How our education system could influence corporate wellness programmes

I recently spoke at one of Ireland’s largest health insurer’s annual conference, VHI, about the importance of developing strategic and effective wellness programmes in the corporate world, where I gained some very useful information on some of the issues facing human resource departments when it comes to top down support on wellness programmes.

Some of it was positive, but quite a few of the points made, were about how some upper management were largely ignoring the subject of emotional and mental wellbeing in the work place, while placing the majority of the emphasis on business and profit development, which to be fair, is the mission of most commercial enterprises.

However, not only is this morally not acceptable, it also makes very little economic sense, as there are countless studies and endless research on the financial benefits of investing in employee welfare. It is an illustration of ineffective and short term leadership strategies that are evident in some upper management in the corporate sector.

Although mental health awareness weeks are certainly progress, many don’t engage with systematic programmes all year round that improve mental fitness, and in turn, employees ability to cope with stress and at times difficult working conditions. However, the will and passion is certainly clear to see among many businesses and companies and this excites me.

I spoke, as I tend to do, about the importance of our education system in changing negative stigmatised attitudes towards mental health. The more I engage with people on the topic, the more it becomes clear that our education system is the weapon of choice when it comes to developing a much more accepting and supporting culture for people with mental health challenges, and for building resilience in our youth, so they can cope and deal with the peaks and troughs of life.

I believe that if we start developing macro and strategic wellness programmes in our schools now, starting with primary schools and filtering into secondary and third level education, by the time our younger generation progress into the corporate world, and indeed life post the schooling system, it will be totally and completely unacceptable for companies not to have practical and efficacious employee welfare set ups.

If we normalise the importance of emotional and mental health in this generation, through the education system, they will demand that their employers cater for their welfare. Companies will be rated not just on their economic or financial success, but on how they look after the holistic health of their employees. The idea of hiring an intern and working them to the bone, without supporting their wellness needs will become socially and morally unacceptable.

The legal firms who expect their new breed to come in and work 18 hour days, but invest nothing in their welfare will have their reputation diminished while their competitors, who had the foresight to implement welfare programmes for their employees, attract the cream of the crop and hence become more commercially successful.

There is no doubt in my mind that over the next few years our education system will begin to implement effective plans to support and give our youth the tools they require to build resilience and mental fitness. There is a positive movement happening. It will take time, it will take serious team work from all parties, but IT WILL HAPPEN.

When it does, it will in its very nature alter our corporate system, and the upper management that are still ignoring the subject will be left cursing themselves that they did not place it higher up in the hierarchy of importance in their company, if they still have a job.

That said, it is heartening that the corporate system is starting to dip their toe into an exploration of staff welfare, even if only as a result of the higher levels of staff reporting greater amounts of stress and anxiety. But, it must be a meaningful and genuine exploration. Not a tick the box tokenistic offering. Things can change now, immediately in fact, if courageous actions are taken by all layers of management and staff. Greater empathy, compassion, a level of humanity in the working place that everyone is crying out for is totally achievable, if the will and determination are there to make it happen.