People power
Southeastern is making a sincere effort to make mental wellbeing a top priority, as ALYNA JONES explains
As an employer of more than 4,000 staff, Southeastern proudly claims that people are at the heart of everything it does.
Committed to being a responsible employer and to providing a safe, inclusive and welcoming workplace, the operator was pleased to sign the landmark Time to Change mental health anti-stigma employer pledge in October 2018.
But for Southeastern, it was just the latest step in a journey that had begun several years earlier to push mental health and wellbeing to the forefront of the agenda, most recently with the appointment of Alyna Jones as the operator’s Head of Health and Wellbeing.
Colin Clifton, head of safety and environment, explains: “Five or six years ago our then Health and Wellbeing Manager Yvonne Campbell began to do some work on occupational health around stress and mental health issues and, when she got into the data, she started to see that it was one of the biggest causes of sickness and absence.
“We soon realised that you couldn’t really separate physical and mental health and they are intertwined around each other, and that neither should be treated as being more important than the other.”
Southeastern responded robustly to these findings through senior management briefings, communications and a programme of mental health events led by Health and Wellbeing Promotion Manager Deborah Thomas.
Mental health first aid training was also offered to managers, and mental health information and support provided on the operator’s employee intranet.
Southeastern also has a dedicated railway chaplain, runs monthly People Board meetings for its executive team to oversee the company’s mental health agenda, and offers one-toone counselling via its employee assistance programme.
Meanwhile, the company also made public commitments to mental health by signing the Mindful Employer charter and by supporting the Mayor of London’s ‘This is Me’ and green ribbon campaigns to raise awareness.
Clifton adds: “We started to recognise the huge hidden problem of mental health and we looked for things we could do to make a statement of intent. We took the decision in 2015-16 to sign up to the Mindful Employer charter, which placed a number of commitments on us to treat mental health in a particular way.
“We didn’t do that just to get a certificate, we did it because it was something that we could make a commitment around and embed into our business. From that we brought in mental health first aid training and developed an objective to sign the Time to Change pledge.
“We didn’t feel we were ready initially and still had some work to do and so, in 2018,
None of this is about getting good survey results. It’s about supporting the people who need it.
Colin Clifton, Head of Safety & Environment, Southeastern
things really started to rocket with the ‘This is Me’ mental health campaign and the green ribbon campaign of people telling stories around themselves.”
With much impetus coming from Southeastern’s Head of Drivers Jim Maxwell, all employees were invited to wear green ribbons during Mental Health Awareness Week and on other significant dates, to create a talking point and to help end stigma around mental health.
A number of individuals also volunteered to appear in videos and talk about their own mental health stories for the benefit of the wider green ribbon campaign across London.
The first of a number of employee network groups was also launched by Southeastern in 2018. These now provide valuable forums of support for colleagues in areas such as mental health and promoting diversity.
Clifton says: “We have network groups for things like mental health, women in rail and the LGBTQ+ community because it’s about coming to work and being respected for who you are. As part of supporting wellbeing everybody needs to be able to be themselves, and we are absolutely committed to rooting out discrimination in all of its insidious forms.”
Having begun to embed these cultural changes within the company and change attitudes towards mental health, the Southeastern executive team felt ready to make the next step and to sign the Time to Change pledge in October 2018.
A further statement of intent was made through the employment of Alyna Jones.
Southeastern also appointed author and mental health campaigner Lee Woolcott
Ellis as Mental Health Co-ordinator to bring together its mental health activites.
Jones says: “Coming in at this point in the journey, I could see that Southeastern already had a very good culture and was very open in terms of talking about mental health and tackling stigma.
“This was demonstrated by the launch of an expanded Colleague Mental Health Advocate peer-to-peer programme in 2018 when 170 employees applied for just 30 places. That’s now one of the most talked about things at Southeastern, and Eurostar has now adopted our programme.”
She adds: “We have great leadership right from the top. [Managing Director] David Statham gets very involved in initiatives across the network and regularly talks to colleagues to find out what the issues are. We had Brew Monday [in support of Samaritans] at the beginning of the year and he was walking around our London office handing out teabags and having conversations with people.”
Jones and Southeastern’s wellbeing team also play an active part in the RSSB’s mental health and wellbeing groups to share best practice, such as its Mental Health Advocate programme with other operators.
Having worked in wellbeing for 16 years in other sectors including healthcare and financial services, Jones is enormously satisfied with the progress being made in the rail sector.
“I definitely wouldn’t say that rail is behind the curve in anything,” she says.
“While we adopt lots of other campaigns that go across multiple sectors like Time to Change, there’s been a huge shift in attitudes.
“It’s a journey and you can’t suddenly stop and say that everything’s been done. The work Southeastern has done has put it in a fantastic place where people come up and talk to you.
“It’s not a box-ticking exercise and we now have a fantastic culture where people can talk about their mental health, get the support they need and colleagues support each other.”
Both Jones and Clifton agree that the current Coronavirus pandemic poses significant challenges to safeguarding mental health and wellbeing.
But Southeastern has shown a great deal of flexibility to keep communications open between colleagues who are now working from home, or under vastly changed operating conditions.
Virtual technologies are being utilised to ensure that the executive team and managers provide daily briefings and a constant flow of information and assurance to colleagues, either at home or working across Southeastern’s commuter and regional routes.
A Mental Health Advocate text service has also been launched to make it easier to access support during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Pulse surveys are being conducted on a fortnightly basis to help understand what the company is getting right, and what more it could be doing.
Jones says: “While we’re all going through it, we’re all experiencing the pandemic very differently and going through different challenges. We have frontline colleagues who are having to go into work and perhaps worry about their safety and then others who might be homeworking and face isolation.
“But we’ve upped our communications significantly with regular videos from senior staff including David Statham and Lee Woolcott-Ellis to talk about mental health. We also adapted the 13 events that we’d planned to do around the network for Mental Health Awareness Week (May 18-24) and picked key aspects that are particularly relevant now, such as how to get a good night’s sleep and how to connect with colleagues that you haven’t spoken to for a while.”
Clifton is confident that with the firm steps already taken by Southeastern, the operator is in a strong position to negotiate this latest challenge to provide its employees with the help and support they need.
Its public commitments to mental health and wellbeing are being put to the test, but it is also an opportunity that the operator has snatched with both hands to demonstrate just how much it values its staff.
He concludes: “It’s challenging at both ends of the spectrum for those still at work and people who have concerns about the environment they are going into on a daily basis, and those who are unable to come into work and are potentially suffering in isolation from colleagues and friends.
“We’ve tried to be sensitive to both groups, and the pulse surveys will help with that.
But none of this is about getting good survey results. It’s about supporting the people who need it, which is exactly what we’re doing.
“Credit must go to everybody involved because while it’s easy to think you’re a great team when you’re doing well, you only really find out when you’re up against various hardships.”