significant changes in the
realm of mental health. Global IT and