Standard practice

How do I recognise when a colleague is struggling with their mental health? What action can my organisation take to support them at home and in the workplace? Is the workplace environment contributing to employees’ ill mental health?

Business leaders should be asking these types of questions when developing a fit-for-purpose health and wellbeing strategy. They should also rely on ISO 45003: 2021 Occupational Health and Safety Management – Psychological Health and Safety at Work – Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks.

ISO 45003 – setting a new standard

ISO 45003 is the first global standard providing practical guidance on managing psychological health and safety in the workplace. It helps organisations to adopt an occupational health and safety management system based on ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety.

Earlier this year, EMCOR UK became the first organisation to be certified against BSI’s new scheme based on ISO 45003. Creating a better place to work was the ultimate motive behind moving to the standard, and it builds on our focus on key frameworks such as UN SDG8 (‘decent work’) and ISO 27500 (creating human-centred organisations).

We believe ISO 45003 will help us to tackle these pressing challenges: ● Changing times: The pandemic has had a huge impact on mental health, the total fallout of which is yet to be ascertained; ● Ongoing disruption: Increased costs have resulted from higher absenteeism,

Our Mental Health Charter – launched in January 2021 – is also part of our wider framework. It is intended to encourage all employees to openly discuss mental health and wellbeing issues at work and access the education, help and support available to them.

Another piece of ISO 45003 implementation advice is to adopt a sound methodology such as the ‘plan, do, check, act’ approach. This is about identifying gaps, planning how to fill them, enacting those plans, checking their effectiveness, and acting again if required. A key tip is not to treat this as a singular activity – ‘plan, do, check, act’ is a continuous cycle of improvement.

This process prompted us to adopt various initiatives through our network of wellbeing champions and operational wellbeing leads. These include: ● Training and awareness on mental health risks; ● Creation of mental health guides and action plans; and ● Specific support sessions on a range of topics from menopause and nutrition to

reduced ability to work effectively and increased staff turnover. Mental health strategies should be more focused on identifying such causes of ill health; and importantly ● Boost engagement: Effective, preventative management mitigates the risks associated with poor mental health and enhances employee wellbeing, which will lead to improved engagement, performance and productivity.

Preparation for certification

When it comes to implementation, there is no set way of obtaining ISO 45003. One option, as adopted by EMCOR, is to be certified through BSI’s framework.

Whatever your chosen route, you will have to demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to mental wellbeing in the form of structures of processes already in place – structures that place mental health on a level playing field with physical health and safety.

For EMCOR, this has centred on a five-year wellbeing strategy with: ● Clear objectives; ● Implementation plans; and ● Means of measuring success. sleep and diversity. Organisations should also be willing to think outside the box, in that any part of the business could affect or be affected by mental health issues. A good example of this is factoring in mental health to business continuity plans created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In summary, ISO 45003 should act as part of an organisation’s wider mental wellbeing framework.

For EMCOR, it enabled a preventative approach to mental health whereby we can identify root causes of problems and be proactive as opposed to reactive with our employees.

With ISO 45003 as one of many foundational pillars of a mental health strategy, employers can build workplaces that truly support the wellbeing of their people.

HAYLEY FARRELL is wellbeing manager at EMCOR UK Article co-authored by Jonathan Gawthrop, executive director of wellbeing sustainability & assurance, EMCOR UK

ISO 45003