‘People are having panic attacks’

Looking to staff wellbeing after the virus is eradicated may be leaving it too late, writes Anuja Nadkarni.

Businesses will see the effects of Covid-19 on mental health when the dust starts to settle, hospitality entrepreneur Chris Monaghan warns.

Monaghan has run several hospitality businesses over the past 20 years, and says that despite the strides New Zealand has made in discussing mental health in recent years, Covid-19 put wellbeing on the back burner.

‘‘Businesses are still in survival mode. But when the adrenaline wears off, wellbeing will become topical again and I fear then it will be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff,’’ Monaghan says.

Small businesses are struggling to cope with the recent level changes after the Auckland outbreak, he says.

Auckland’s city centre is still ‘‘dead’’ in level 2.5.

‘‘At the moment small businesses are that leaky boat that is soon going to sink to the bottom of the sea.

‘‘I’ve spoken to a lot of business owners who no longer have the enthusiasm for their businesses because of the toll running it has taken on their health and relationships.’’

Xero’s latest survey of 1000 small New Zealand businesses shows 58 per cent of employees did not talk about wellbeing at work and more than a third were not offered wellbeing support but would have liked it.

At least a quarter said their mental health suffered during the alert level 4 lockdown earlier in the year.

The software company has started its own programme to allow employers to check in with their staff to see how they were coping.

Auckland events business Paint Vine owner Alex Hamilton, who has started using the programme, says it is important for employers to understand how their staff work.

‘‘Quality of work drops because of burnout,’’ Hamilton says.

There needs to be more help from the Government to support business owners too, he says.

Hamilton, who was in the United States before Covid-19 hit, says he had a head start to move his business online. Despite this, Paint Vine took a 65 per cent revenue hit.

The company started offering paint and canvas kits so buyers could follow its video tutorials from more than 50 artists during the lockdown.

While having to change his entire business model, he has the added pressure of keeping his staff feeling upbeat and confident to work, he says.

‘‘It’s really tricky to predict the future and know where you want to go.

‘‘Uncertainty makes it hard for businesses to plan and give employees certainty about their future. All you can do is plan week to week, because another lockdown may come.’’

Frog Recruitment’s Shannon Barlow says that while there has been more discussion about employee wellbeing improving business performance, Covid-19 is forcing many businesses to take it more seriously.

Many people struggled with the transition to remote working, she says.

‘‘Life-balance skills are something I learned the hard way.’’ Chris Monaghan Hospitality entrepreneur, above

Anna Gibbons started a mental health programme last year to target employee wellbeing.

Best of Today is an eight-week programme highlighting priorities such as eating and sleeping well, and exercising.

Those who take part receive boxes containing tangible tools and gifts to strengthen the learning, Gibbons said.

During Covid-19 interest in the programme spiked, which led her to register with the government’s Covid-19 Business Recovery Fund to make the service more accessible to small businesses.

‘‘When we started it was seen as something nice to have but since Covid-19 it’s almost become a necessity. People are having panic attacks at work,’’ Gibbons says.

‘‘Humans don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen and don’t understand what is causing the anxiety because they feel like they’ve lost control.’’

In a first for Australian retailing, supermarket giant Woolworth Group created a new position of chief medical officer last month. Dr Rob McCartney is also responsible for Woolworths’ New Zealand subsidiary, Countdown.

Monaghan says that over the course of his career he had learned ways to cope with stress and keeping a work-life balance.

‘‘Life-balance skills are something I learned the hard way. When I started 18 years ago I was going at 100kmh, burnt out and my personal life suffered because I had a single-minded focus. There’s no rule book and it’s not until you get mature enough to work out how to find that balance.’’

Monaghan says he is considering starting an advisory company to help businesses include wellbeing in their business plans.

Business owners needed to take preventative measures now to cope with their mental health at this time, he says.

‘‘There are a lot of people out there taking stress about a lot of things they can’t control. You have to understand what you can and can’t control. We can control how we operate, how kind we are, our feelings and our brand,’’ he says.