International pharmaceutical company GlaxoWellcome will do more to reduce work-related mental health problems among its staff, amid fears that its proposed merger with SmithKline Beecham could impose extra stress on employees.
GlaxoWellcome, which made net profits of more than £1.8billion last year, said the initiative was intended to demonstrate that it is one of the more enlightened companies on mental health issues.
It has issued managers with mental health ‘toolkits’ that contain advice on ‘how to manage mental well-being successfully’, on how to recognise the early signs of mental illness and how to reduce stress by altering work patterns.
It has also promised to reduce uncertainty about the outcome of the merger – yet to be approved by the government – by posting regular bulletins on the intranet to keep staff informed.
‘Additional support mechanisms and communication channels are being put in place to minimise the impact of the merger process on our staff,’ said Mark Rhodes, group environmental officer.
‘A lot of it is about raising awareness among managers on what the right levels of stress should be. They need to be able to recognise the [warning] signs and to know how to listen, especially during the merger process when there may be an increase in the number of cases due to uncertainty in the short term.’
The mental health initiatives are highlighted in the company’s new health, safety and environment report, which states there were 96 cases of work-related mental ill-health in the company during 1999, compared with 65 the previous year.
Rhodes said managers were being asked to ‘cascade down’ advice on mental health to all employees, and that the measures were already having an effect. ‘The feedback we are getting is that people are at least feeling they can talk about it, so that is a start.’
Rhodes stressed there was no evidence that the level of work-related mental ill-health was higher at GlaxoWellcome than at comparable companies. ‘Hopefully we are getting better at finding it’.