Promoting healthy lifestyles at work

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Bupa Bitesize Academy module.

I'm Emma Shatliff, manager of the Bupa academy.

In today's session will be discussing the role line managers can play in supporting employees with long term health conditions in the workplace.

I'm delighted to be joined by Dr.

Ravi Lukha, medical director at Bupa Welcome, Ravi.

Thanks Emma.

Great to be here.

So it's estimated that a staggering 15 million people in England are living with a long term condition.

So can you define what a long term condition is?

And maybe provide some examples of those?

Sure.

So long term conditions, also known as chronic diseases, are health problems that require ongoing management over a period of years.

They can't currently be cured, but they can be managed by certain therapies or medication.

Now, examples can include high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, cancers as well as some lung conditions like asthma and mental health conditions as well, like depression.

So what impact can long term conditions have in the workplace if employees are not supported?

Yeah.

So failure to support employees with long term conditions can have marked negative impacts on employees in the workplace.

So I’ll highlights three here.

Firstly, it's around increased absence due to staff being unable to manage their conditions whilst working.

Next is around high staff turnover, which can also increase in unemployment levels, which we know from the evidence base is bad for individuals health.

Finally, is around low morale in the team in the organisation, potentially due to staff members feeling unable to fulfill the demands of their job.

And these three negative impacts can of course affect the individual employees as well as the organisation and wider society as well.

I think with the low morale thing, if one person's feeling that if they're part of a team, it can quite quickly escalate and then everyone feels the same thing and that can equally have a negative effect on productivity and things like that, would you say?

Absolutely.

I think that's the point, that it can affect the individual.

It can be something that is spread between within the team and ultimately can affect your workplace productivity.

And ultimately, in that case, everybody really suffers.

So it's important that long term conditions are recognised within the workplace.

So what the steps managers can take to support employees with long term conditions?

So there's a number of steps that I'll highlight here, Emma.

So four in particular, firstly, communication is key.

So line managers should be able to recognise any signs of symptoms if people are struggling at work due to any long term conditions and really know where to signpost them for any support.

Now, although policies and procedures are important and I'll touch on on those in a second, what's really important ultimately is having a supportive line manager and they should make sure that they direct people to HR occupational health as well.

So next is around understanding those policies and procedures within your organisation that I just mentioned.

So line managers should understand these, for example, around your sickness absence policy, and that means you can offer a consistent, systematic and fair approach to each individual and really support them within the workplace.

The third is around making the right workplace adjustments.

And this is important because we know that creating the right work environment can be a great step forward in supporting people, not just stay in work but also flourish in work as well.

Employees who have long term conditions may also be covered by certain statutory protection that requires employers to make reasonable workplace adjustments.

So line managers should be aware of these, do make the changes and evaluate them as well.

Finally, it's important that line managers do signpost people to any support if they need it.

So for example, if we talk about stress and mental health, we know that these are two of the leading causes of long term sickness absence in the workplace in the UK.

Now, people might be reluctant to seek any help, but it's important that, as I said, line managers recognise any signs of people struggling at work and do signpost them to any places they can get support.

For example, your Employee Assistance Program or EAP if you have one.

And can healthy behaviours have any impact on long term health conditions?

Yeah, absolutely.

So for most long term conditions, promoting a healthy lifestyle can help to slow down their progression or even treat them.

For example, if you think about diabetes and healthy eating and physical exercise, but we should always be mindful about an individual's medical condition to make sure that they're doing in a safe way along with any medical advice.

So in general, healthy behaviours can can help to prevent long term conditions for the wider workforce.

So they're important from that point of view.

Specific advice I give to line managers towards promoting healthy behaviours at work includes ensuring that they're upskilled to spot any signs of symptoms of people struggling at work and to encourage people to seek help.

If you're having any any internal events to align them with key national campaigns such as Alcohol Awareness Week and do use your Wellbeing champions if you have any, to help spread the word and promote any initiatives that might be available to employees in the workplace.

I think as well on that, it'd be great if you're just one individual as part of a team that has got a long term health condition, you know, maybe getting involved in more team activities to support that person because I think having that encouragement to maybe change some of those behaviours is better achieved if you've got a team of supporters around you, or joining in with you to sort of make those changes as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think a good example of that is around mental health and wellbeing and mindfulness.

So I've seen really good examples of mindfulness exercises in over a number of weeks that the teams take part in and really help support some people that are struggling with mental health.

Also help to prevent any ill effects of mental health as well in the workplace.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Ravi.

That was super helpful and really, really interesting.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Bupa Bitesize Academy module.

I'm Emma Shatliff, manager of the Bupa academy.

In today's session will be discussing the role line managers can play in supporting employees with long term health conditions in the workplace.

I'm delighted to be joined by Dr.

Ravi Lukha, medical director at Bupa Welcome, Ravi.

Thanks Emma.

Great to be here.

So it's estimated that a staggering 15 million people in England are living with a long term condition.

So can you define what a long term condition is?

And maybe provide some examples of those?

Sure.

So long term conditions, also known as chronic diseases, are health problems that require ongoing management over a period of years.

They can't currently be cured, but they can be managed by certain therapies or medication.

Now, examples can include high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, cancers as well as some lung conditions like asthma and mental health conditions as well, like depression.

So what impact can long term conditions have in the workplace if employees are not supported?

Yeah.

So failure to support employees with long term conditions can have marked negative impacts on employees in the workplace.

So I’ll highlights three here.

Firstly, it's around increased absence due to staff being unable to manage their conditions whilst working.

Next is around high staff turnover, which can also increase in unemployment levels, which we know from the evidence base is bad for individuals health.

Finally, is around low morale in the team in the organisation, potentially due to staff members feeling unable to fulfill the demands of their job.

And these three negative impacts can of course affect the individual employees as well as the organisation and wider society as well.

I think with the low morale thing, if one person's feeling that if they're part of a team, it can quite quickly escalate and then everyone feels the same thing and that can equally have a negative effect on productivity and things like that, would you say?

Absolutely.

I think that's the point, that it can affect the individual.

It can be something that is spread between within the team and ultimately can affect your workplace productivity.

And ultimately, in that case, everybody really suffers.

So it's important that long term conditions are recognised within the workplace.

So what the steps managers can take to support employees with long term conditions?

So there's a number of steps that I'll highlight here, Emma.

So four in particular, firstly, communication is key.

So line managers should be able to recognise any signs of symptoms if people are struggling at work due to any long term conditions and really know where to signpost them for any support.

Now, although policies and procedures are important and I'll touch on on those in a second, what's really important ultimately is having a supportive line manager and they should make sure that they direct people to HR occupational health as well.

So next is around understanding those policies and procedures within your organisation that I just mentioned.

So line managers should understand these, for example, around your sickness absence policy, and that means you can offer a consistent, systematic and fair approach to each individual and really support them within the workplace.

The third is around making the right workplace adjustments.

And this is important because we know that creating the right work environment can be a great step forward in supporting people, not just stay in work but also flourish in work as well.

Employees who have long term conditions may also be covered by certain statutory protection that requires employers to make reasonable workplace adjustments.

So line managers should be aware of these, do make the changes and evaluate them as well.

Finally, it's important that line managers do signpost people to any support if they need it.

So for example, if we talk about stress and mental health, we know that these are two of the leading causes of long term sickness absence in the workplace in the UK.

Now, people might be reluctant to seek any help, but it's important that, as I said, line managers recognise any signs of people struggling at work and do signpost them to any places they can get support.

For example, your Employee Assistance Program or EAP if you have one.

And can healthy behaviours have any impact on long term health conditions?

Yeah, absolutely.

So for most long term conditions, promoting a healthy lifestyle can help to slow down their progression or even treat them.

For example, if you think about diabetes and healthy eating and physical exercise, but we should always be mindful about an individual's medical condition to make sure that they're doing in a safe way along with any medical advice.

So in general, healthy behaviours can can help to prevent long term conditions for the wider workforce.

So they're important from that point of view.

Specific advice I give to line managers towards promoting healthy behaviours at work includes ensuring that they're upskilled to spot any signs of symptoms of people struggling at work and to encourage people to seek help.

If you're having any any internal events to align them with key national campaigns such as Alcohol Awareness Week and do use your Wellbeing champions if you have any, to help spread the word and promote any initiatives that might be available to employees in the workplace.

I think as well on that, it'd be great if you're just one individual as part of a team that has got a long term health condition, you know, maybe getting involved in more team activities to support that person because I think having that encouragement to maybe change some of those behaviours is better achieved if you've got a team of supporters around you, or joining in with you to sort of make those changes as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think a good example of that is around mental health and wellbeing and mindfulness.

So I've seen really good examples of mindfulness exercises in over a number of weeks that the teams take part in and really help support some people that are struggling with mental health.

Also help to prevent any ill effects of mental health as well in the workplace.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Ravi.

That was super helpful and really, really interesting.

Hi everyone, and welcome to this Bitesize Academy module.

I'm Emma Shatliff manager of the Bupa Academy.

In today's session, we'll be discussing the role line managers can play to support heart health in the workplace.

And for that I'm delighted to be joined by Dr.

Yassir Javiad clinical director of cardiology.

Thanks for joining me Yassir.

Thank you very much, Emma.

It's a pleasure to be here.

So if we get started with the first question.

In the UK, somebody is admitted to a hospital due to a heart attack every 5 minutes.

Can you tell us what the most common heart conditions?

Well, actually, heart disease is one of the biggest global killers.

But yes, in the UK, it's one of the most common causes of dying prematurely, and that's in both men and women.

It's a sobering fact that far more women die prematurely from heart disease than they do, for instance, from breast cancer.

The most common cause of heart disease in the UK would be coronary heart disease.

And this is where you get a gradual furring of the arteries that supply the heart with blood and oxygen.

And this furring up process is due to fatty deposits that gradually build up in the lining of those arteries.

And it's early stages, most people with coronary heart disease would be blissfully unaware that they have this.

It doesn't usually cause any symptoms, but as it progresses, it can start significantly blocking one or more of these arteries.

And when that happens, patients often get symptoms of chest discomfort or chest tightness, particularly when they exert themselves, because that's when the heart struggles with that lack of oxygen.

And that's called angina.

The most serious complication, though, of coronary heart disease would be having a heart attack.

And this is when one of those fatty deposits just suddenly ruptures or tears and the body tries to repair that by producing a blood clot.

The problem is these blood clots can develop very quickly and can become very big and they can suddenly block one of these arteries.

The patient will then usually experience a sudden onset chest discomfort or chest tightness.

Most people having a heart attack would also feel and look them well.

Clearly, that's a medical emergency.

People need to dial 999 and seek urgent treatment.

Otherwise, significant parts of that heart muscle will die and that can sadly, occasionally lead to death.

Other forms of heart disease include abnormalities of the heart's rhythm.

These are known as arrhythmias.

Thankfully, the majority of these are relatively benign and not too serious, but they can still cause a tremendous amount of anxiety and some people can experience the odd extra beat or missed beat, which doesn't tend to cause any long term issues.

But then other people can develop sort of fast and irregular heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation, which is now known to be the single leading independent risk factor for having a stroke.

So clearly an important condition to identify and treat.

Other forms of heart disease, include structural heart disease.

This is where there's damage to the actual structure of the heart.

Commonly, the heart valves can get damaged.

They can become leaky or blocked.

Sometimes people can actually develop heart failure, which is where the pumping efficiency of the heart is significantly reduced.

And finally, the other major component of of heart disease is congenital heart disease.

And this is where, sadly, patients are actually born with a significant abnormality of the heart.

And do you think people are surprised to hear that heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK?

Does that surprised people?

I don't think so.

It's one of those, certainly I'm a bit biased because obviously that's my main area of interest in medicine, but I think the heart is quite an emotive organ and certainly I find any I find the opposite actually sometimes I'm trying to reassure patients that they've got a heart condition that isn't that serious, but because it's related to the heart, it can sort of fuel a lot of anxiety.

Of course, thank you.

So we know that risk factors for developing a heart condition such as your age or genetics can't be controlled.

But what are some of the ways that work can impact on the health of your heart?

And what should managers be aware of?

A poor working environment can certainly impact adversely on your heart health by promoting a sedentary, inactive lifestyle and also an unhealthy diet.

We also know that stress can impact on your heart.

Health and stress is associated with high blood pressure, which can or is a risk factor for developing heart disease, particularly coronary heart disease and heart failure.

We also know that the poor availability of healthy eating options can contribute significantly to both obesity and high levels of bad cholesterol.

Again, these are two quite significant risk factors for developing heart disease.

I think as well.

With the move to hybrid working, sometimes when you're working from home, essentially it's easier to maybe tuck into those, you know, crisps and biscuits that you wouldn't neccesarily tuck into while you are in the office.

So I think a lot managers can do to promote that.

So as we talk about lifestyle factors, many of the lifestyle factors can contribute to poor heart health.

For example, research shows that roughly a third of adults in England are damaging their health by not being active enough.

So what can line managers do to help champion positive lifestyle habits?

Well for me, exercise and activities is a key part of this whole strategy because lots of research has shown that not doing enough exercise is linked to poor heart health.

Not just actually your heart, it increases the risk of strokes as well.

So people who constantly working at their desk or doing a lot of travelling may not realise how sedentary they've become.

And I think there are lots of things that line managers can do to promote an active and healthy lifestyle.

I've actually just made a list here: line managers can encourage teams to get up and move around every 30 minutes.

I mean, we really should be avoiding prolonged periods of of being sedentary.

I think if possible, people should be allowed to take calls or log into a remote meetings while walking.

I don't see any issue with that.

If it's possible.

I think that would be a really great thing to encourage and also want to encourage and facilitate walking and cycling to work as a means of increasing that that level of activity.

Being aware of how your team works and encouraging members to take their lunch breaks and preferably away from their desk or workstation would be a very positive move.

And as I stated earlier, I think making healthy options available and readily available in canteens and vending machines is a is a really important facilitation of employees being able to take better care of their heart health, and also making sure that there are areas within the workplace where people can perhaps warm up food that they've prepared specifically at home.

It's also a great idea to be mindful when catering for meetings and making sure again that there are healthy options to replace those often, you know, options that I see when I go to meetings that are sort of full of carbohydrates, sugar and and sort of fat.

And I think finally avoiding pollution is a great way to not only improve your heart health, but also your general health.

So encouraging, if possible, again, flexible working times to allow people to commute outside of rush hour could be of great benefit.

Thank you.

That's some really good tips there.

And I suppose as well, you know, for employees that may have always you know, they've never been into exercise a lot.

Being active, I suppose, is the message.

It's never too late to start like, you know, get people moving and just because they haven't done it before, it's a great way to start looking after the heart health.

Yeah.

And it's never too late to start and small steps are better than no steps.

So absolutely, I totally agree with that philosophy.

There are over 7 million people living with heart and circulatory disease in the UK.

So what can we do to support employees who might have received a diagnosis?

Well, I mean, a diagnosis of a heart condition can be devastating for some people, and it can often invoke this very powerful, negative emotional response.

It's often the first sign of someone's mortality.

It can be the first indication for that person and it can cause a lot of anxiety.

So I think being sensitive to that and providing support for that aspect as necessary is really important and providing reassurance that any conversation related to health should always be treated with, you know, strict confidence.

And that can really help establish trust.

And I think it's important to be understanding if people need to take time off work due to sickness or indeed due to the often many medical appointments that they require after their diagnosis of a heart condition is important.

And I think, if possible, to allow for these medical appointments to be undertaken during working hours, I think would be a nice move to offer employees and all members of the team I think should be aware of the company's sickness policies, how to access them and who to ask if they have any further questions.

Following a heart related issue.

Specifically, some people may not actually be able to return to their previous working role, and so adaptations may need to be made to the work environment, to the role.

So I think it'd be sensible to perhaps organise a meeting with the employee to see what changes may need to be made.

And it's also very common, I think that's an important point, it's very common for people with a diagnosis of a heart condition to suffer some form of mental illness.

Anxiety is extremely common.

People become fearful of their diagnosis and some people actually get depressed by their diagnosis.

So being aware of that and signposting employees to appropriate services I think would be a positive move for those employees.

It's a huge association with absenteeism, the mental illness associated with heart disease and perhaps ensuring that team members are aware of who to speak to about their mental health issues, whether it's an occupational health nurse or a HR representative and also make it clear to those working from home how to access these services.

That's great advice.

And i think the impact of heart disease is far reaching.

So even if it's not the employee themselves that had a diagnosis of a heart condition, it could be a relation.

Do you have any tips for organisations on how they can create a heart-healthy workplace?

Well, firstly, prioritising heart health.

I think it's crucial and perhaps I'm being a bit biased, but heart disease, you know, is we mustn't forget a leading cause of dying prematurely in this country and also a leading cause of feeling unhealthy both mentally and physically.

In fact, the NHS now has a long term plan which specifically places a huge priority on preventing heart disease.

It's actually identified it as the leading opportunity to save lives in this country over the coming years, and also as a means to improve the overall health of the nation.

So I think organisations really must try and ensure that heart health is a part of the company culture.

And a key part of that is the identification and treatment and signposting of perhaps the mental health issues that can occur as a result of a diagnosis, as well as of course encouraging those healthy lifestyles, the activity and the healthy eating.

Thank you for those tips and advice.

I really enjoyed the session today, so, thank you so much for joining me.

It's been an absolute pleasure, Emma.