Mental health risks the hidden danger in health and safety
It’s an interesting time of year to be a company director.
Most of the companies I work with operate July to June trading years, so they are trying hard to hit or exceed forecast for the year. Board meetings aren’t scheduled until well into July to provide enough time to run the financials for the trading year and work out the final profit and loss.
This gives independent directors like me a breathing spell to upskill and also to ensure we’re fulfilling our duties under the (relatively new) Health and Safety at Work Act which came into force in 2016.
For the purposes of the act, directors count as ‘‘officers of the company’’, which brings with it a requirement to undertake due diligence to ensure their organisation (confusingly called a person conducting a business or undertaking – PCBU) is meeting its obligations.
The act is pretty clear on what due diligence means here, listing six avenues of investigation. Directors need to take reasonable steps to get this done and for me that involves a site visit or two. I did one of these this week on a technology company I’m lucky enough to work with.
The company has a seasoned health and safety officer, who works with a broader health and safety committee with representatives from the nine-odd teams that make up the company, plus the chief executive and chief financial officer.
They make a pretty good fist of things, but there’s always value in a fresh view and a visit out of sequence. Plus, as a director, it’s a great chance to talk with staff, and get fresh datapoints into the business.
I don’t do these visits because I’m smug, or I consider myself a big health and safety expert. Rather, I’m paranoid that one of my people might get hurt. I’m also very aware that under the new act I’m personally liable for a criminal prosecution if someone did get hurt.
The visit picked up a few things. Some were expected in a tech company, such as loose cords, liberal use of power boxes and earthquake fixings.
Some were unexpected – like the fire escape in the basement being obstructed by a plethora of wheelie bins. Not good but easily fixable.
I wrote up my findings of the issues I observed. I’ll share with my fellow directors and put it into the continuous improvement cycle they operate, and will follow up to ensure the mitigations are put in place.
But not all risks can be observed in a site visit or fixed by moving a few wheelie bins. And they are the ones I’m most concerned about for tech companies. I am talking about depression and other mental health disorders.
The tech industry is known for long hours of work in pressured environments; particularly in smaller companies, with a finite cash runway until they run out of money.
A couple of years ago the CNN network made a documentary called Silicon Valley’s Secret. Most of the entrepreneur founders talked to had suffered from clinical depression.
It’s not a new concept. In 2015 a study at the UCSF found that 49 per cent of tech founders reported having mental health conditions, and 27 per cent of tech staff experienced some anxiety problems.
Locally I’m not sure that we would be far from those figures. And there’s been some tragic conclusions to these sorts of problems in New Zealand companies over recent years.
As a director and a human being, I’d like to think that it’s possible to minimise or remove the risk, but there is no panacea. I’ve reached out to some of the largest tech companies in New Zealand to try to draw on their learnings, but have had silence in response to date.
Either they don’t want to share or they’ve got nothing to share.
I’m no expert but as a starting point I’d suggest the following as a way to identify and manage the challenge of mental health issues in the workplace.
First, provide training to team leaders and managers, so they are able to recognise the signs of mental illness in their people. It’s not always obvious.
Second, have your company sign up to an employee assistance programme. These provide a no-judgement, anonymous avenue for staff to sit down with a trained counsellor. Importantly this needs to be publicised across the workplace, so everyone knows it’s available.
Third, I reckon part of being a strong leader is disclosing your weaknesses. In this context it means having leaders who are prepared to disclose challenges they or their loved ones have had around mental health. It also means zero tolerance for discrimination based on mental health status.
Last, jointly create a support plan with the employee. A plan that is flexible enough to deal with the specifics of the issue, but will also still allow the person to deliver value to the organisation.
If you have tips for ways to better identify and address mental health issues in growth companies please reach out to me via my Twitter account.
Mike ‘‘MOD’’ O’Donnell is a professional director and adviser. His Twitter handle is @modsta
As a director and a human being, I’d like to think that it’s possible to minimise or remove the risk, but there is no panacea.