Every cloud has a silver lining, as the old saying reminds us. And whilst it’s not easy to apply this sentiment to the Covid-19 pandemic, you can. And it’s that mental health and wellbeing is no longer a taboo subject now it’s given the importance it rightly deserves pretty much across the board, from the private to the public sector, big business down to the smallest.
And that’s certainly the perspective of FSB member Eileen Donnelly, who runs Ripple & Co in Wilmslow, Cheshire, which she started in late 2019 – pre-pandemic – and named in reference to the ‘ripple effect’ emanating out from every day actions.
Her mission is simply to help businesses and other organisations with staff take a best practice approach to mental health and wellbeing. This includes helping firms create their own mental health strategy and policy, promoting a positive wellbeing culture from within the company from the top down, coaching managers how to better identify and spot issues in their teams, as well as training mental health first aiders in bigger organisations.
Eileen set the business up on a hunch that health and wellbeing – she doesn’t like the term ‘mental’ which she believes is an unhelpful moniker – was becoming increasingly ‘mainstream’. Although she could never have anticipated just how much a ‘bounce’ the issue would get from the nightmare that was the Covid lockdown.
“My background was in corporate CSR, and health and wellbeing one of the key areas I was involved in for years – although we just didn’t call it that then,” she says. “In terms of CSR, looking after your staff is right at the top. You don’t get any more important than nurturing the wellbeing of your workforce; staff are the most important part of any business, but it took a global pandemic for a lot of people to understand that. But every cloud, and all that,” she says.
“I’d become a mental health first aider as part of my old job, which back then wasn’t that common. Again, that’s not the case today, people are well aware of the term, certainly in bigger businesses, although smaller firms are now taking much more notice of this subject, and it’s absolutely down to the pandemic. Smaller firms do still struggle in this area and are less equipped to deal with it, but I do think that’s changing.”
For Eileen though, that means business is booming. However, she freely admits there’s a good chance that without the pandemic, she wouldn’t be where she is today. She’s taken on her first employee – and will need another if a contract she is working on lands. She’ll also need premises.
She says: “The irony isn’t lost on me. Covid initially destroyed my business, but then it made it what it is today. It was a bit of a phoenix from the ashes moment when I look back. In January 2020 I was just taking my first steps as a fledging business, I had a few clients signed up and was looking forward to really getting going. And then along came Covid.
“Almost overnight my clients were locked down, and the business just disappeared. Literally over night. But it was only temporary as I got them all back – and now I’ve never been busier.”
Eileen reckons the problems of mental health in the workplace were always present pre-Covid, but few people understood the scale of the problem, or even really wanted to address it. The Pandemic – and specifically lockdown – changed all that.
“It did expose a lot of things,” she adds. “Younger people were particularly affected by the lockdown. They were more likely to have been living in poor accommodation, those in their early 20s are an age group who would normally be going out a lot, meeting people, but they couldn’t, and that obviously impacted on their lives. People in the 16-24 age category are much more likely to come forward with mental health issues than any other age band, they seem more comfortable accepting they have a problem and talking about it. That’s not going away,” she added.
But Eileen believes we are living through a sea-change moment in the way the nation looks at mental health, with all types of organisations now looking to do more in this area.
“Big businesses are really at the vanguard in this, which is fairly normal. Where big corporates lead, others follow. And it’s not just the private sector either. I have just won a contract with Bolton Council who are looking to put a scheme together to help small business owners in the area, and with funding from central Government. Everyone’s looking at it in a new way.
“The smaller firms are playing catch-up, but what we’re seeing in this size business is a top down approach from the owner. All in all it’s refreshing to see the mood music has changed for the better.”
If you’d like more information about Ripple&Co, or would like any advice from Eileen on health and wellbeing in the workplace, visit their website here www.rippleandco.com.