By Danny Williams, managing director, Pioneer Trading.

Along with around 500 other souls from the glazing industry I attended the Glazing Summit. And, overall, what a splendid effort it was.

OK, some of the sessions might have been a little predictable, one or two of the guests might have had more to say for themselves and the audience, though given plenty of opportunity to speak out, were a tad quiet. Danny-boy did take the mike once or twice but far be it from me to dominate with my opinions, right?

The session that impressed me the most was the debate on ‘People and Skills: Raising the Bar’.

Beneath this rather vanilla title nestled a pit of social vipers including mental health, gender and race in the workplace. The panel was also right on the button with Richard Abrahams, managing director of a Leeds-based retail installer Elmhurst Windows, Eilidh Hudson, director at 23 Doors, Sherry Adams, CEO of We Mind & Kelly Matters; and John Mannell, technical officer at the GGF.

Each had their tale to tell. They were candid and even brutally honest at some times and as a result, the session was moving and cut to the heart of issues that we all tend to shove under the carpet.

Sherry Adams runs the organisation created by one of our own, John Hewitt. John founded Wellingborough-based fabricator Glazerite, which he sold to his management team to focus on drawing attention to the thorny issue of suicide and mental health, in memory of his daughter Kelly, who took her own life when she was just 23 years old.

Sherry’s presentation of the realities of suicide, the path to which often begins in the workplace, was stark and I commend their website to everyone: www.wemindandkellymatters.org.uk

The debate covered a huge range of issues in a session that demanded far more time. On the issue of providing a greater balance of racial minorities in the workplace, the following question was asked;  should employment be based upon the creation of quotas to ensure the recruitment of minorities in appropriate numbers, or if recruitment based upon skills and abilities and the best person for the job irrespective of any other issue, was more appropriate.

The panel – and pretty clearly the audience too – overwhelmingly felt that recruitment should be based upon skills. Choosing the best person for the job, irrespective of race, gender or disability was a result that cynics might say was entirely predictable given the predominantly white, male audience.

But surely, the only way to run any organisation must be to hire the very best for the job; any other approach, for the sake of ticking boxes, would be irresponsible.

Overall, each of the other panellists had a tale to tell, about their own struggles with mental health, about prejudice and bias and made their point, powerfully, without all the lingo and doubletalk that seems to follow these thorny subjects, and which to my mind undermines open discussion, amongst ordinary people. I hope that this broad discussion will be developed further at future Glazing Summits.

On the other hand…

There are always those that will habitually swing the lead and when once they would have been complaining about their ‘back problems’ or ‘headaches’ and other invisible ailments that are difficult to check, the skivers undermine the whole issue of mental health by using and abusing the fear and lack of understanding that remains about the issue.

Rather like ‘head injuries’ sustained on a professional football pitch when the rule is to immediately stop the game and get the medics on, we are duty-bound now to sit up and take notice; you dismiss any such claims about mental health at your peril as an employer, even if the suspicion is that they are trying it on. And just as a bad back is difficult for a GP to properly and thoroughly assess, how many GPs have any real idea about such things?

My experience overall is that fortunately, workers in a small company who are close to customers and the management tend to see themselves as part of a team and will seldom drop their colleagues and bosses in the brown stuff. In the public sector however, there is seldom such loyalty and the stats show that public-sector workers are far less likely to be held to account for a poor attendance and work ethic, with sick levels three times those of the private sector.

Building a team spirit has never been more important. Which will of course help to identify when one of our colleagues is in genuine need for support.