Universities need to ensure that they create a “culture” centred on well-being if they want to support staff mental health, according to HR managers at top-performing institutions.
While most universities have policies in place to support students’ mental health, a recent analysis of the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which assess how universities perform against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), found the same does not apply to staff. While 62 per cent of institutions ranked for SDG 3 (good health and well-being) submitted evidence showing that they provide access to mental health support for students, only 41 per cent submitted equivalent staff data.
Barry Holmes, director of HR at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Ireland, which achieved top marks for the staff mental health indicator and ranked first globally for SDG 3 as a whole, said that supporting staff mental health had to start with encouraging a positive culture where staff felt empowered to talk about their well-being.
“Policies are only as good as the system in which they’re interacting. You need to look at what the people philosophy is,” he said. “If you only have four or five policies, one of which is mental health, and you drop it in, it’s probably going to fall flat on its face.”
RCSI’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy, introduced in 2022 following the Covid-19 pandemic, encourages managers to “talk about well-being with your team” and includes suggestions of how to do this, steps to take after such conversations and how to spot signs when staff are struggling.
It has programmes promoting physical, nutritional, mental and occupational health, and has produced guidance documents that outline methods for easing difficult conversations with colleagues.
But how can you practically implement a culture that champions mental health?
Holmes said that well-being policies needed to not just feel like a “tick-box” exercise, and staff needed to feel listened to for them to believe that their university was serious about well-being.
For example, he explained that the university’s menopause policy was introduced after its deputy vice-chancellor had casual conversations in the office about the menopause. This led to a wider conversation about menopause in the workplace “whereby we said, ‘look maybe we need to do something about this’”.
Deb Garland, manager for workplace health and well-being strategies at McMaster University, which also received top marks for the staff mental health indicator and ranked fourth globally in the SDG 3 table, said that mental well-being had been solidified in the university’s “vision”, and that well-being and psychological safety were introduced as part of the university’s leadership capabilities.
This means, she said, “we’re accountable for employee well-being and psychological health and safety in the way that we communicate, or the way that we develop our people”.
The Canadian university has had a mental health policy since 2002, long before many other institutions. This included the introduction of several programmes, such as the healthy workplace committee, which is made up of employee volunteers who develop initiatives based on financial, physical, psychological and social well-being.
Last week, the university ran its annual “Thrive Week” event, a Canada-wide initiative recognised at several universities, which brought staff and students together in well-being activities ranging from creating stress balls to therapy animal sessions and games of mini golf in the library. But it also offers more serious training: after introducing training on mental health and how managers can support their team members’ mental well-being, it will now trial a suicide intervention programme, training staff to spot signs of concern among their colleagues.
Garland said gathering data was important to back up policy ideas with senior leaders, especially when staff were struggling to get buy-in from senior leadership for mental health support. But, overall, Garland agreed it all came down to culture.
“It’s about being human. Show that you care. Be curious about the people that you’re working with. It’s really about building the culture to have those conversations about well-being and mental health,” she said. “Having a policy can contribute to well-being, but really it doesn’t build the culture. The people do, their actions do, and I think that’s where people need to start.”