Employee wellbeing

Not about blame

Nick did not suggest we should blame ourselves for these traits. His message was, rather, that by understanding how we behave, we can be better equipped to curtail the negative aspects. It was also about how those who work with us, manage us or support us can recognise and reduce the main triggers for mental ill-health, and provide a working environment that plays to lawyers’ strengths not their weaknesses.

The impact on productivity

Interestingly, Nick included some startling evidence about the impact of stress and long hours on productivity. In several case studies, shorter working hours have actually yielded a greater, not to mention a higher quality, output. So there are business as well as personal drivers for improving employees’ mental wellbeing.

What’s being done in the legal profession

Both during and after Nick’s talk, attendees exchanged thoughts about the mental health support schemes in their own organisations. There is a lot being done – mental health “first aid” training; corporate wellbeing plans; workshops and training sessions – but I was particularly struck by three things:

• Following up on mental health first aid training by turning your first aiders into proactive mental health “champions”, who are visible and approachable and help ensure their colleagues understand the help they can provide.
• The importance of having senior staff involved: taking part in the first aid training, sharing their personal stories, acting as both role models and ambassadors for change.
• The need for flexible working schemes that incorporate clearer, and better respected, boundaries between work and down-time, and if necessary for them to be enforced so that employees are certain to take healthy amounts of the leave and non-working hours they’re entitled to.

Support for employers

Through these round-table events, and her work on wellbeing surveys for junior lawyers as well as the Junior Lawyers Division’s employers’ guidance, Kayleigh Leonie has done a lot to improve mental wellbeing for lawyers.  She has created a community of employers who are now sharing ideas and best practices – as well as their experiences of things that work less well – to everyone’s advantage.  I am extremely grateful to her for allowing us access to that.  Perhaps in due course we can build a similar community for IP Inclusive supporters.

IP Inclusive’s activities

Meanwhile our 14 May lunch-time webinar, to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, will include a discussion on mental health first aid training and appropriate follow-up. You can register for that webinar here.

And I am delighted that Nick Bloy has agreed to repeat his talk for us in an IP Inclusive webinar at 4 pm on 13 June 2019. You can find more details and a registration link here.

Both of our webinars are free for all IP professionals, whatever their role or their level of seniority, and for those who support them for instance in managerial or HR functions. We have also organised some “live viewings”, at various locations; these are informal events that allow you to watch the webinar alongside your peers and if appropriate to discuss together the issues that it raises.

IP Inclusive is involved in several activities to mark Mental Health Awareness Week this year. In addition to the webinars, we’ll be running a survey on stress and mental wellbeing in the patent and trade mark professions, by way of follow-up to our 2018 survey; and some mental health first aid training “pilots” for our EDI Charter signatories.

Our aim is to ensure that mental health stays on the agenda throughout the year, not just for one week.

Page published on 25th March 2019
Page last modified on 25th March 2019