On World Mental Health Day (10 October), this year’s focus is mental health in the workplace. In this post, Louise reflects on what LK Translations does to safeguard its team’s mental well-being.
Recent statistics speak for themselves: 875,000 workers were suffering from work-related stress, depression and anxiety in 2022/23 and, in 2022, the fifth most common reason for sickness absence was mental health*.
As an employer, I’m mindful that I have a role to play in the health and well-being of my employees. A total of zero sickness days in 2024 so far and fewer than can be counted on one hand in 2023 suggests that we’re getting this right, and I’ve been reflecting on why this might be.
LKT’s in-house staff switched to full-time home-based working in late 2023. We’ve always been a hybrid team, with some staff working in the office and others from home, and of course our freelance partners work from home, so this wasn’t an unfamiliar concept (and came relatively soon after lockdown). Still, it was a substantial change for those of us who were used to spending at least some working hours together in the office. Mindful of their importance, I made sure that I asked questions about practical requirements: was there anything we could do to ensure that the space staff were working in was equipped in the best possible way (if they were using a laptop could we use a docking station to set up a desktop environment with large screen, mouse and keyboard; did they have a good quality office chair)?
The mental impact of working in (relative) physical isolation is never far from my mind. I left an in-house role to start LKT and spent the first three years of self-employment working from a spare bedroom at home (and have now come full circle, I guess), so I was always conscious that my home-based staff should feel that they were an integral part of the “on-site” team. One of the ways in which we achieved this was introducing technology which would allow team members to “chat” – initially Skype and more recently Teams – and enabled us to set up our “LKTEAM” whiteboard/sounding board for exchanging ideas and asking for help with translation content. This technology has remained in place now that we’re all home-based.
At a very practical level I insist that working hours are strictly adhered to: 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (3.30 p.m. on Fridays) with an hour for lunch (30 minutes on Fridays). There is no working outside of these hours or at weekends. Work-related e-mail accounts are held on LKT PCs and are not accessible on mobile phones. Employees take their full holiday allowance annually, with no carry-over. Working to meet strict deadlines and stringent quality requirements places us under pressure and downtime is vital. Simple but clear boundaries are in place.
Despite our increasingly automated (some might say artificial) world, people matter – and they need to know that. Getting the basics really counts in this regard, contributing directly to employee health and well-being and, in turn, the ultimate success of a business.
*References: Stevenson, D., & Farmer, P. (2017). Thriving at Work: A Review of Mental Health and Employers (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/658145/thriving-at-work-stevenson-farmer-review.pdf)
Health and Safety Executive. (2023). Health and safety at work: Summary statistics for Great Britain 2023 (https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/assets/docs/hssh2223.pdf)