H S E & M E NTA L H E A LTH
Seadrill tackles employee
mental health and wellbeing
amid growing need for action
As industry begins to recognize scale of
employees facing mental health challenges,
lessons can be learned from existing efforts
STAFF REPORT
There is an undeniable stigma in society
associated with the words “mental health,”
yet there is no reason for that negativ-
ity. The term is neutral because it simply
refers to a person’s psychological, social
and emotional wellbeing. You might think
about it the way you think about the words
“physical health.”
“We all have mental health. We all
have physical health. It’s just a condition
you have, and it can be positive or nega-
tive,” said Neil Forrest, VP of Operational
Integrity at Seadrill.
Yet, due to the associated stigma around
mental health, many people find it hard to
either talk about or seek help when this
aspect of their health suffers – and many
are suffering. According to a 2021 report
from the International SOS Foundation
(“Mental Health and the Remote Rotational
Speaking at the 2023 IADC Annual General Meeting in November, Megan Moon,
Head of HR Operations, and Neil Forrest, VP of Operational Integrity, discussed the
journey that Seadrill has taken over the past few years to improve employee men-
tal health. Example initiatives include the company’s BeWell program, support of
the RigRun competition and conducting psychosocial surveys to gather data.
36 Workforce”), 40% of the offshore and
onshore remote rotational workforce said
they experienced suicidal thoughts some
or all of the time while on duty. Further,
the study found that 29% of survey respon-
dents met the threshold for clinical depres-
sion while on rotation. Those are shocking
numbers, Mr Forrest said.
For employers, this can mean unhealthy
employees and decreased productivity.
Especially for remote rotational workers
like rig crews, mental health challenges
can be exacerbated by factors associated
with oilfield life: the remote and isolated
locations; confined work and living spac-
es; separation from family and friends;
regular and prolonged periods away from
home, to name a few.
Seadrill recognizes this and has taken
steps in recent years to implement policies
and procedures aimed at improving its
employees’ overall wellbeing, believing it
will lead to better productivity and engage-
ment, and may even increase employee
retention. At the 2023 IADC Annual General
Meeting in Austin, Texas, on 9 November,
Mr Forrest and his colleague Megan Moon,
Head of HR Operations, shared Seadrill’s
journey to address mental health over the
past five to six years.
While Seadrill has been monitoring and
categorizing all of the medical consulta-
tions occurring on its rigs since before
2018, so it can understand what issues its
crews are facing, the company kicked off a
more formalized program, BeWell, in 2019.
It incorporates the four pillars of emotional
and mental health, social health, physical
wellbeing and financial security, Ms Moon
explained. The program aims to raise awareness
among employees of each of those four
dimensions of mental health, as well
as support them in actively managing
those dimensions in their own lives. To
make sure that crews didn’t become over-
whelmed with too much information all
at once, the company would tackle just
one pillar in each quarter of the year, Ms
Moon added.
In 2022, Seadrill stepped up its efforts
again by formalizing its Employee
Wellbeing Directive. This encompassed
the BeWell Program and ensured that men-
tal health would be accounted for in the
company’s Behavioral Framework, Health
JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2024 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R