Over 65% of respondents to this year’s Thriving at Work Survey were SME’s, highlighting the survey’s growing reach and the fact that more companies in the highways sector are paying closer attention to mental health in the workplace.
This year’s survey’s results, launched at today’s online Safer Highways Mental Health Summit, revealed that nearly 30% of the industry has become fully compliant within three years with the core standards set out against the Government’s commission Thriving at Work standards on which the survey is based.
The report found that of the 134 organisations that took part, a significant increase on last year’s survey, 18% have now completed both the core and enhanced standards-around a fifth of the sector. Only 13 organisations are still working towards meeting any of the ten standards and eight organisations are only meeting one of the standards. It is hoped that the benchmarking survey and the personalised report has highlighted to these organisations what they should be looking at introducing for their employees and has directed them to the available resources as employers.
The survey said that Core Standard One, which expects organisations to have a mental health at work plan in place, was the least compliant with only 59% of respondents demonstrating how they meet this. But it also showed that 80% of all respondents are introducing initiatives to enhance employee awareness around mental health at work.
Overall, said the survey, it is clearly apparent that organisations within the highways sector are acknowledging their role in supporting mental health in the workplace. Through deeper analysis of the responses, it appears that organisations are doing several initiatives but are not building these into a wider strategy or plan on mental health. Thriving at Work is designed to steer organisations to the areas where they are not compliant and offer resources to build strength in this area, said the survey report. This bench- marking survey was designed specifically as an educational survey through steering those completed the survey to the guidance sections on how to improve in each specific area and ultimately achieve compliance.
Kevin Robinson, Chief Executive of Safer Highways, said: “For the second year running our industry-leading benchmarking report shows that as a sector our provision of support for mental health in the workplace is increasing. As an industry collectively this deserves a massive amount of recognition with reference to the great strides we have made. On behalf of the Safer Highways team, can I say a big thanks to everybody who took the time to complete the survey in such a open and honest way.”