10 June 2016 | Martin Read
The Building Engineering Services Association (the BESA), the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) and the CIBSE Patrons are joining forces with the Samaritans to address mental health and workplace stress concerns in the building engineering services industry.
According to BESA chief executive Paul McLaughlin, 80 per cent of engineering services firms believe workplace mental health will have a serious impact on their businesses over the next five to ten years. The figure comes from an occupational health survey carried out by BESA and ECA that also suggests 31 per cent of companies find on-site mental health issues “hard to manage”.
“As an industry, we have made impressive progress on workplace safety in the past 20 years,” said McLaughlin. “But on health – and mental health in particular – we still have a long way to go. Mental health is the forgotten health and safety issue.”
The three bodies’ initiative is to be marked by a jointly-hosted seminar in central London, which the ESA’s McLaughlin will chair.
Will Skinner, the Samaritans regional partnerships officer who will lead an interactive session at the seminar, says that callers to the Samaritans range from individual tradespeople to senior managers feeling the isolation of leadership. Many small and medium-sized firms are also struggling to cope with stress created by tight deadlines and cash flow issues.
CIBSE Patrons chairman David Fitzpatrick pointed out that the impact of stress was apparent throughout the supply chain.
“For an industry that already has serious recruitment issues, tackling mental health has to be a priority,” he said.
Paul Reeve, CA director of business, added: “In order to make construction-related professions more attractive to a wider section of the population – particularly women, ethnic minorities and school leavers – we need to make sure we cover all aspects of worker wellbeing.”
“With workplace mental health now an established issue, the sector needs to work together to help contractors manage these issues”.
The mental health seminar will take place at St Matthew’s Conference Centre, 20 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2BU on Thursday 21 July from 5.00 pm. Bookings can be made here.
