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James Sanderson

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HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK

HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK 500 334 SPP Solutions

Health and safety at work is crucial for all businesses to consider. Employers are responsible for keeping their employees safe and need to continually consider the health and safety needs of their staff. A recent shift towards flexible working and remote working, partly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has meant that it is more difficult for employers to do this for a number of reasons. Employees may be working at home or elsewhere, and even keeping track of who is or isn’t in the workplace on any given day may be difficult. This means that health and safety today often needs to be managed both within the workplace and outside of it. So let’s find out HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK?

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Image from Pexels – CC0 License

GET UP-TO-DATE ON REGULATIONS AND COMPLIANCE

Organisations that wish to improve health and safety at work should begin by ensuring they are up-to-date on the latest regulatory guidance. The minimum that your organisation needs to do is follow the law and put any measures required for compliance in place. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website is a good place to start when looking for guidance. It is also the place to go for a number of other needs, from applying for licences, reporting a problem in the workplace, and reporting workplace accidents.

HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR REMOTE WORKERS

Remote working is becoming more common. Around the world, 52% of employees work remotely once a week. In the UK, 46.6% of people in employment worked from home in April 2020, although the majority was due to the pandemic. However, many people will be remaining in remote work of some kind even as people return to work. Managing health and safety for remote workers can be a challenge. Employers are still responsible for the health and safety of their remote workers, but when your employee’s workspace is in their home, it complicates matters. However, there are steps that you can take to protect home workers.

Some of the things that you can do to improve health and safety for remote workers include:

  • Check in regularly with people working alone
  • Encourage healthy screen use
  • Ensure employees have ergonomics working spaces, including comfortable chairs and adjustable desks
  • Allow employees to take home equipment such as keyboards or mice

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE

Taking care of the physical safety of employees is important, but mental health in the workplace is also becoming a growing concern. This is true both of employees working on-site and those working remotely. Employers can help employees to care for their mental health in multiple ways. You can provide support for employees and encourage them to use the resources that you offer.

With remote employees, it’s especially important to check in with them regularly and watch out for the signs of stress. Helping to prevent isolation is something that employers can do too. Try to keep remote workers connected, whether through work communication or organising virtual social events.

Health and safety at work should be taken seriously. With 38.8 million working days lost to work-related ill health and injuries in 2019-20, it pays to take care of your staff.

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MYTH-BUSTING: SELF-DEFENCE COURSES

MYTH-BUSTING: SELF-DEFENCE COURSES 500 326 SPP Solutions

Self-defence is important – we can all agree on that. However, many widely-held beliefs around the purpose of self-defence courses are outdated or simply not true. This post will demystify self-defence training, calling out five myths on the subject and breaking down the facts.

You’re encouraged to learn how to have an epic fight

Many people think that self-defensive is a precursor to engaging in a length physical exchange. However, the goal with self-defence is to learn techniques that enable you to strike and escape. There is no rule in law to say that a ‘person must wait to be struck first before they may defend themselves – so by no means are you expected to be paralysed in action in the face of an impending threat. All the while, the goal is to remove yourself from the situation as swiftly as possible. There is also a large amount of emphasis on dealing with the mental stress of an encounter as we’ll touch on.

It’s for males

It’s not. We encourage everybody who is physically able to get involved. What’s physically able? More on that later…

Sufficient self-defence classes are exclusively focused on physical skills

Self-defence often starts beyond a physical encounter. Our course covers the legalities surrounding self-defence, appropriate situational awareness and the development of coping with extreme stress.

Learning self-defence makes you more likely to engage in violence

A common concern of parents, in particular, is that in teaching their children how to defend themselves, the latter will be more likely to get into fights. This just isn’t true. Whilst it’s important to distinguish between learning martial arts and completing a self-defence course, the same concerns may arise when considering either.

As Joe Rogan – US media personality and a black belt in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu – summarises it; ‘fights are scary. I’m running’. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but there is currently no evidence of a link between learning to fight and an increased likelihood to seek out violence. In fact, it’s likely the opposite, with martial arts training ‘reducing aggression including the externalizing of aggression such as physical aggression and verbal and physical bullying, according to research verified by researchers at Bar-Ilan University and UCLA. There are many more likely reasons for someone to get into a physical alteration, including self-negativity, abuse of power and even lack of sleep.

I need to be in great shape to learn self-defence

Some people feel that self-defence is all about acrobatic advanced manoeuvres. As mentioned, however, the aim of self-defence is to empower people to take the initiative and escape in a serious encounter. We encourage people of all shapes and sizes to explore self-defence training. Nevertheless, sufficient course providers will require a medical questionnaire for the safety of candidates to ensure their health won’t be compromised as a result of the training. This does not mean you need to be Wonderwoman or Bruce Wayne.

Closing thought

There are considerations when learning any new skill, including the time and money it takes to get there. But it’s also important to weigh up whether the value of going through life with a better understanding of how to keep yourself safer.

Feel as though you or your team may benefit from self-defence classes? You can view our self-defence course details here.

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2021 SUMMER OF SPORT: 5 MENTAL HEALTH LESSONS LEARNED

2021 SUMMER OF SPORT: 5 MENTAL HEALTH LESSONS LEARNED 500 333 SPP Solutions

It’s been a glorious summer of sport so far. England reached their first major football final since the triumph of 1966, and while Team GB aren’t touted to scale the medal heights of Rio or London, we’re on course to overachieve once again in the medals table. That’s not to mention notable performances in the cricket and elsewhere.

However, the same sporting events have also housed a spotlight on the mental health implications on athletes and sportspeople. Individuals from a variety of sports have been brave enough to talk about their recent struggles, from cricketer Ben Stokes’ withdrawal from the England cricket team to Naomi Osaki’s withdrawal from the French Open, and most recently Simone Biles opting out of several Olympic events that she was touted to secure gold in.

This diversity of those affected is hardly surprising; mental health does not discriminate. As such, many of these struggles are also seen by those in other walks of life on a day-to-day basis.

As part of our ongoing dedication to supporting organizations to support employee mental health, we’ve picked out five lessons learned from this summer of sport that may help you if you’re managing a team.

It is not always linked to negative events

Record-holder Adam Peaty took home GB’s first gold medal in Tokyo on the 26th of July. He’s a golden boy in the eyes of pundits, fans and the media alike, smashing world records with a beaming smile on his face and an aura of extreme confidence. The 26-year-old commended his “gorgeous partner and gorgeous son” in his post-event interview with the BBC. Due to endorsements and prize money, Peaty also has an estimated net worth that puts him comfortable in the millionaire bracket. He’s a man with a lot going for him. However, what is perhaps most impressive is his attitude towards prioritising his mental health after claiming 2 golds and a silver medal in Tokyo, announcing he’d be having a month-long break after the games. He described swimming as “not a normal job (with a) huge amount of pressure”.

Peaty was disappointed by the reaction on social media; “reading some of the comments in response to this is why we have such a stigma around mental wellbeing in sport”.

Mental health is an investment, not a charitable act

Staying on Peaty and his recuperation from the pool, he also noted the effects of burnout on athletes. He claimed that some athletes would “fall off” by the time the next games in Paris takes place, due to overexertion in competitions between now and then, off the back of a “very tiring” lockdown period.

The swimmer was keen to illustrate it was not just a problem in swimming, either; “you’re seeing it in all sports now. You’re seeing it with Simone Biles, you’re seeing it with Ben Stokes, mental health matters”.

In fact, the deeper you dive into the breadth of this in sport this summer alone makes for shocking reading.

Mental health is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, costing employers approximately £45 billion per year.

Interestingly, the figure from Deloitte also includes the costs of ‘presenteeism’; essentially showing up to work but performing poorly due to mental health issues. Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind, nodded to the fact that presenteeism “costs three times more than sick leave”, suggesting that company culture around time off and government intervention both need to improve. More specifically, he claims that higher Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and an improved definition of disability under the Equality Act – in order for more to benefit from its rights and protections – are areas of improvement.

The Mental Health at Work Commitment is an initiative from Mental Health At Work.org, with the aim of supporting signees to achieve each standard highlighted upon joining. Organisations who sign up receive ideas and advice aimed at making their transition and drive change.

Some of the companies on the growing list of signees include Wickes, MediaCom and Deloitte. They have clearly identified investment in mental health as a strategic decision.

People want to help

As a result of England’s penalty shootout loss to Italy in the European Championship final, Bakayo Saka and Marcus Rashford were subjected to racist online abuse. The pair missed in the shootout, with the former’s spot-kick saved to decide the match.

Marcus Rashford’s mural in Manchester was also vandalised by disgruntled fans (thugs). Despite this, there was a response of solidarity as those in the community recovered the mural with messages of support for the England forward.

Similarly, Bukayo Saka claimed he was left ‘“speechless” after Arsenal presented him with hundreds of messages of support for the 19-year-old.

It serves as a timely reminder that many people would like to support people in need, not tear them down, in their time of need.

It’s something that’s becoming harder to ignore

The pandemic has given many employees time to reflect on what’s important to them, with 2 in 5 reported to feel anxious about returning to work in recent months. Similarly, 1 in 3 reported ‘psychological stress’ caused by the pandemic. As such, pre-Covid shifts towards better mental health support strategies may well be catalysed as a result of the numerous lockdowns and time away from the workplace.

Mental Health is nothing to be ashamed of

As Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian in history – says: “it’s OK not to be OK”.


Closing thought

It’s encouraging that the stigma surrounding mental continues to be chipped away – although there still remains a way to in terms of normalising it in day-to-day working life. As shown this summer in the world of sport, no amount of gold medals make one immune to being affected.

Would you like support with improving mental health in your team or organisation?

We provide first-class mental health training courses, which you can view here.