Life Adds Up: Why Construction Needs to Support People Long Before Crisis – An Interview with Alfie Ruffell, Founder of SPEAK

*Disclaimer: This article discusses sensitive topics related to suicide and depression. If you or someone you know is struggling, please seek professional help or contact a mental health organisation. Resources are available at the end of this article.*

Construction has never talked more about mental health. Yet for most workers, the real pressure isn't a single dramatic moment. It's the overtime, the bills, the van that needs fixing, the missed time with the kids and the bad nights' sleep, all landing at once. And most employers still have no real way of seeing any of it.

In this interview, we speak to Alfie Ruffell, Founder of SPEAK, about why he believes support has to start with everyday life rather than crisis, how SPEAK gives workers a private space to talk without putting them on the spot in front of their peers, and how it helps construction businesses finally see what their people are carrying.

About Alfie Ruffell & SPEAK

Alfie Ruffell has spent the last nine years helping people build practical wellness plans to improve how they live, feel and cope. After losing four friends to suicide in three years, all connected to the construction industry, he founded SPEAK to bring that preventative approach to the people who build Britain.

SPEAK is a preventative mental health and organisational health company. It supports construction workers through on-site engagement, its LIFE ADDS UP campaign and a confidential WhatsApp check-in, and helps employers understand and fix the pressures inside their business through its Organisational Health Review.

SPEAK is the official mental health partner to Galliford Try, an official London Build partner, and has already collected more than 1,700 data points from construction workers across the UK.

SPEAK started with personal loss. What led you to it?

I lost four friends to suicide in three years. Every one of them was connected to the construction industry.

That's not a statistic to me. They were people I laughed with, worked with and grew up with. And each time, the people around them were left asking the same thing: why didn't we know?

By then I'd already spent years helping people put together wellness plans: sleep, food, movement, routine, money, relationships, the basics that hold a life together. What I kept seeing was that people rarely fall apart because of one thing. It's the build-up. And by the time someone is in crisis, they've usually been carrying it quietly for a long time.

So SPEAK exists to get in much earlier. Not at the edge, but in the middle of normal, everyday life, where most of us actually are.

You're clear that SPEAK isn't about crisis. What do you mean by that?

This is the most important thing I want people to understand.

When most people hear “mental health”, they think of someone at breaking point. That's real, and it matters. But if that's the only time we talk about it, we've already left it too late.

That's why our campaign is called LIFE ADDS UP. Nothing on its own breaks you. It's everything at once. A long week of overtime. Five hours' sleep a night. A £380 van repair. A row at home. A missed call from your mum. No time for yourself. None of that is a crisis. But add it up, week after week, and it takes its toll on anyone.

We want talking about those everyday struggles to feel completely normal: the stuff we're all dealing with, whatever job we do. If people can talk about money, sleep, family or stress on an ordinary Tuesday, far fewer of them will ever reach crisis point.

Why is construction particularly exposed to that build-up?

Because it stacks so many pressures on top of each other. Early starts, long hours, physical work, tight programmes, travel, time away from family. Many people are self-employed or subcontracted, so if they don't work, they don't get paid, and that makes it very hard to admit you're struggling.

There's also a culture of cracking on. Banter is brilliant for building connection, but it can become a mask. And let's be honest: very few people want to open up about their personal life in front of their whole site. Any approach that relies on people doing that is going to miss most of them.

There's already a lot of mental health support in the industry. Where does SPEAK fit?

First, what we're not. We're not a charity, a crisis line or an Employee Assistance Programme, and we're not trying to replace any of them. Those services do vital work. Our job is to complement them: to reach people earlier and, when someone needs more, to help them find the right service, whether that's their company's EAP, the Construction Industry Helpline, a specialist charity or a local support group.

What makes us different is that we work on two connected layers.

The Human Layer supports the workforce directly, on site and on the phone in their pocket.

The Organisational Layer looks at the business itself. A lot of what wears people down isn't personal at all. It's the workload, the admin, the poor handovers, the communication breakdowns. Our Organisational Health Review finds those pressure points.

Put together, they give leaders something most have never had: a clear, anonymised picture of what their people are carrying and what in the business is adding to it. You can't fix what you can't see.

What does that look like on a real site?

We turn up with food, usually burgers or a BBQ, because it gets people together without making a big deal of it. Then we give a short, honest talk about life adding up: the everyday pressures, why they matter and how to stay ahead of them. Nobody is asked to share anything in front of their colleagues.

Instead, we give everyone a private space to do it on WhatsApp, an app they already use every day. They can complete a short, confidential check-in on things like sleep, money, work and home life, in their own time and without anyone watching. If they'd like to talk, our team follows up within 24 to 48 hours. Plenty of people also come over for a quiet chat after the talk, and those conversations are completely confidential too.

From there, people can join the SPEAK community for ongoing support and practical tools, or we connect them with the right specialist service. The conversation doesn't end when we leave site.

Alongside this, the Organisational Health Review runs across the business, speaking with people from the office, site management, commercial, health and safety and the board.

What does a leadership team actually get from it?

Clarity. We follow a simple approach: SEE. SOLVE. SUSTAIN.

Leaders see anonymised, aggregated insight from their workforce side by side with the findings of the Organisational Health Review. That's what we call the workforce intelligence layer. It shows trends across teams and sites, never individuals.

We then help them solve what we find with clear recommendations, from better support pathways to fixing the processes that are draining people's time. If they want us to help implement those changes, we can. If they'd rather do it themselves, they have a plan to work from.

And we help them sustain it, with repeat visits and ongoing check-ins so they can see how things change over time rather than relying on a one-off snapshot.

It all sits on a clinically informed framework developed with our Research and Measurement lead, Chartered Health Psychologist Dr Esther Murray. We're also building an impact measurement framework for the whole industry, because construction has been asked to invest in wellbeing for years without a consistent way to prove what's working.

For companies at London Build, why should this be a business priority?

Because the numbers are hard to ignore. Deloitte estimates that poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year, and the biggest part of that isn't sickness absence. It's presenteeism: people turning up but struggling to function. Deloitte also found that, on average, employers get around £4.70 back for every £1 they invest in supporting their people's mental health.

Crucially, Deloitte's analysis has shown that early, organisation-wide approaches, such as culture change and education, deliver a higher return than more in-depth support needed later on. That's exactly where SPEAK works.

There's a commercial reality too. Clients and tenders increasingly expect contractors to evidence social value and workforce wellbeing. Companies that can show real, measurable support for their people are in a stronger position to win work.

People are the business. If they're running on empty, safety, productivity, retention and quality all suffer.

If every company could take one step tomorrow, what should it be?

Find out what's really going on, and do it in a way your people trust.

Don't guess, and don't wait for awareness week. Give people a private, easy way to tell you how life is actually going, look honestly at what in your business is adding to the pressure, and keep checking in.

Ask people how they are before you ask them what they've done. Construction is brilliant at building structures. Now we need to get just as serious about the people who build them.

Alfie's message is clear: mental health support shouldn't start at crisis point. By making it normal to talk about the everyday pressures that add up, giving workers a private space to do it, and helping leaders see and fix what is driving that pressure, SPEAK offers construction businesses a practical way to support their people and strengthen their business at the same time.

Want to continue the conversation? Meet the SPEAK team at London Build on 25–26 November at ExCeL London, and join the industry in helping build a healthier, more supportive construction workforce. SPEAK is co-hosting the Mental Health in Construction Networking Session. Find more info here.

Support is Here - Get Help:

In an emergency:

• Call 999 or go to your local A&E department

If you’re in crisis and need to speak to someone:

• Call NHS 111 (for when you need help but are not in immediate danger)

• Contact your GP and ask for an emergency appointment

• Contact the Samaritans

• Use the ‘Shout’ crisis text line – text SHOUT to 85258

Construction Industry Helpline:

The Construction Industry Helpline provides a free, confidential helpline which offers support with financial aid, occupational health, mental health and debt management for construction workers and their families.

• Call 03456051956 for free, text HARDHAT to 85258, or download the self support app.

• Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• Find out more from the Construction Industry Helpline website.

About SPEAK

SPEAK is a preventative mental health and organisational health company built for the construction industry. We support your people. We strengthen your business.

Through its LIFE ADDS UP campaign, on-site engagement and confidential WhatsApp check-ins, SPEAK makes it normal to talk about the everyday pressures that build up over time, long before they become a crisis. Its Organisational Health Review helps employers find and fix the workload, process and communication pressures behind workforce strain, giving leaders anonymised workforce intelligence built on a clinically informed framework. SPEAK complements existing charities, crisis services and EAPs, helping people find the right support when they need it.

SPEAK is the official mental health partner to Galliford Try and a London Build partner.

Find out more via LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and on the official SPEAK Podcast.

About London Build

London Build is the UK’s largest and leading construction show. Featuring 450+ exhibitors, 600+ speakers across 15 CPD conference stages and 25,000+ attendees, it is also a key platform for driving conversations around mental health in construction. With dedicated mental health panels, a mental health networking event, and a Mental Health in Construction Ambassador Programme, the show brings together industry leaders to share insight, support wellbeing, and help create a healthier, more inclusive built environment. Don’t miss out on free tickets. 

Join the Mental Health Ambassador Programme