Mental Health Matters
Mental health has become a core part of health and safety management in the workplace. Around 17.9million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety last year, and cases shot up during Covid-19. Not only is poor mental health a worrying and costly issue in its own right, it can also contribute to workplace accidents. High accident numbers could cause or exacerbate mental health issues too, especially if people have witnessed a traumatic incident or fatality.
Melanie Pritchard is a qualified lawyer and certified personal coach, with a wealth of mentoring, coaching and training experience in mental health and wellbeing. In this article, she looks at the tangible benefits of investing in mental health initiatives.
It can be difficult to quantify the returns on supporting employee mental health – but a recent study by Deloitte shows that for every £1 spent on it, employers get £5 back in reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover.
Research also suggests that FTSE 100 businesses that use the words ‘mental health’ or ‘wellbeing’ more than twice in their annual reports, earn up to three times more profit. A good example of this is BT’s mental wellbeing strategy leading to a 30% reduction in mental health-related sickness absence. Thames Water also leads the way on its mental health first aid training, which has reduced occupational health referrals for stress, anxiety and depression by 75%.
Focussing on wellbeing and mental health is not only effective for morale, and reduces absence, it also has a knock-on effect on employee attraction and retention. When asked, 60% of employees have said that they’d be more likely to recommend a business that looks after their wellbeing.
Taking health and safety seriously
HR should take a whole organisational approach to employee wellbeing that goes beyond physical health and safety and supports staff at all levels.
A focus on wellbeing is especially vital in the wake of Covid-19 which will have affected 100% of staff in some way or another, whether through isolation, over-work or anxiety around their personal lives.
Proactively surveying and listening to what employees want, and actioning these needs, shows commitment and builds trust. If overstretched managers would like resilience masterclasses or mental health first aid training to help them spot the difference between stress and mental illness and to support a complex workforce, go the extra mile in organising this for them. As many as 75% of line managers feel responsible for employee wellbeing yet only about 20% of companies provide training around the subject, according to a Mental Health First Aid England study.
HR should also take the time to clearly communicate the benefits of training around key employee pain-points. This will help to optimise take-up and is a good way to proactively seek out support from senior stakeholders whether through email endorsement or their attendance in training sessions.
Role modelling is key to building trust and having senior stakeholders on board assists roll-out of wellbeing programmes at all levels which is what really affects organisational change.
Finally, there’s often a lack of visibility around employee assistance helplines and how these can be reached. Simple actions like sticking posters up in kitchens and the back of toilet doors, adding information to signature sign-offs and even creating short videos around the benefits, gives a sense of dedication to employee wellbeing. If HR is able to work with Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providers who can also support employees’ family members across a range of areas from financial and legal advice to counselling support, this would be especially valuable post-pandemic.
Mental health first aid training
Just as they have named first aiders in the workplace, growing numbers of organisations are now appointing mental health first aiders too. Managers receive training in mental health first aid, which provides a toolkit for spotting the difference between stress and mental illness and supporting employees.
These courses teach individuals how to ask open questions and follow up sensitively. They teach you to spot changes in behaviour, such as poor performance and other changes in body language, mood and aggression. Training will also allow you to provide the correct support for those who want to open up as well as those who don’t.
It’s essential that this training is provided at management level, with employees repeatedly reporting the ill effects of poor management on their mental health and managers reporting feeling ill-equipped to oversee a complex workforce, especially during Covid. Feeling too time-short to support employees properly is another common management complaint.
This training may prompt HR to look at job roles and resourcing afresh, as well as incentivise managers to support employee wellbeing and increase organisational success.
I am sure we all know someone who ‘seems happy’ but is struggling inside. Mental health training is the gap between that invisible struggle and a conversation, between missing signs and spotting them in time, and is crucial for all businesses moving forward.