Employers with expats caught up in the current Middle East conflict require effective resilience planning and need to ensure their people and their families have access to an employee assistance provider whenever and if ever mental health crises occur.
This is according to experts participating in a webinar organised by International SOS yesterday.
When asked by Health & Protection what employers can do to most effectively support the mental health of expats on the ground, James Wood, regional security director for Northern Europe at International SOS, suggested ensuring staff have access to trusted news sources, regular communication from the company and access to an employee assistance provider.
Meanwhile, colleague global crisis management practice leader for consulting Gautier Porot recommended employers put a resilience programme in place to help guard the mental health of workers as they encounter initial shocks and subsequent after shocks.
Importance of trusted news sources
Wood told the online audience that one of the most critical factors for staff caught up in the conflict is helping individuals to access verified and corroborated information as well.
“There are challenges around 24/7 news and scrolling through that content the whole time,” Wood explained.
“I think it’s about putting in place transparent and trusted sources of information that you’re sharing with your employees.”
Regular communication
But Wood added that employers should also focus on giving very clear communications to staff on a regular basis as well.
“What are you doing to help manage the situation? What are some of those challenges and constraints?
“And that needs to be not just of a regular frequency, but also both critically from senior leadership and regional management leadership as well.”
Access to EAPs
According to Wood, another key focus is giving workers and their families access to independent support if needed.
“It is recognising that people process and deal with trauma and stressful situations in very different and individual ways,” Wood continued.
“There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to that, but that’s important to make sure that there are things like employee assistance programmes in place and there is access to wellbeing support and advice for those individuals as and when they need to.
“It may well not be right now. It may be weeks, months after the escalation or the conflict has ended that they are suddenly able to process that as well.
“So making sure they have the right access to that support is critical.”
Psychological safety
For Porot, ensuring psychological safety is a key element to support workers.
“I believe psychological safety helps a lot – not only before, during and after shocks,” Porot maintained.
“Whatever the intensity or impact that it has had on your people.
“So the first one is it is okay to speak up and people will be free to be able to speak up if they know they can.
“Not only their mental health situation, but also on things like decisions they might have taken or struggles they are facing.”
Inclusive resilience
A consideration, Porot added, is for firms to ensure they have a resilience plan in place.
“So resilience is something inclusive,” Porot continued. “It’s not just a buzz word. It’s really something you bring people in, empower them, make them aware of that reality and how much they can help in building that programme.
“So I think if you don’t have a resilience programme in place right now, I think it’s the right moment to do it. It’s never too late.”
Bucket of water
And finally, Porot suggested employers ensure that pressures never overwhelm workers.
“The bucket analogy that I love from mental health experts is one I use,” he continued.
“We are like buckets of water with the level of water being quite high based on our personal lives, professional lives, struggles we face, etc.
“When a crisis hits or a major shock arrives, it’s like pouring five litres of water in the bucket.
“Therefore if the water is already quite high, water will spill out.
“So the role of the leaders is to make sure that they empty the bucket along the way so that people can cope.
“Because the reality is going to be the following one. Now we have the Middle East, but it might trigger another one.”
More frequent shocks
Porot added a further issue is that the time between the shocks affecting global organisations right now is much shorter than it was before.
“Before there was the shock, the consequences, we could recover, we could rebuild and be ready for the next one,” he continued.
“Unfortunately, we will move from one shock to another without time to recover.
“So make sure that your people have the ability to empty the bucket so that when the water falls in, nobody falls down.”