October 2019

founder and co-owner at Worthing based Cedar Garage, earlier. As you may remember, the business was the overall winner in Top Garage 2018 and large business winner in Top Garage 2019. It is also leading the curve in addressing mental health issues in the industry. Kevin said: "We think mental health is a massive issue. For me, it is just as important as physical health, if not more so. Many people we know, including staff, take a lot of care of their physical fitness, they go to the gym to work out and stay fit. But then they were doing very little, or nothing, for their mental health. We think people need to understand that there is a massive connection between the two. "To tackle this, we have done a few things. We have weekly football games. Every Wednesday we meet up, and hire out a six-a-side pitch at the local leisure centre. Playing football together helps with the physical fitness, but also we are all out having fun in the fresh air, which helps mentally as well. "In addition, we have someone come in who does one-to-one talks with everyone, and he also does a group talk with five members of the team at the time. Then he does one- to-ones with each of them. We have completed round one of that. Inside it, he does a full-body MOT. You stand on fancy scales and he has a calculator and he measures you. From that he tells you areas you could work in, trying to make us more aware of the fact that by eating bad food, the chemicals that are in it releases different things into your body which changes your mental state. "Other things we have discussed include making sure everyone drinks enough water. Everyone now has got their own water bottle at work. We try to make sure that everyone is drinking water, rather than tea or coffee all day long. It dehydrates you and changes your mindset." Taboo How does this play in the culture of between mental and physical health. His exercise of choice, as seen on social media, is boxing: "It is difficult to even quantify how much physical exercise, especially a sport like boxing, helps you. It is incredible. I would say that it was boxing that turned me around. I wasn't at all well, physically or mentally. I was eating bad food, I was drinking a lot. I had stress, anxiety, I had really bad dizzy spells, and I even blacked out. I was at home with friends, I was laughing and joking one minute, and then the next minute I fell on the floor and broke my nose. That was a big wake-up call. I knew I was not well at that point. The boxing certainly helped me turn things around." You know you are in a bad way when you break your nose before you take up boxing. Luckily, it was his own mental health journey has helped David make changes in the business. On what ADS are doing to change the culture in the workshop, David said: "It was Kevin at Cedar Garage who helped inspire me." We will hear from Kevin in a moment. Back to David though: "At ADS we are swapping out caffeine for water, and providing free-at-point-of-use healthy lunches for the workforce. I have also hired a personal trainer, to take a class once a week. So instead of going to the pub on a Friday after work, we are doing a fitness class instead." Massive issue We just mentioned Kevin Pearce, co- the garage sector though? Kevin observed: "The motor trade has historically been a rather masculine place where it was taboo to say you had problems. No one ever really spoke about it. I think it is really good that things are coming out more. "We have people who struggle from time to time. It is about people being able to discuss it, and feel that they can talk about it, and get help. If you can do that, hopefully you can catch it early enough, so they don't need loads of time off work, go to the doctor and have loads of tablets. We have also got private medical insurance for every member of staff, which also has a helpline included in our policy. If anyone is feeling that they need to talk to someone, they can just call them up straight away. Again that is all confidential. That gives people a stepping stone and opens the door to potential help, rather than people just feeling bad and saying 'I don't feel great at the moment, It will pass '. That's the trouble. Everyone thinks it will pass and before you know it the cup gets full and then you start spilling over the side." Young team Cedar Garage has quite a young team, and Kevin thinks teaching people to manage stress early is important: "You are taught from a young age that you should play sport. It keeps you healthy. I think people need to be taught from a very young age that they should be open to talk about their problems, rather than just bottling it all up inside. The younger people find out about it, the better. "The whole culture we live in these days has changed from 30-40 years ago. People compare themselves to the fake lives on social media. Everyone thinks far too much about the wrong things." Kevin added: "I have an open office policy. Even on the busiest days, where everyone is absolutely chock-a- block, if they need to come in and sit with me, they can. If you have a problem, you can't see a solution. If you talk to someone who is not in your position, they can give you far more perspective on your problem than you will ever see. If things are getting on top of people, we say 'take 10 minutes, the business will cope'. You can often find solutions to concerns or worries just by talking." www.aftermarketonline.net 12 AFTERMARKET OCTOBER 2019 BIG ISSUE www.aftermarketonline.net Do you need help? Ben are there for those who work, or have worked, in the automotive industry and their family dependents. If you need support, get in touch via their free and confidential helpline: 08081 311 333 or use webchat at www.ben.org.uk