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Employee perspectives on mental health in the workplace

Methodology

Research management

In order to oversee the direction of the research a short life Advisory Group was put in place. The group membership (see Appendix 1) comprised representation from a number of organisations to provide coverage of key stakeholders who could ensure that the research has relevance to current policy and practice agendas.

The Advisory Group met at an early stage in the planning of the research to assist with contacts for sample member recruitment and to guide the formulation of questions for discussion. The Group was later used as sounding board to assist the research team with interpretation of data and to comment on emerging themes.

Approach

To ensure that a sufficient depth and breadth of data was captured to meet the research objectives a number of qualitative techniques were used. These included a brief literature review, focus group discussions with employees, one to one interviews with employees and a stakeholder workshop.

The literature review was undertaken to provide an overview of what is known to date about employee's views on mental health with three key aims:

• to provide clarity of focus in developing the topic guide and interview schedule for group and individual discussions
• to ensure that the findings from this study could be set in context
• to ensure that this work could add to rather than duplicate previous research.

Selecting and recruiting employees

The steps taken to recruit employees to the study are set out below in some detail, as the process and its outcomes may have implications for future work on this topic.

Recruitment of appropriate employee participants depended on the early identification of employers and organisations that were willing to take part in the project and work with the research team to encourage employee participation in focus groups and interviews.

A range of sources were used to establish initial contacts, including the SDC Employment Programme' national database of mental health employment projects and related initiatives and working partnerships such as SHAW, the Federation of Small Businesses and Scottish Business in the Community to provide an inside track to voluntary, public and corporate employers and employees.

It was made clear to all employers and organisations that were approached to participate that their anonymity and confidentiality would be respected at all times.

All employees who agreed to participate in the research were provided with an information sheet summarising the aims, objectives and methods of the research and why they had been selected. Each employee was asked to sign a consent form that assured his or her confidentiality.

Sample 1: mainstream employee focus groups

The research team aimed to hold ten focus groups, involving employees from a cross section of employer organisations that was representative of the diversity of employer types in Scotland, in relation to the following criteria:

• public, private and voluntary
• small, medium and large
• urban, rural
• workplaces actively and not-actively working on improving mental health.

For the purposes of the research, businesses with less than 25 employees were deemed as 'small' and those with between 25 and 100 employees were deemed as 'medium'

In the first instance senior management in each of the employing organisation was approached formally by the SDC and their organisation invited to take part in the research. Link people were then nominated by each participating employer to assist the research team with identifying and recruiting employees to act as voluntary participants in the research. Briefing meetings were held with the link person and relevant colleagues to introduce the aims and methods of the research. Employers were encouraged to invite employees from all levels of role from manual workers to middle management, including representatives from Human Resources where possible.

Each focus group aimed to include a minimum of six and a maximum of ten participants.

Thirty-three employers were contacted over a period of three months. A total of six focus groups were undertaken including with employees from the following employer types:

• large hotel (6 participants)
• local Education Authority (4 participants)
• large retailer (6 participants)
• Student Union (4 participants)
• small businesses (5 participants)
• local NHS organisation (8 participants).

Focus groups were held across Scotland in Inverness, Coatbridge, Galashiels, Glasgow, Livingston and Edinburgh. At least six employees confirmed their intention of attending each group, but not all proved to be available to take part on the day.

The recruitment of employees for focus groups encountered many barriers and proved time-consuming, with many lengthy negotiations. Attempts were made to ascertain the reasons from those companies who were unable or unwilling to take part, but these were not forthcoming in most cases. However, the main reasons given for not taking part were:

• employers were not able or willing to commit time to recruiting staff or releasing staff. People were already highly busy
• employers were wary about the confidentiality of the project. There may be many reasons for this but some were particularly concerned that the company might be identifiable, despite reassurance in writing
• there was perceived to be no obvious business incentive for employers to take part in the project
• when management gave their agreement to participate, staff proved unwilling to take part. In some cases, being advised by their employer that participation would have to be in their own time may have contributed to a negative response from staff
• staff felt that mental health was not an issue they wanted to discuss in front of colleagues.

Sample 2: mainstream employee interviews

From the 33 employers originally contacted when recruiting for focus group participants, a sample of twenty employees was identified. This sample included employees working at different levels, in a range of mainstream employer organisations of different types and sizes:

• large accountancy firm
• civil service
• university
• voluntary organisation
• small businesses
• umbrella organisation for businesses.
• In some cases employers who could not arrange focus groups were able to recruit staff to take part in individual interviews.

Sample 3: employees with experience of mental health problems

A sample of twenty people who had experienced mental health problems at work was identified. This included people who were currently employed, unemployed individuals with a recent (within last 3 years) employment history, who could comment on what would have helped them remain at work and people in supported employment with a prior experience of mental health problems whilst in mainstream work settings.

Using the SDC Employment Programme database, organisations involved in mental health employment initiatives were invited to nominate link people to assist in identifying individuals linked to their organisation who would fit the sample criteria.

The organisations that helped to recruit were of the following types: supported employment services; local mental health user groups; national mental health support and lobbying groups; clubhouses and social firms; and advocacy organisations.

Link people approached the individuals in the first instance to seek consent to be interviewed. When this had been obtained, arrangements for face-to-face interviews were made directly between the SDC research team and the interviewees.

Twenty interviews were held across Scotland in Inverness, Ayr, Aberdeen, Fife, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Lothian.

Sample 4: stakeholder workshop

Fifty individuals drawn from contacts developed in the recruitment stages for samples 1-3, and the research Advisory Group were invited to take part in a stakeholder workshop to consider themes and issues emerging from the early research findings and to explore the implications of these for employment practice and policy. Twelve individuals indicated their intention to attend and six individuals actually attended, of whom three were Advisory Group members.

Data collection

A summary of the structure and topics of the focus groups and interviews is provided in Appendix 2.