Case study: VolkerRail’s BROS (Building Relationships On Site) initiative
During COVID-19, we had regular online mental health meetings and ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions to improve mental health knowledge among our staff. These ‘Lunch and Learns’ continued to be popular, but it soon became clear that only office workers were attending. We realised that the sessions weren’t accessible for frontline colleagues, who often work unusual or unsociable hours and don’t always have access to a computer.
Recognising that frontline staff make up a huge part of the workforce, we decided we needed a new approach. So, we sent frontline workers a short feedback form via email and asked them to share what information around mental health would be helpful for them. Based on this feedback, we created the BROS initiative.
What’s BROS all about?
BROS is about breaking stigmas and making the uncomfortable conversations comfortable.
Within VolkerRail, more than 64% of staff are site-based employees who work unsociable hours, with long periods away from home. Due to these long periods away from home, the behaviours that would usually come from family and friends—such as checking in on mental wellbeing—tend to not occur. This means the signs that someone’s struggling could be missed.
Really, the intention of BROS is to create a more positive, ‘family-like’ environment at work.
The initiative involves regular briefings, including a talk and activities, to help people open up with their peers. The sessions provide information on mental health and what individuals can do to help themselves and others. Following this, we also share a Toolbox Talk, which site managers can take away to use with new staff.
The final element of the BROS briefing is an activity called ‘thinking outside the box’. The activity aims to get staff thinking about their personality traits both at work and home. Individuals receive blank cards and write down their traits and behaviours, which go into a box. For example, someone may have written, ‘I can’t speak in the morning unless I have had coffee’. Someone then reads these out. The person can either decide to say that it was them or keep it anonymous, but the rest of the team can comment and relate to it. This helps strengthen relationships within the team and creates a positive environment.
BROS is breaking down barriers and creating a culture where individuals feel less alone. The team feels more able to talk about issues that might otherwise be seen as awkward and personal, such as mental health.
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How we rolled out BROS
Initially, we used regular briefing slots to share the BROS initiative. I contacted each division and asked to share the BROS initiative at the next available Stand Down Day, Senior Management Briefing, Lessons Learnt Briefing, or Safety Rep Meeting. Using these existing briefing slots ensured that frontline workers would have time and space away from their regular duties to attend the presentation.
Despite the initiative being voluntary to participate in, we found that it was a great success, and those who had attended created a much warmer environment where everyone felt they could talk.
BROS sessions are now held around every 6 months in each division. They’re also updated with new information, with managers and safety reps now reaching out to me to provide further sessions.
The improvements we’ve seen
There has been a great improvement in mental health and attitudes towards BROS among frontline staff.
As well as reducing mental health-related sickness absence, the initiative has received lots of positive feedback. One member of staff reported:
‘I had the BROS initiative briefing and took to it like a duck to water. I started noticing changes in my colleague’s behaviour, which I wouldn’t have picked up on before. I even noticed mistakes in emails and phoned the individual to see if everything was OK, to which I then found out they were having a bad time. I gave an ear to listen to their problems and hopefully helped them.’
Due to its success, the initiative has been rolled out to the entire company as well as to 12 other subcontractors.
Our recommendations to other organisations wanting to implement something like BROS
At VolkerRail, we found that one of the hardest things with setting up BROS was ensuring that the initiative was accessible to frontline staff and created in a way that would encourage them to engage with it.
To overcome this, we consulted frontline staff first and shaped the initiative in a way that would work for them. Despite only receiving eight responses to the initial feedback form, we used this as the basis for BROS.
Following this, and as the message about BROS gained momentum and recognition across the business, engagement with frontline staff increased. We sent a second feedback form out to frontline staff a year later and received 120 responses, showing a huge increase in engagement.
BROS was set up division by division, which meant that everyone had a chance to attend the presentation. Now, staff have access to continuous support through wellbeing champions.
