Features

Doing health like safety

WSP recently announced a landmark appointment of a new health and wellbeing manager. Andy Walker spoke to Chris Hanson-Moring about his new role and its importance for other construction sector organisations.

Chris Hanson-Moring’s arrival at WSP as health and wellbeing manager forms part of the consultancy’s commitment to further improve its employee wellness and productivity. Based in Tewkesbury, Hanson-Moring has more than 17 years in the wellbeing sector and he arrives at WSP from Healthcare RM, where he helped secure a multi-million pound contract by identifying the underlying personal and occupational risk factors that cause ill-health and injury. 

At WSP, Hanson-Moring will apply his knowledge and experience to a role where, amongst other things, he will be responsible for reducing employee sickness levels, whether that’s from musculoskeletal issues or mental health, which currently account for 13% of all employee absences in the construction sector. 

More from WSP

“The main objective of the role is to ‘do health like safety’”, says Hanson-Moring. “We have spent a lot of time in the industry looking at safety and health has always been a bit in the background if we’re being honest. We now have health, safety and wellbeing at the forefront of our business in everything that we do from projects to office work and that’s right because health and wellbeing is actually more influential on safety than just putting safety by itself,” he says.

"The main objective of the role is to 'do health like safety'. We have spent a lot of time in the industry looking at safety and health has always been a bit in the background if we are being honest. We now have health, safety and wellbeing at the foreforont of our business in everything that we do, from projects to office work and that's right because health and wellbeing is actually more influential on safety than just putting safety by itself."
Chris Hanson-Moring, WSP
 

So how will he go about his role in a sector that he has not previously worked in directly? “First of all we’ve got to look at a risk-based strategy and try and understand what the drivers behind ill health and injury are,” he says. “To really do that we have to understand our people. I’ve spent my first couple of months in the business trying to understand our people and cultures and that’s been a big eye-opener and we now need to support people in their roles,” Hanson-Moring says.

I ask Hanson-Moring whether there are any things that have struck him about the construction sector and the way that it operates that impact on the health and wellbeing of the people who work within it. “There are a lot of pressures and demands within the construction industry and that itself has its own risks for staff,” he says.

“We are starting to see mental health, stress, anxiety and depression really moving to the forefront of ill health and you can start to understand why we need someone like me in this position to really move this topic forward and start to push down some of these taboos and get people talking,” says Hanson-Moring. Getting people talking about issues like wellbeing and health is clearly a challenge in the construction sector and one that Hanson-Moring is keenly aware of.

“What happens is that people don’t tend to talk about issues or share that they are struggling and they get left until the point at which they really are struggling and probably are not at work anymore. I want to ensure that this doesn’t happen,” he says. But how do firms create that supportive culture where people feel able to put up their hand and say “I need a hand here”? 

“People don’t want to show weakness in high pressured, high demand roles but we have got to prove to them it is not a weakness to speak up, this is life and as a business we can support you. We have the infrastructure, we have the support services and we want to make sure that asking for help doesn’t come across as a weakness. It’s life and we should be very open about talking about it,” he says.

WSP is clearly committed to fostering that supportive approach for its people. Lorne Clarke, UK head of health and safety at WSP commented: “Ensuring that our colleagues go home healthy and safe at the end of each day to spend time with their family and friends is a priority for WSP, along with ensuring that those who work with us and who interact with our projects stay healthy and safe. It’s great that we have Chris in our business to lead on this issue and to encourage us to ‘view health like safety’ and to help build the wellbeing of our colleagues into our culture.”

Hanson-Moring’s arrival at WSP has been welcomed by staff who are looking forward to the benefits that a more professional approach to health and wellbeing can bring. “The people here are delighted that there is someone like me that has the focus to really support them,” he says. “With my background knowledge and my passion for the subject I’m going to make sure that that support is in place and continues to be there for our staff for the long term. Having this role will make staff feel happier and more supported and when people feel supported and cared for they want to work for the business,” he tells me.

I ask Hanson-Moring what are the biggest challenges in implementing a wellbeing-centric approach in an organisation like WSP and for other construction organisations? “The first issue is engagement. How do we get 7,500 employees to engage in the process? I’m very positive that there is a lot of engagement there already but we can incentivise it and make people aware of their own health and wellbeing and we have a few online platforms being launched towards the end of the year to encourage that. That creates engagement and once you start to get engagement you can then start to give people the knowledge and education they need. As long as they feel as if they are constantly being updated on issues then that engagement will remain and you will get long-term buy-in,” he says.

"Once you start to get engagement then you can then start to give people the knowledge and education they need. As long as they feel as if they are being constantly updated on issues then that engagement will remain and you will get long-term buy-in."
Chris Hanson-Moring, WSP

Hanson-Moring also sees his appointment as having benefits for WSP’s clients as well as its staff. “I would hope that our clients are very excited because they can see that WSP are a business that not only cares about their employees, but they also care about the people who they work alongside. The support we will put in place is not only for our employees but also to support all the projects we work on,” says Hanson-Moring.

Given his enthusiasm and passion for his subject, it’s clear that Hanson-Moring intends on making an impact at WSP and, more than likely, in the industry more widely. “I’m really excited to join a forward thinking company that identifies that health, safety and wellbeing is united in its approach to reduce and, where possible, eliminate ill-health and injury. I see huge opportunity in my role,” he says.

If you would like to contact Andy Walker about this, or any other story, please email awalker@infrastructure-intelligence.com.