Case study: Ownership as a key ingredient to successful interventions

09/10/2024

‘Company B’ is one of the three organisations that took part in RSSB’s Mental Wellbeing in Rail: Achieving Change project. The project, which ran from 2022 to 2024, sought to help these companies implement, monitor, and measure their mental health interventions. The interventions were informed by findings from our cross-industry mental health survey in 2020. Read the report on the project.

Initial assessment

RSSB did an assessment of Company B’s strengths and challenges in managing mental health in collaboration with Company B. Based on the assessment, Company B set a goal to increase mental health awareness and reduce stigma.

Steering group

A steering group, made up of employees from across the business, was established to develop work on Company B’s goal. The steering group, chaired by the project lead at Company B, met monthly, initially.

The steering group was run internally. RSSB attended one of their meetings to present options for potential interventions the group could explore further. After the meeting, engagement in the project dropped, with low attendance and participation. This made it difficult for the project lead to get agreement on the next steps that should be taken to achieve their goal and progress the project.

Changes made to steering group

Eventually, the project lead encouraged the steering group to take ownership of the group. Modifications to the steering group’s approach included rotating responsibilities between group members and taking it in turns to chair the meetings. The steering group also started meeting face-to-face where possible. New members who had more capacity to support the project were brought in.

According to the project lead, the changes enabled the group to have more organic discussions about how they would like to achieve the goal of increasing awareness of mental health and reducing stigma. From these discussions, the group planned several activities that would help them achieve their goal.

A participatory approach

RSSB’s project team suggested Company B’s original interventions. This may have contributed to the group feeling detached from the project, which resulted in a lack of participation and motivation to take action.

Research into participatory approaches suggests that successful implementation may occur when participants are able to take ownership of the solutions.¹ Change is often achieved through direct collaboration with those impacted by the issue that is being considered.

The activities suggested by the steering group differed from the original ideas proposed by RSSB’s project team. But the group’s ability to set their own activities may have allowed them to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility over the project’s success.

Activities agreed by steering group

The steering group agreed to create a handbook to raise awareness of common mental health and wellbeing topics including stress, anxiety, rest, and recovery. The resource would also signpost staff to support options. The handbook would be launched alongside an in-person presentation delivered by a wellbeing champion.

The handbook and presentation were piloted in one area of the business. Data collected before and after the presentation showed that, following the session and receipt of the handbook, awareness of mental health among attendees had increased. The number of staff who reported feeling comfortable speaking to a wellbeing champion if they experienced a mental health problem also increased. Their belief that they would be supported by the organisation if they declared a mental health issue was also strengthened.

Lessons learned

Company B was successful in planning and delivering an activity to improve mental health awareness at work. Organisations that are planning and delivering a mental health intervention can learn from Company B’s experience.

Company B’s process revealed that it is not feasible for one person to lead and deliver a wellbeing intervention. Having a group of individuals that can steer the direction, share responsibility, and who have capacity and resource, is important for success.

Secondly, if the intervention is to be successful, it is essential for the ideas, planning, and delivery of interventions to be led by internal stakeholders. They may be those who will be affected by an initiative, those who are responsible for driving the initiative forward, or both. Employee consultation is a vital part of delivering a wellbeing intervention. Simply telling your team what needs to happen with no consultation process could lead to a lack of ownership, disengagement, and low motivation.

Finally, a key message from Company B’s experience is to start somewhere, however small. Increasing awareness and reducing stigma around mental health at work are huge tasks. Trying to achieve this instantly may be overwhelming and lead to no action at all. Company B chose a small step to start to increase awareness and reduce stigma and began by piloting this in one area of the organisation. The data shows that, in this part of the business, they were successful in increasing awareness and improving perceptions around support available. Starting in one area could then lead to a wider rollout of the initiative across the business.

_____________________________

¹ _{Nielsen K and Christensen M (2021). Positive Participatory Organizational Interventions: A Multilevel Approach for Creating Healthy Workplaces. Front. Psychol. 12:696245. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.696245}