Perspectives on Mental Health: Member Case Study #1. Natwest Group
Last year, the SFE Young Professionals teamed up with experts at SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) and See Me Scotland, launching a key report on mental health stigma, discrimination and support in Scotland’s financial and professional services industry. The report identified four areas where the industry required action: culture, communication, capability, and covid-19 recovery. With these themes in mind, we are delving deeper with a series of case studies, aiming to gain a broader understand the different approaches firms are taking to create mentally healthy workplaces. Our first case study looks in-depth at Natwest Group’s Wellbeing Champions initiative.
The initiative was set up mid-2020 by the bank’s Wellbeing Team. Plans had been put in place as part of the bank’s wider annual people pledge, which was a commitment on how exactly they’ll champion the potential of all colleagues that year. When covid-19 hit and the scale of the mental health crisis unfolding across society was clear, the need for the initiative was reinforced and plans to roll it out were accelerated.
“We wanted to harness the passion that colleagues show for wellbeing” says Alan Mochrie, Wellbeing Consultant at NatWest Group. “Launching Wellbeing Champions allowed us to provide a consistent message to a large group of like-minded colleagues”.
The Wellbeing Champions initiative was created first, and then a few months later Inclusion Champions were created, who work together to drive change on hot topics like ethnicity, LGBT+, gender balance, disability awareness and inclusivity. There are now 1500+ Wellbeing Champions working at NatWest Group, whose objective is to promote positive health and wellbeing across the bank in different areas. The goal is for Wellbeing Champions to be approachable, supportive, encouraging and visible within their own teams, making themselves a clear, trustworthy point of contact for people seeking support with their mental health. By doing so, they act like a bridge between colleagues and the Wellbeing team, steering people towards the support and resources that are available. The Wellbeing Champions are not counsellors. They are regular Natwest Group employees who have an interest in supporting their colleagues and are there to signpost to existing support resources and knowledge.
Covid-19 and Employee Wellbeing at NatWest Group
Covid-19 had a massive impact on employee wellbeing at all financial services organisations, and NatWest Group was no different. As the bank rapidly adapted its operations to facilitate remote working, the wellbeing champions initiative was fast tracked to ensure peer-to-peer support was available as colleagues across the country adapted to this new way of working.
Wellbeing Champions gave another way to communicate down to business teams during the pandemic about key wellbeing messages such as new mental health resources available or information and support about returning to offices.
“We actually felt quite connected during the pandemic, with technology providing people the opportunities to check in with their colleagues, families and friends” says Alan. “We were acutely aware of the pressures on mental health, but new outlets were opened for people to seek support through. The big challenge for us was making sure this support continued, and our wellbeing champions provided that outlet and sounding board.”
Capability and Training
NatWest Group’s Wellbeing Champions are equipped with a range of skills and tools to manage their roles. Each participant needs to complete a Wellbeing Champion module through the bank’s HR system, Workday. The Wellbeing Team share a welcome guide with new champions, which cover each of the bank’s four wellbeing pillars (mental health, physical health, financial wellbeing and social wellbeing). Regular training is then provided to improve knowledge and understanding, including a series of webinars on different topics like resilience and sleep. The team has also launched a wellbeing wheel – an eight-part guide across all aspects of wellbeing including mental health. A resource pack is included with each module which is designed to upskill Wellbeing Champions by getting their wider teams involved and asking them to ‘train the trainer’. On top of this, NatWest Group are launching new mental health training for all line managers and their Wellbeing Champions later this year.
Key Challenges
As was highlighted in the SFE Young Professionals mental health report last year, line managers have a central role to play in improving wellbeing across the sector. The capability to spot the signs of mental health challenges and provide support to team members often lies with line managers – and this is something that NatWest Group are keen to address by providing them with training tailored to help them upskill to meet the wellbeing needs of their team members. The wellbeing team hope that this will help them personalise support to different groups of colleagues – providing consistency of delivery and support across the bank.
“We have so many colleagues with different circumstances and on different journeys, we want to provide segmented support to key groups such as those in Early Careers, those approaching redundancy, going through the menopause and living with cancer” says Alan. “Making sure every colleague has the support they need is a key priority for us going forwards.”
Individual Perspectives from NatWest Group Wellbeing Champions
“A Wellbeing Champion needs to have a certain faith in other people as it’s very rare that anyone is comfortable to put their hand up and say “thank you, that information you shared really helped me. We have to trust that something we did helped even one person in our team.” - Judith Thomson, Head of Programme Office, Digital Channels, Retail Banking DigiTech
Interview #1: Sharon Bates, Operational Resilience Manager
What’s the best thing about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“To know that you are helping someone, whether that is making them aware of the support available within NatWest Group, noticing when someone needs support and being able to signpost how we can help them or listening.”
Why are Wellbeing Champions important?
“Wellbeing is fundamental to all of us – for our own health and happiness. Having Wellbeing Champions within NatWest Group enables us to provide support and be able to help others, which supports the bank’s purpose.”
What’s the key thing you’ve learnt since becoming a Wellbeing Champion?
“Never underestimate the impact you can have by helping someone, whether that’s just to share a link, ask how they are, or to signpost wellbeing tools and the help that is available. I have also been supported by the bank to attend an external Mental Health First Aid course, which has given me additional knowledge and information to help members of staff with regard to mental health. I have been able to use this training to run ‘stress container’ sessions, which helps us to understand what causes us stress and taking action to manage our stress levels which is a key part of looking after our wellbeing.”
What’s the biggest challenge about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“Over the past few years the word ‘wellbeing’ has become a buzz word, especially since covid and since our work/life balance has changed. We hear about it now more than ever, which can also have an impact as some people can switch off and say they ‘know enough’ or know where to go. For me, it’s being able to be a wellbeing advocate, for people to know I am here to help and to remind them when its needed. I can also recognise in others when is the right time to offer support and sometimes that means I am just here to listen.”
What are your experiences with mental health challenges?
“I suffered the loss of a baby in 2007 and struggled with bereavement and the impact that had on my mental health. I used the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for counselling which enabled me to speak to someone who was able to help me work through the stages of grief and be mindful of the impact this was having on my own wellbeing.”
How has this impacted your work?
“At the time I used work as the excuse to ignore some of the what I later understood to be the process of grief and I didn’t share what I was going through apart from my line manager at the time. I felt I did not want to be treated any differently or for my work to be impacted.”
What kind of support have you had from NatWest Group?
“At the time of needing to use the EAP service, my line manager was incredibly supportive and both his empathy and the counselling service made a huge difference to me. It also allowed me to continue work, where I think with hindsight I was on the edge of not coping with the work/life balance.”
How has this helped you at work?
“I have pro-actively been an advocate of wellbeing for many years. I think my experience using EAP and the support available really gave me a foundation which I have built on. At the time it allowed me to continue work with support and over the years I have been able to recommend and signpost the various wellbeing tools knowing what difference this can make. I have also called EAP for members of staff in a crisis, which really helped them through a difficult time.”
Where is there room for improvement?
“I think anyone who is a people manager (at any level) would benefit from further training on mental health knowledge to give them the tools to initiate conversations and also be aware of the impact that they can make by identifying if someone is behaving differently or physically/emotionally are different. From personal experience, there are different types of Managers in NatWest Group, some who are very good at this and others who need training and further support. As a company we should be pro-actively improving this to ensure all managers have the right tools and all staff feel supported.”
Interview #2: Connie Storey, Personal Banker
What’s the best thing about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“Having the insight into how much support and investment that is available to employees by the bank and then being able to share this with people who really need our help.”
Why are Wellbeing Champions important?
“We can be the advocates of all the services and support the bank supplies. We get to help support local managers and staff and ensure everyone gets any help they need and no one suffers alone or uncared for.”
What’s the key thing you’ve learnt since becoming a Wellbeing Champion?
“That everyone has some level of wellbeing and its tangible thing. Everyone is different but at some point we all need support.”
What’s the biggest challenge about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“The amount of people who need support or upskilling in providing support, my wellbeing radar pings throughout the day and I’m forever making notes to check in on people. I also hear a lot of stories and experiences and it can be hard to offload other people’s distress.”
What are your experiences with mental health challenges?
“I lost my mum recently and this affected my mental health dramatically. I never knew you could physically feel pain that way.”
How has this impacted your work?
“I couldn’t focus, I was either hyper or forgetful. Starting multiple tasks at once. Not being around for work or signing off at random/unplanned times. Not being able to hold long or difficult conversations. Misreading emails.”
What kind of support have you had from NatWest Group?
“My manager was great. Reminded me of the official support the bank has to offer. They gave me time off, annual leave back, brought in supporting staff to help me in my duties, gave lots of check-ins and tea to make sure I was okay, and let me change my hours. They let me take control of when I return and how much by. This removed the pressure of expectation. They made it clear it was okay if I wasn’t okay and to take my time.”
How has this helped you at work?
“I’m sure this level of support and understanding has contributed to me returning to work faster. I felt safe and that if I needed to take some time, I could, and that it was okay too.”
Where is there room for improvement?
“I honestly couldn’t ask for anything else to have been done to help me. My manager and team have been brilliant.”
Interview #3: Shivaani Aggarwal, Senior Learning and Development Consultant, India
A personal story of my mental health challenge and the support NatWest Group provided
“Mental illness can be scary but following through by reaching out for help is even scarier.
“I went through a difficult time two years ago when I lost my brother, my best friend, and my confidant, to a sudden stroke. It all happened so suddenly that I was left in a state of disbelief, denying my feelings, I would show up with a bold smile at work. I had no energy to waste on asking unanswerable questions, so I decided that “stuff happens”. Soon enough, I started losing grip of my life. From losing weight to not being able to sleep, I faced it all. Every day at work seemed impossible. I had difficult time focusing and my performance and passion at work went south. Until one day my GP said, “Enough!” I was diagnosed with acute depression. As though the loss of brother was not enough now, I was dealing with PTSD.
“I surrendered myself to my EAP counsellor. I got unconditional support from my organisation. My line manager and I shared a safe space and she immediately reduced my work stack which was such a huge relief. I was then introduced to all the wellbeing resources NatWest Group provide. I personally found counselling, which is a completely confidential and free service provided by EAP through NatWest Group, to be very effective. My counsellor listened to me patiently and created a space free of judgements and followed through. I followed their advice to the T – meditation, physical exercise and conversations.”
“After grief, you do see beauty with an increased intensity which is amazing. I gained personal strength, more self-awareness and increased ability to see the joy of life. I made changes which made a big difference to my life. It took me six months of uphill struggle to recover from PTSD but I’ve never looked back. I feel at peace and more than ever determined to show up both professionally and personally. Since then, I’ve made supporting colleagues’ mental health my personal agenda by promoting the importance of maintaining your wellbeing and driving awareness of all the resources offered by NatWest Group. If I could make one difference that would be to normalise the way people look at mental health. I would like to erase the long taught institutionalised societal stigma around mental health.
#YouAreNotAlone”
Interview # 4: Caoimhe Moriarty, Personal Banker
What’s the best thing about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“There are a lot of advantages of being a Wellbeing Champion. We get to see what is happening each month before our colleagues so we can share this with them. Especially during the pandemic, it was brilliant sharing all the really good slides and tips on working from home for everyone. I get a great feeling of satisfaction in helping others by showing them what is available, you know you are making a difference to other people’s lives.”
Why are Wellbeing Champions important?
“You keep everyone up to date with what is happening each month. If anyone wants to contact EAP for example, you can share this information. One point of contact on a team for this type of thing is invaluable. This is a person who has volunteered or this – so you have a passion for wellbeing which means you are excellent at what you do here.”
What’s the key thing you’ve learnt since becoming a Wellbeing Champion?
“Confidentiality is so important. Share all the information you get, as even if only a few read it – it is beneficial and helping some people. With the pandemic, there are so many people who suffered and were suffering before. This type of thing helps people talk about their challenges and this will improve their mood. You’re not a qualified therapist, just share the information and that is all you can do.”
What’s the biggest challenge about being a Wellbeing Champion?
“As we are all so busy in our day to day job it can be challenging keeping up to date with the wellbeing information. Sometimes if you know the morale is low in your department, it can be difficult to know whether to share information or not.”
Interview # 5: James Boast, Managing Legal Counsel
What are your experiences with mental health challenges?
“I recently experienced a very acute bout of anxiety and panic attacks which resulted in me having to go to my local A&E department. I have suffered with anxiety in the past, but this was the most frightening experience of my life. I felt completely lost at sea and did not know how to handle what I was feeling, hence feeling the need for hospital support. It has been a very rocky few weeks since, something which I am still coming to terms with, but am starting to feel a little brighter, and determined to treat as a learning experience to help others.”
How has this impacted your work?
“In short, I quickly became completely unable to work as I simply could not focus and became consumed by my anxiety. I am now looking to phase back, albeit very much still on an iterative basis, as my stamina for focussed work still feels greatly reduced, but I am confident that will build back in time.”
What kind of support have you had from NatWest Group?
“Fabulous support. Most immediately, my line manager made it abundantly clear that there was no pressure whatsoever from a work perspective – and kindly made it clear that I have given a lot to the organisation and so this is the time for the organisation to give back to me, which was very comforting. I was signed off and told to completely forget about work. Now that I am phasing back, my line manager has continued to make it very clear that I should not in any way consider work a source of pressure and to very much take it at my own pace. This has all provided a huge amount of relief, knowing that work is not an additional source of angst at this time. My line manager has gone above and beyond and not just acted as a very supportive boss as this time, but also as a confidant on a personal level, which has compounded that sense of support from work.”
“I’ve also accessed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy through my work private medical insurance, which has been set up quickly and the first session I had has proved very helpful. Going through the work private medical insurance route has been frictionless and accommodating, which has become an additional source of comfort.”
How has this helped you at work?
“The combination of support from work/colleagues directly, and also the CBT accessed through work insurance, has provided me with significant buoyancy and optimism at what has frankly been a very frightening time. Work could not have done any more to both relieve that pressure, and also add additional support.”
Where is there room for improvement?
“My only comment here (acknowledging that I think work has been absolutely fantastic) is that I originally went through the Employee Assistance Programme (rather than work private medical insurance) in order to seek CBT. However, the EAP wasn’t able to offer direct personal CBT (although it did offer an online CBT course). I followed that avenue for a few days, before my wife suggested I consider whether any direct CBT might be available through work medical insurance (which I then accessed).”
“This is in no way, shape or form a criticism of what’s available through EAP. I only mention it as I think it would be beneficial to sign post to staff that as well as EAP, there may also be other support available through other means such as medical insurance if people are lucky enough to have it. Through my experience of what I would consider an acute mental health crisis, I think that early intervention is key. In those moments, feelings of panic can escalate, snowball and compound very quickly – and before you know it, you simply aren’t functioning. It can feel a very lonely place to be, particularly if you don’t have a “roadmap” for how to get support. Therefore, I think embedding and reinforcing all the support that’s available is really important so that people have something they can cling to when they are least able to manage. I would equate it to “CPR” for physical emergencies – something your brain can automatically reach out to in a moment of crisis.”
“I’d distinguish this from the “more chronic” (albeit no less serious) mental health “day to day wear and tear” e.g. where we are just feeling stressed in the normal sense, or low on a particular day – where all the great guidance we see around exercising, eating well, mindfulness etc is incredibly helpful. But there are times, in a state of mental health crisis, where no amount of exercise will help – and in fact I found to be an additional source of panic, given it wasn’t helping. In those acute crisis moments, I think a different type of mental health “CPR” guidance is needed. This isn’t necessarily something that the bank can do on its own, but I do nonetheless think helpful to advertise that people may find themselves in more challenging moments, to recognise them, and to get the right help immediately. Personally, I think talking to your line manager is a great first step – and outside of work, for me it was getting the support from a doctor quickly.”
Conclusion
The Wellbeing Champions initiative has proven to be a valuable tool for NatWest Group to support its employees through the different mental health challenges they have faced. As each individual contribution shows, the scale of the mental health challenge is large, but the Wellbeing Champions initiative is designed to deal with the challenge at scale, with over 1500 Wellbeing Champions adding valuable capacity to the workforce on a voluntary basis.
The size and scope of the initiative has clear advantages in terms of how it communicates the availability and benefits of NatWest Group’s wellbeing support facilities, and this communication is clearly having an impact by directing the wider workforce towards the abundance of resources Natwest Group offers. It also acts to reinforce a positive culture of openness and inclusivity, as is exemplified by the candidness of the responses that each participant in the case study gave in their responses.
The big challenge for NatWest’s Group’s Wellbeing Team lies in how they’re able to integrate line managers into their plan. Training for line managers will provide a new line of defense, allowing them to spot the signs of mental health challenges in teams earlier and offer greater support to those in need. With plans being rolled out for line manager training later this year, this is a challenge that the bank is working to address.