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Body MechanicsArticles by: nbodymechanics
Image of back of neck with red indicating pain and hands lifted above the shoulders

Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders – ways to reduce tension and tightness

Experiencing discomfort in the upper back, neck and shoulders is incredibly common. For those of us who have our arms extended out in front of us to use a keyboard, to use our phone, to drive or to lift objects, for example, will have an increased chance of experiencing discomfort or conditions in this area of our bodies.

Although the actions causing this discomfort can vary widely, the symptoms are frequently the same and tend to be caused by overuse, or using this area of our body in a way we are not typically used to, such as holding an awkward position or overloading the muscles or joints.

Common symptoms are:

  • Tension and tightness in our muscles
  • Stiffness through our joints
  • Restriction in our range of movement
  • Compression in the spine
  • Nerve impingement
  • Changes in posture
  • Disrupted sleep patterns
  • General discomfort and pain

Corrective Action

Ergonomic Assessments - these are available through your employer and can be done in person or online. The Health and Safety Executive also have resources and checklists available:  https://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/assessment.htm

Desk - It’s worth considering your overall desk set up as well as your posture - are you better suited to a sitting or standing desk? Or do you need to be able to do both? What kind of chair do you find comfortable and supportive - high back? additional supports and arm rests? Or a kneeling chair?

Vehicle - the seats in vehicles are generally poorly designed. They don’t offer any support to your neck and the lower part of the seat slants back, placing your knees higher than your hips, thereby compressing your lower spine. As your spine is a column, what happens at the bottom is reflected at the top and vice versa. Foam wedges are a good way of correcting the angle in your lower back and neck supports/cushions are available

Stretches

There are 4 key stretches which can help loosen off any tension and tightness and get quick results:

1. Chin to Chest - Simply drop your chin down to your chest and hold for a minimum of 30 seconds. Repeat as desired. Please note, let gravity do the work. Don’t actively push your head down. Let the head hang and soon your head will drop a lot further than you think, giving a nice deep stretch.

2. Ear to Shoulder - gently tilt your head to the left, keeping your shoulders down and bringing your ear down to your shoulder. Hold for a minimum of 30 seconds. Repeat as desired. Do the same on the right side. To deepen the stretch, actively extend your right arm and fingers down to the ground, pushing down. You’ll feel a deeper stretch along the right side of your neck.

3. Chin towards Shoulder - turn your head to the left, keeping your shoulders down and facing forwards, extend your chin towards your left shoulder and tilt your head downwards. Hold for a minimum of 30 seconds. Repeat as desired. Do the same on the right side.

4. Head Back - slowly tilt your head backwards and gently push the chin towards the ceiling. You’ll feel a stretch in your neck and under your chin. Hold for a minimum of 10 seconds. Repeat as desired.

Strengthening

Sometimes discomfort and pain are caused by muscle weakness and changes in posture. For example, we can experience ‘round shoulders’ from the pectoral muscles in our chest getting tight and short and from our rhomboids between our shoulder blades, getting overextended and weak. Health Professionals such as Sports Massage Therapists, Physiotherapists and Osteopaths will be able to provide you with a bespoke assessment of any muscle imbalances, along with any strengthening exercises.

Posture

Pay attention to how you hold yourself - how you sit and stand in particular - and whether you are moving enough. Are you wearing suitable shoes? Do you take regular breaks at work? Are your workouts or exercise activities moving your body in a balanced way, or are they overworking certain areas? Pilates and Yoga are great for strengthening and rebalancing your body, as well as Massage and Osteopathy.

Useful Equipment

Foam Wedge: https://putnams.co.uk/collections/sitting-wedges

Physique Be Confident written logo in blue and redAll of the below equipment is available from our Partner Providers, Physique at 10% discount using the code: BODYMECHANICS

 

Please always seek medical advice before engaging in any form of treatment or rehab.

If you have any questions or feedback about this article, please send them to enquiries@bodymechanics.co.uk

Image of a magnifying class, calculater and note pad on top of some graphs for financial wellbeing

Financial Wellbeing – 3 top tips to help keep your employees financial health and wellbeing in check

Financial wellbeing is a subject which is currently being given notable attention and with good reason. Both covid and the cost of living crisis have meant that inflation continues to rise and many people are experiencing financial pressure and uncertainty like never before. Giving people the chance to stay in control of their finances, will have a direct impact on their health and wellbeing. This is where an employer can offer support, by giving employees access to an independent financial advisor.

Here are our 3 top tips to help keep your employees financial health and wellbeing in check:

Review

What do you have in place to help an employee understand their current financial health profile and to identify any areas they'd like to change?

It’s important for employees to fully understand their financial health profile - their income, their expenditure, tax, the best bank accounts, credit cards, loans available, how to make the most of any surplus income, how to reduce any debt, how to take advantage of workplace investment schemes such as pensions, car or bike loans, share options and how to plan and budget for the short, mid and long term.

Plan

What discovery opportunities and planning tools have you made available to employees and how can they help them achieve their aspirations?

Frequently, financial health and wellbeing is hindered because people simply don’t know what they don’t know - what products and services are available to them and which ones are best for their situation. Speaking with a professional and developing a clear plan on how to move forward and achieve both financial and life goals is key. Clarity and direction removes any potential stress and overwhelm.

Action

What management tools can you offer your employees to help them put their plan into action and to keep moving forward with their financial wellbeing?

Do your employees simply need a review consultation with an independent financial advisor to keep them on track, or do they need a more involved step by step plan, identifying particular action points and management tools suitable for the short, mid and long term? Putting their chosen financial products and services into an achievable timeline, alongside regular contact points with a financial professional is essential for achieving financial, as well as overall health and wellbeing. Regular financial reviews every 6 to 12 months are recommended

Offering your employees support in a particularly challenging social and economic landscape can be simple and effective. Helping them meet the change in cost of living demands through financial education and support will not only help fulfill your duty of care as an employer, it will also help keep your employees stress free, engaged and focused.

In Summary

  • Make professional and unbiased advice accessible to employees
  • Support them in understanding their financial health and wellbeing - review, plan and action
  • Make information on any relevant workplace initiatives and schemes readily available
  • Cut the jargon - financial terminology can be complicated and confusing
  • Understand that financial health will ultimately reflect in an employees’ overall health and wellbeing and as an employer, there is a duty of care to be fulfilled

Want to support your employees financial health and wellbeing, contact Body Mechanics and take a look at our Financial Services webpagefor more information.

How to Adapt Corporate Health and Wellbeing Programmes to fit Hybrid Working

Hybrid working has required organisations to adopt a blended approach to both business management and employee wellbeing. Rethinking how best to deliver health and wellbeing programmes to your employees needn’t be overwhelming - it’s time to consult, review and to get creative!

In this short guide, we give you seven pieces of advice which are key to getting health and wellbeing right for your employees and ultimately, your business.

Ask them - send out a poll or survey to staff to get a better understanding of what their current challenges are and where they’d like support. Have their challenges changed because of Covid? Because of a change in work practices? If so, how? What are their biggest stress points in life generally - at home, at work, as an individual? To support your staff competently, you first need to understand their requirements.

Maintain Balance - try not to favour one aspect of health and wellbeing over another. Find a way to keep all services accessible and possibly look and introducing new ones where necessary.

Prioritise - planning and optimisation - Accessibility is key. Firstly, who needs your support here and now? Who is currently struggling? Your organisation holds a wealth of information about your employees, so use it to identify who NEEDS which type/s of health and wellbeing service/s, how often and how they are best to receive this support.

Next, identify those who are deemed ‘at risk’ - those who are subjected to particular occupational stresses and have an increased chance of sustaining an injury or developing a particular condition. Why wait for the worst to happen? Take a preemptive approach.

Finally, look at those who have already been identified as having a condition or injury and who are currently managing this. This allows you to adopt a preventative rather than curative approach and lets your employees know that you’re there should they need you.

Anyone who falls outside of these categories should still be able to access health and wellbeing services as and when they need them.

Prioritising and actively directing employees to relevant services enables you to reach the most vulnerable first, keeping them healthy and well and your business running as smoothly as possible. It also allows you to roll out or adapt your health and wellbeing programme in a manageable and focused manner.

Review Delivery Methods - hybrid working has undoubtedly brought about a greater reliance on technology and a greater level of autonomy to employees. So ask yourself, how can these two factors fit into your health and wellbeing programme without compromising the quality or the effectiveness of the services?

Can your services be accessed online or through an app - eg counselling sessions or fitness classes? Do they need to be face to face - eg counselling or physical therapies? Can they be in-office or at home or both - eg ergonomic desk assessments or physical therapies? Do they need to be delivered at a certain time or can they be accessed ad hoc - eg lunch and learns, webinars or Yoga classes?

A word of caution around the use of online access and apps - ensure they don’t make services feel impersonal or are perceived as a tick box exercise by your employees, as it completely undermines what you’re trying to achieve with employee health and wellbeing.

Automation - self serve - give your employees as much control as possible in order for them to access services. In doing so, it makes your employees feel empowered and they are more likely to engage with your health and wellbeing programme, as well as within the business overall. Automation greatly increases convenience, accessibility and can be extremely cost effective.

Rotation - by offering services on a rotation basis - weekly, monthly or quarterly - it ensures that accessibility is optimised. Not everyone will be in the office at the same time, nor will they necessarily be consistent with the days that they do come into the office or work from home.

If certain teams or departments have decided to adopt a regular working schedule, it's worth adding this to your databases and working in a more informed manner.

The Personal Touch - Health and wellbeing programmes are all about personalisation and accessibility. Give careful consideration to outsourcing to a provider with which you have no in-person relationship, particularly around mental health. People often like to know they can talk to a person and that they can build trust and rapport with them over time, as well as getting immediate and bespoke feedback. Employees using mental health services are most likely making themselves vulnerable and talking about sensitive issues, which is where an app falls flat. Technology doesn’t offer meaningful or insightful engagement. An impersonal one-size fits all approach to mental health, will most likely have a low uptake and will be wasted money from your budget. Online or app access for online fitness classes however is a far more suitable use of online or app access.

In summary

In order to provide a fit for purpose and best practice health and wellbeing programme, its important to get the basic foundation right. Work with what you already have in terms of services and employee data. Poll or survey your clients to better understand their needs - what services they need, how best to give them access and the most appropriate delivery methods. Health and wellbeing is all about making your employees know and feel understood and supported, so take time to ensure you get the correct balance of services and that personal connection.

If you have any questions or feedback about this article, please send them to enquiries@bodymechanics.co.uk

Image of someone with their hands on their back just above their waist with redness indicating pain

Lower Back Pain – what is the best remedial action to take

Many of you suffer from lower back pain on an on-going basis due to an injury or condition, or intermittently, due to environmental factors or functional stress. This article will give you a quick overview of the most common causes and the best remedial action to take.

Condition or Circumstance?

Firstly, it's important to differentiate if your lower back pain is due to a particular condition/injury or whether it's due to your day to day activities or function.

Let’s be honest, we don’t always respect our bodies and we sit, stand, slump and lift in ways which aren’t necessarily the best for our backs. It’s only until our body tells us there’s a problem and usually by way of some form of discomfort, pain or change in mobility, that we pay attention to our problem causing behaviours.

Circumstance

The majority of the time, if your back pain is due to poor environmental factors/functional stress, an immediate and positive change in these will always produce a relatively quick and noticeable fix, in terms of alleviating your lower back pain.

If you do any of the following, it's time to make a few changes:
 

  • Sit on the sofa with your laptop on your lap, rounding your shoulders and straining your neck
  • Sit at a table which is too high or too low, meaning strain is put on upper back, neck, shoulders and the wrists and elbows
  • Sit in a slightly rotated position at your desk, causing incorrect spinal and pelvic alignment
  • Sit on the edge of your chair, without properly supporting your back
  • Work without taking regular breaks, meaning hip flexor muscles shorten and the hips and lower back get tight

Remedial Action:

  • Sit at a designated work space with an appropriate chair, desk and computer setup, to promote good posture and comfort
  • Sit in a central position with forearms running parallel to your thighs at a 90 degree angle. Ankles are to be stacked under the knees and elbows under the shoulders.
  • Sit with your back into the chair, to give your back full support, so you won’t slump
  • Take regular breaks, even if just for a few minutes to help maintain mobility and to prevent tightness

Condition

If your lower back pain is due to a condition or injury, recovery tends to take a little longer and any changes and rehab treatments are generally more targeted and considered. You will most likely be talking to other health professionals, such as your GP or a Musculoskeletal Consultant.

There are too many potential conditions and injuries to cover here, however, we do have a series of Condition Infosheets which discuss these in more detail. Click here to find out more.

Please ensure you stay consistent with your treatment and that you engage in some form of maintenance in between those treatments. Treatments alone will not be enough to resolve your lower back pain.

Why Do We Get Back Pain?

We often find that when muscles tighten, they pull the spine, pelvis, hips and sometimes ribs out of alignment, which can cause discomfort, aches and pains. Skeletal malalignment can also be caused by day to day activities or by a specific injury or condition.

Whenever there is a pain point in the body, we treat it as the mid point and look at the areas around that mid point to assess what is going on in terms of tension, tightness and alignment.

Key muscles to pay attention to:

By keeping these muscles in particular strong and in good condition, it will help to alleviate and minimise any lower back pain

Abdominals - stomach muscles at front of torso
QL or Quadratus Lumborum - muscle in lower back connecting to pelvis, lower spine and lower ribs
Gluteal Muscles - buttocks
Erector Spinae - long thick muscles running the full length of the spine from pelvis to skull
Hamstrings - back of thigh
Quadriceps - front of thigh

Remedial Action

Keep It Strong

Do exercises that target the glutes, lower back and core to keep your back healthy

Good examples are:

  • Pilates - matt or reformer. The later is highly recommended for faster and more targeted results in core muscle strength
  • Squats - normal, deep, sumo
  • Lunges - normal, walking and runners
  • Planks - forearm or extended arm
  • Sit Ups - low crunches, full sit ups and oblique crunches
  • Light cycling and walking

 

Keep It Stable

Regular Osteopathy appointments are recommended to ensure skeletal integrity and alignment.
 

Keep It Tension Free

Regular Massage treatments will ensure tension and tightness in your muscles are reduced, easing any unnecessary pressure on your joints. At least once a month is recommended.

Using a foam roller in between massages will also help you get the most from your treatments and promote reduced muscle tension and tightness for longer.
 

Maintain Good Posture

Pay attention to how you use your body. See how you can improve your seating position, your desk setup, the equipment you use, as well as how you lift and how you stand.

Working from home has brought the working environment to the forefront and it's worth giving your working environment the appropriate attention by way of ergonomic assessments. These are something with which your employer should be able to provide you. Ask your HR or Occupational Health Department.

If this isn’t an option, click on the following link from HSE: https://www.hse.gov.uk/home-working/employer/display-screen-equipment-at-home.htm, who will talk you through a tutorial on how to ensure your working environment, equipment and posture are set up correctly.

Useful Equipment

All of the below equipment is available from our Partner Providers, Physique at 10% discount using the code: BODYMECHANICS

Physique Be Confident written logo in blue and red

To Sum Up

Lower back pain can happen for a multitude of reasons, many of which may be caused through a lack of awareness or attention. In many cases, lower back pain can be resolved by focusing on your strength, levels of tension and tightness, flexibility, stability and your overall posture as referenced above.

If you do have a particular injury or condition, it’s important to understand the cause, the symptoms, the treatment and the (on-going) maintenance required.

However your lower back pain has occurred, consistency is key!

Please always seek medical advice before engaging in any form of treatment or rehab.

If you have any questions or feedback about this article, please send them to enquiries@bodymechanics.co.uk

Corporate Gym Packages Are So Last Year

Let's Get FIIT For Work

This article first appeared as a blog on https://fiit.tv/ and is by Tom Young, Fiit

 

Let’s face the facts. Traditional corporate gym packages don’t work anymore.

No one’s using them. They’re rigid. And they’re usually structured around the office. But, who’s planning on going back five days a week? Only 2% of people. That’s who…

At Fiit, we think it’s time the corporate gym package got with the times and adapted to a hybrid, flexible way of working.

It’s time to Get Fiit for Work – the health and wellness package that works where you do.

WHAT’S FIIT FOR WORK?

Fiit for Work is our version of the corporate health and wellness package. It’s more flexible, inclusive, social, and tailored to you and your work.

So, how can you convince HR to make the swap to the #1 rated fitness platform?

Well, we’ve got all the juicy stats and persuasive arguments your People & Culture team need to sell Fiit to the powers that be.

FLEXIBILITY – AND NOT JUST ON THE MAT

The idea of hybrid working isn’t new. But now, it’s the norm.

85% of people who say they feel productive anywhere say they plan to stay at their company for a long time. This is damn good news for employee retention if employers can get it right.

And with such a strong link between companies that offer employee wellness programs and increased productivity, Fiit for Work becomes the perfect solution – giving something for everyone at home, in the gym, at work, in the park, on holiday – wherever, whenever.

GET EVERYONE INVOLVED – NOT JUST THE GYM RATS

Fiit champions diversity and inclusivity. So, no matter who you work with, we’ve got their back.

Beginner? We have classes and training plans designed to help them train safely and steadily. Advanced athlete? You know we’ll level up their training. Remote worker? Fiit works wherever – so no matter where your colleagues are, you can all train together.

Plus, Fiit works around the tightest schedules. Even if you only have a spare 10 mins, we have strength, cardio, yoga, and pilates classes to keep your mind and body in check.

COMMUNITY IS CULTURE

Work drinks. Awaydays. Daily coffee club. Culture exists when we’re together.

In the hybrid working world, fostering relationships through exercise, achieving something (and getting competitive), is an awesome way to build community and cultivate mental, physical, and social well-being.

Group classes. Scheduled team workouts. Company-wide challenges. Beating your CEO on the live leaderboard (my personal favourite). It’s all about connection and building healthy relationships through fitness.

MENTAL HEALTH IS PHYSICAL HEALTH

Let’s be honest – it’s been a terrible time for people’s mental health.

We’ve outlined the positive impact physical health has on the brain before – with researchers suggesting that as little as one hour a week of dynamic exercise can make a massive difference. But right now, it’s more important than ever.

“Modern neuroscience has shown that maybe the most important thing we can do for our brain — and therefore ourselves — is to be physically active.” — Dr. Anders Hansen, The Real Happy Pill

DATA-DRIVEN HEALTH

At Fiit, everything we do is backed by data. We’re a tech company after all.

Meaning (and this is something HR will go wild for) we can feedback anonymous and aggregated data to suit the needs of your company. Turning insights into bespoke company challenges, tailored group workouts or customised charitable initiatives are just a few examples.

And the data works! Just look at EY in the image on the right.

After their first 90 days, over 40% of employees had begun using Fiit – which is more than double average gym usage – and 26% of EY employees had integrated it into their weekly routines.

SO – YOU WANNA GET FIIT FOR WORK?
Click the link below to find out more and get your membership started:

Click here to get access to Fiit.

Government Review: Thriving At Work

The Stevenson/Farmer Review of Mental Health and Employers

The below information is a combined summary and quotation of the findings from both the Thriving at Work Review and the Government website www.gov.uk

Employers fulfilling their duty of care towards their employees is a broad subject with varying takes on how best to do so. One area of considerable focus has been mental health. In order to assess where organisations can do more, The UK Government has carried out an independent review as part of their Mental Health Reform initiative. Research carried out by Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer has been published through both The Department For Work and Pensions, as well as The Department of Health and Social Care to look at mental health from an economic and social perspective.

The Study assumes the position that the correct way to view mental health is that we all have it and we fluctuate between thriving, struggling, and being ill and possibly off work

We need to move to a society where all of us become more aware of our own mental health, other people’s mental health, and how to cope with our own and other people’s mental health when it fluctuates. It is all our responsibilities to make this change and employers are perhaps able to have the greatest impact and scope to make an impact and are the focus of this review.
 

Thriving at Work sets out:

  1. What employers can do to better support all employees, including those with mental health problems to remain in and thrive through work.
  2. A detailed analysis that explores the significant cost of poor mental health to UK businesses and the economy as a whole
  3. How investing in supporting mental health at work is good for business and productivity.
  4. All employers, regardless of size or industry, should adopt 6 ‘mental health core standards’ that lay basic foundations for an approach to workplace mental health.

“ Many employers are already creating healthy, inclusive workplaces, but more needs to be done so that employers provide the support needed for employees with mental health conditions.” Prime Minister Theresa May, January 2017

10 Year Vision To Improve Mental Health In The Workplace:

  • Employees in all types of employment will have “good work”, which contributes positively to their mental health, our society and our economy.
  • Every one of us will have the knowledge, tools and confidence, to understand and look after our own mental health and the mental health of those around us.
  • All organisations, whatever their size, will be:
    • Equipped with the awareness and tools to not only address but prevent mental ill health caused or worsened by work;
    • Equipped to support individuals with a mental health condition to thrive, from recruitment and throughout the organisation;
    • Aware of how to get access to timely help to reduce sickness absence caused by mental ill health;

Its through the above that we can dramatically reduce the proportion of people with a long term mental health condition who leave employment each year and ensure that all, who can, benefit from the positive impacts of good work

This study has led us to conclude that underneath the stigma that surrounds mental health and prevents open discussion on the subject, the UK faces a significant mental health challenge at work.

  • 300,000 people with a long term mental health problem lose their jobs each year
  • Around 15% of people at work have symptoms of an existing mental health condition.

The human cost is huge, with poor mental health having an impact on the lives of many individuals and those around them. This manifests itself in a variety of ways both at work and at home, and impacts a person’s ability to manage other elements of their personal life. Then there is the ultimate human cost of loss of life through suicide.

With the help of an independent study on the cost to employers commissioned from Deloitte, we have also found:

  • There is a large annual cost to employers of between £33 billion and £42 billion
  • The cost of poor mental health to Government is between £24 billion and £27 billion
  • The cost of poor mental health to the economy at between £74 billion and £99 billion per year
  • The inescapable conclusion is that it is massively in the interest of both employers and Government to prioritise and invest far more in improving mental health.

Deloitte’s analysis of the case studies where investments have been made in improving mental health, show a consistently positive return on investment, which found that a manager mental health training programme could lead to a significant reduction in work-related sickness absence, with an associated return on investment of £9.98 for each pound spent on such training.

How Can This Vision Be Achieved?

A “mental health core standards” – a framework for a set of actions which we believe all organisations in the country are capable of implementing quickly. The 6 cores standards are:

  1. Produce, implement and communicate a mental health at work plan;
  2. Develop mental health awareness among employees;
  3. Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available when employees are struggling;
  4. Provide employees with good working conditions and ensure they have a healthy work life balance and opportunities for development;
  5. Promote effective people management through line managers and supervisors;
  6. Routinely monitor employee mental health and wellbeing

The report also outlines a series of more ambitious ‘enhanced’ standards for employers who can and should do more to lead the way, building on the mental health core standards these are as follows:

  • Increase transparency and accountability through internal and external reporting
  • Demonstrate accountability
  • Improve the disclosure process
  • Ensure provision of tailored in-house mental health support and signposting to clinical help

Three other factors will help the implementation of these “mental health core and enhanced standards”.
 

  • Increasing employer transparency. Employer action on mental health is intrinsically measurable.
  • Calling on trade unions, industry groups, professional and regulatory bodies to help with the implementation of these standards.
  • The implementation and use of digital tools and products

The Role Of The Public Sector

The public sector, which employs 5.4 million people, has a huge opportunity to lead the way, particularly the three largest public employers: the National Health Service, Education and the Civil Service.

The Role Of Government

Government can do more to make it simple for employers, through support and online information platforms and joining up existing provisions aimed at employees and employers.
 

  • Government should consider exploring further the role of incentives and public procurement to drive implementation of the mental health core standards.
  • We also suggest Government sets clearer expectations of employers through legislation, and makes Statutory Sick Pay more flexible
  • There is a significant role for the NHS to support workplace mental health by ensuring support is accessible, high quality and fits around work.
  • Government does more to prevent and end employer practices which contravene employment and equalities legislation

Delivery And Implementation

It is clearly important this is done in a way that creates a self-sustaining and measurable change process, which survives future elections changes in personnel and is visible for future generations.

We recommend that Permanent Secretaries Chief Executives and equivalent senior leaders across the public sector, have a performance objective relating to ensuring the mental wellbeing of all employees, and accountability for adopting the ‘mental health core and enhanced standards’.

We also suggest that so as to achieve leadership across the private, public and voluntary sectors, the Prime Minister sets up a new Mental Health and Employer Leadership Council.

“ Employers have a huge positive role to play in improving the nation's mental health and it also makes perfect business sense to keep our colleagues as mentally fit and productive as possible. I particularly welcome the fact that the review suggests practical steps that large and small businesses can take to start moving forward on this vital topic.” Sir Ian Cheshire, Heads Together

CIPD: Stress In The Workplace Factsheet

Stress can affect an employee’s physical and mental health, altering their behaviour and relationships with colleagues. As a commonly cited cause of long-term absence from the workplace, its key for Managers to know how to recognise and manage the factors, that can cause work-related stress. Conducting stress risk assessments and reviewing the responsibilities and activities included in job roles are good starting points, to reduce the likelihood of stress developing.

The Stress Management Society

Interview with Neil Shah, by Nikki Roy, Body Mechanics

Stress and Mental Health are now more frequently talked about in the media as wellbeing issues we need to manage personally to stay healthy. But what if the issue is much broader than this? How can stress and mental health be managed by our Government, the NHS, the workplace and wider society adopting a preemptive approach, rather than a retrospective one.

Here, Neil talks to us about his experience of stress and mental health, what stress is and how it impacts us all as individuals and as members of society, as well as offering some practical stress management resources.

1.Why did you set up The Stress Management Society and what do you do?

In 2003 I had a personal experience with my mental health, which resulted in what was described at the time, as a breakdown. I actually now describe it more as a breakthrough. At the depths of that I didn’t actually want to be here anymore. The emotional and mental pain was so great, that I was happy to end my life.

My back story is, I started my first business at 24. I turned it into an international success, a multimillion pound business and then basically crashed and lost everything. That's why I had the breakdown.

I realised that the experience I’d had wasn’t a tragedy, it was actually the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. It was up to me to decide what to do with that gift.

There really wasn’t much to support a young person going through that kind of mental health challenge. No one was really taking the time to understand what I was going through. So I decided to do something about it. I set up The Stress Management Society, to offer support to people that are suffering from mental health challenges. Essentially inspiring and empowering them to do something about it.

We set up a research and consultancy organisation called International Wellbeing Insights, which goes into corporate organisations, to deliver mental health and wellbeing programmes, which in turn advanced all our non-commercial activity.

The sad statistic is that in W.E.I.R.D countries - western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic - suicide is the main cause of death of men under the age of 45 and is rapidly becoming the same for those aged 15-29. It’s astonishing that even children under ten are having suicide thoughts and sadly many have followed through on those thoughts. It’s tragic. We are literally failing some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We have some serious societal failings where we don’t have the necessary support, and it's sad that lives lost to mental health don’t seem to matter as much as those lost to Covid.

Even with the support and right resources, it's not necessarily going to stop things; we can minimise, but we can’t stop it. With everything that’s been going on in the past two years things are getting worse, they’re not getting better.

Neil Shah
Chief De-Stressing Officer

  • International Speaker
  • Stress Management/ Wellbeing expert
  • Management Consultant
  • Executive Coach
  • Master Trainer
  • Best Selling Author
  • World’s Top 30 NLP Professionals

2. How do you define stress? Common symptoms? How important is it to manage stress effectively?

When we came into existence, there didn’t seem to be a universal, commonly accepted definition of stress, which is a little bit challenging, because if the experts don’t necessarily agree, we’ll struggle with the general kind of labelling.

It was actually a chance discussion I had on a plane, with a Structural Engineer, a stress tester, who knew a lot about stress as a force in physics, as opposed to something that is a human experience. But what I found fascinating was that there was really quite a lot of crossover. I asked him what his definition of stress was and he told me Force over Area equals Pressure.

He said if you put enough load on bridges they will eventually collapse, but before it collapses you will know that it's not coping particularly well, because it will start to bow, buckle and creak. When it's giving us those signs, we’ve then got some choices around what we can do to stop it from collapsing. We can start to take some of that load off, or we can better support it using concrete blocks underneath the bridge to help it bear the load more effectively.

My immediate reaction was, hang on a minute, people are exactly the same. It doesn’t matter how mentally tough or resilient you are, every single one of us, if enough demand is placed on us, we too ultimately collapse. And before we collapse, we’ll know we’re struggling because we show those bowing, buckling, creaking signs through changes in behaviour and emotions. It's then that we have options to actually do something about it.

So our definition of stress is where demand exceeds resources. Where the demand placed on the individual exceeds their capacity or their ability to cope with that demand, or more simply put, when the bridge has got too much load on it.

The reason we developed that kind of language is because it very much appeals to the ‘masculine mind’ of structure, logic, process, solution and focus. The masculine mind doesn’t really deal well with emotions. It allows us to have emotion based conversations in a very visual and practical way, which makes it more accessible particularly when people find it hard to tap into their emotions.

Someone saying I feel depressed can be viewed as a sign of weakness, but approaching the subject from the view that the bridge is overloaded, what do I need to either strengthen it or to remove the load, gets easier for people to kind of engage in those conversations. It’s a commonsense foundation of discussion (Final sentence added in by Nikki Roy as a comment she made during the interview).

About Neil

Neil Shah is the founder of International Wellbeing Insights and Chief De-Stressing Officer of The Stress Management Society.

A leading international expert on stress management and wellbeing, he is the author of Amazon #1 best-seller ‘Turning Negatives into Positives – An Introduction to Neurolinguistic Programming’ and ‘The 10-Step Stress Solution’

He is a renowned media personality on the subject of wellbeing, appearing regularly on BBC Breakfast, BBC Five Live and Sky Sunrise.

3. How can individuals help themselves with stress management and with achieving/maintaining good mental health?

It's not a one size fits all solution. If we go back to the bridge analogy, what options do we have to remove some of the load and how can we better equip ourselves.

One of the key things is getting the basics right and that includes things like what are you consuming both physically and mentally. Are you consuming information that is inspiring and uplifting you? Do you live your life in the past or the future?

We have no control over past or future events, so being present actually allows us to consider really how best we can navigate the experiences that we’re having. Reflect and look for things that are worthy to be grateful for - they are there in every given moment of every given day.

At the moment, the thing I think we really need to focus on is the sense of community. There is a direct correlation over the last 40 years, that as society and community have degraded, issues around mental health have increased. We don’t operate as a society anymore. We don’t have this community. We have this consumer culture that has really focused on the individual. You don’t need to rely on a person or a group to be able to function. That individualism is creating a sense of isolation.

I think we need to start moving away from this notion that mental health is an individual issue. Mental health is a societal issue. If someone has a breakdown, or takes their own life, that is not their issue, that’s a societal failing. We are creating the circumstances where that individual wasn’t supported.

Our focus for Stress Awareness Month this year, is building #Community as we are #BetterTogether. When we can build empathy and can start to see the world through each other's eyes and learn how to be compassionate, we can come together to find common solutions for societal challenges. We don’t need more polarity fuelled by profanity, we need to find unity through the power of community.

4. On your website, you've agreed with the principle that 'business leaders should drive change' - why and how?

The business community and business leaders have a vested interest in the solution around wellbeing, because there’s a direct correlation between happy, healthy staff and high productivity, performance and success. A good company to work for happens to be a successful company.

It also has a snowball effect because it impacts employees' families and therefore their communities. Company competitors, partners and suppliers suddenly start to pay attention. This is how we start to create ripples of positive change across society, by role modelling it.

Our campaign for this month is ‘Proactive not Reactive’.

We need to start getting more proactive around community building, wellbeing, inclusivity, diversity and engagement, and to move away from being reactive.

There’s significanly more chance of the suicide of someone close to you, than there is of them dying due to war or human violence, yet we don’t talk about it, we don’t understand the scale of the issue. We’ve let it get to the point where the main cause of death for a man aged 45 in Western society is suicide and even though that’s the case, we’re still not doing anything about it really. That’s absolutely tragic. 14.3% of all human beings who die every year, die as a result of their own hand. That’s incredible.

5. What do you mean by 'meaningful employment'? How do you help organisations achieve this?

Your work is a crucial part of your wellbeing. Having meaningful, gainful employment will actually contribute to your wellbeing.

To me, meaningful employment is where you’re valued as a human being, you’re able to develop and contribute your skills in a way that enhances your employer's overall vision, and you are rewarded fairly for it. This is really where organisations need to consider is their profit to the detriment of people or do we have a balance? This is really what we should be considering because this is good for everybody.

6. What projects/initiatives are you currently working on?

Right now, we’re really trying to emphasise this message of community. I’m talking about where you start to understand that collectively, we have far more things in common than the things that separate us. So we’re helping to bring people together to share their experiences and to build this community, from a local to a global level.

Also another project we’re working on is through our charitable arm, we’re currently raising money and we’ve received some lottery money, to run programmes for youths and children, particularly 11-19 year olds.

We just started a project with Charlton Athletic football club called Level Up, to equip kids with the tools that they should
be taught at schools - personal resilience, managing their wellbeing, really understanding how to equip themselves with the skills, tools and confidence to be able to navigate this world that we find ourselves in.

The other one is a Mental Wellbeing Ambassadors Programme. A proactive approach where it shows you how to have those preemptive conversations, not to wait until someone’s bridge is about to collapse, but to be able to pick it up before the bowing and buckling stage, knowing how to engage them and how to refer them to the most appropriate support resources.

7. What is the '10 Step Stress Solution?'

Neil has written two books that can help you with stress management, click on the links below to find out more.

10 Step Stress Solution

Turn Negatives into Positives: A Practical Guide to NLP

8. What changes have you seen towards addressing stress and mental health as a wellbeing issue?

We’re getting to a point where we’re more comfortable having this conversation. When Covid hit, mental health was sidelined. We’re slowly starting to see that come back up again, but it's put back the mental health progress back by 6 years. We’re back to where we were in 2016. And that for me is a real concern. Mental health didn’t just go away, because Covid came along, it actually got worse, so why have we stopped talking about it? Getting access to a Counsellor or someone on the NHS is next to impossible right now. I think it's going to take something quite prominent to put it back in our focus again. It shouldn’t take that.

9. Can you recommend any practical or insightul resources people can access to help with stress management?

Here is a link to my recommended resources: https://www.stress.org.uk/national-stress-awareness-month

Find out more and get involved...

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Mindfulness – Stress Alleviation

We all experience stress from time to time, it's a natural part of the hustle and bustle of life, however it can become an issue when stress reaches the point of overwhelm and we don’t feel able to competently manage our stress levels or to get them back into balance. Stress can manifest itself both mentally and physically, negatively impacting our overall health and wellbeing.

In this article we look at what mindfulness is and hope to provide you with some tools and resources to help you manage your stress levels regularly, working on the premise that prevention is better than cure - a little time spent managing your stress levels on a regular basis, will better place you to manage particularly stressful situations, when the time comes.

Mindfulness is a way in which we can slow down and gain awareness of ourselves; our thoughts, our biases and assumptions, our body, our environment, our relationships; it's a way to become present in the moment and to focus on what truly matters and what is within our control. It's a way of cleansing the mind and creating space for ourselves, of achieving a feeling of calm, regaining clarity and focus. Mindfulness can help rebalance our mental and physical health and elevate our resilience.

We all have a personal responsibility to ourselves to make sure we engage in self-care, but what about the duty of care our employers have towards us? How can mindfulness be incorporated into the workplace to enhance our experience and fulfilment within our job roles?

Mindfulness in the Workplace

In a CIPD Update article on 23rd March, Kristian Adams highlighted some key issues around resilience and how Line Managers in particular, play a key role in influencing how resilient team members are. He hones in on the onus still being passed back onto the individual to ‘buck up’ and get on with things, something we know from experience, isn’t an acceptable nor an effective management technique. What about adopting a more human approach? What about allowing people to acknowledge and discuss their emotions and challenges? What about Mindful Management in the Workplace?

Mindfulness at work is increasingly gaining traction as a positive way to move forward in terms of people management. It brings the ‘human’ element back into the workplace and stops treating employees as a mere resource.

Both Mindful and CIPD have backed the value of mindfulness at work. CIPD reference survey evidence from Mind in 2015 and the Police Federation in 2018, which looks at the high stress levels of police service workers and how they can be reduced. Mindfulness was considered to be an option. A bespoke mindfulness course was developed - MindFit Cop - which was positioned as a form of strength training; a way to ensure workers were fit, healthy and resilient in order to do their job. The participants learned how to meditate and were taught about the science behind mindfulness and its practical applications.

Overall, results found that police service workers who felt they had little control over their work activities experienced more wellbeing benefit than those who felt they had more control to begin with. The research is thought to have positive implications for other high stress job roles and work environments.

By incorporating mindfulness into everyday work at all levels - an individual, a managerial and an organisational level - it benefits everyone. Managers are allowed to engage in authentic leadership and to help empower their employees. Employees experience improved wellbeing and transformative experiences and different ways to work. It allows for confidence, optimism, coherence and a sense of openness to flourish and moves away from the threat of stress and burnout. Mindfulness and resilience together make for a powerful management practice, but also as a way to move forward as a business with a strong competitive advantage.

Resources For You

Meditation for Beginners
Mindful offers a free introduction to practicing mindfulness on a daily basis over 5 days. Sign up by clicking here https://mailchi.mp/mindful/sfbcf98skw

Tips on How to Lower Stress in 7 days
The Stress Management Society offer a practical guide
https://www.stress.org.uk/home-2/reduce-stress-in-7-days/

Types of Mental Health - What is Stress
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/what-is-stress/

“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”
Jon Kabat-Zinn

Guest Contributor: Tala Oodit – What Makes A Successful Workplace

Tala Oodit is an experienced HR professional whose career spans over 10 years across the FMCG, Luxury Retail and Entertainment industries. She has shared with Body Mechanics her top 5 tips on what makes a workplace successful.

1. Support Services

Companies should provide insurance protection such as Private Healthcare, Income Protection, Life Assurance, and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) as standard. I will caveat this and say that it's obviously subject to whether a company can afford to have this in place. In my opinion, these are more of a necessity than a unique selling point for a company. For the last few years, the recruitment market has been a candidate driven one - something that won’t be changing in the next few years. People are looking at the overall package and sometimes the base salary alone is not enough of an incentive to potential new recruits, so companies need to remain creative and competitive.

2. Culture

This 7 letter word is so simple and yet so complex in interpretation, so here is what culture means to me…

People will spend the majority of their life at work with colleagues, so its important that the work environment you provide is a decent one. Inclusion, access to Senior Managers and the level of trust given to people is key! It’s important that Managers sit with their team members regularly to understand what drives them and that people feel they have influence and are able to contribute to the overall success of the company.

Senior Managers need to ensure the company vision and the expectations surrounding the business goals are communicated clearly. In addition, Senior Managers should also be given Mental Health First Aid training as standard. Not only are they responsible for the financial health of the company, but also their people’s health and wellbeing too!

3. A Balanced Environment

Whilst innovation and quirky company incentives are great to boost morale, equally having fairness, transparency, consistency, and clarity in company processes such as pay review, career development, and family friendly policies are important. I saw the uncertainty that Covid-19 brought to people’s lives and just by having these basics in place, it provides peace of mind to employees.

4. A Multi-Faceted Physical Working Environment

Covid-19 saw companies having to change their physical environment overnight. All office workers were asked to work from home for months at a time. If employers are choosing to keep working from home as an option moving forward, they need to ensure that employees are suitably equipped to do so. For example, we have asked employees to let us know if they need chair supports to help with their lower back or upper back, neck and shoulders. We’ve also reinforced the importance of taking a break and moving around.

Having worked in companies with retail stores and distribution centres, our H&S team are regularly running checks to ensure manual handling training is continuously taking place, meeting with our Occupational Health team, to ensure that as a business we are making reasonable adjustments for employees.

Whether people are working from home or onsite, employers need to give consideration to their employees’ physical health and wellbeing. We’ve previously used Body Mechanics for onsite massages to help remedy any occupational stresses and strains and they also provide yoga and online workouts - a range of different ways to access and help maintain physical wellbeing.

5. Communication is Key!

An old cliche, however the most obvious. You will be surprised by how this is often overlooked or not done properly. With the events of Covid-19, all businesses have had to go through some sort of change management to accommodate their business during the global crisis. I understand that it may not be feasible to have weekly company meetings, but what I would recommend is monthly company get togethers, rather than just teams and if safe, have those get togethers in person, rather than online. A fixed date in the diary will give people peace of mind and a chance to see various people across the business. Human contact and networking shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of personal morale and career development.

Tala's Final Thought...

"People are a company’s biggest commodity. In my experience, the better you treat your people, the more inclined they will be to go above and beyond for you and for the business."