Whilst mental health awareness raising weeks and events serve a purpose, the driver behind them of improving mental health and providing those who may be struggling with support should be a year round concern for employers.
The workplace is unfortunately an environment that contributes to poor mental health. According to data published by Statista the most common cause of stress is work-related stress with 79% of employees saying they frequently felt it. Research from CIPHR also shows that 7% of employees feel stressed at work every single day.
Employers therefore need to wake up and take notice of these statistics and of how their employees are feeling.
The Impact Of Poor Mental Health In The Workplace
There are two sides to how poor mental health impacts the workplace, the employee’s side and the employer’s side.
From an employee’s perspective it is likely that if they are experiencing poor mental health then their attendance at work will suffer. The knock on effect of that is if they are only paid statutory sick pay, currently £116.75 per week, then even in the short to medium term that is not sustainable for most people and will cause even greater stress and anxiety due to financial concerns. Employees experiencing poor mental health often try to carry on regardless of their ill health and that then leads to presenteeism. Employees with poor mental health who are still in work will commonly have low levels of concentration, this leads to poor performance, higher likelihood of accidents, low productivity, increased mistakes and often becoming distant from or irritable with colleagues. From the employer’s angle the impact on a business of an employee’s poor mental health is both a financial and a personal impact. Staff absence and poor performance will cost a business money. The AXA Mind Health Study, which looks at the wellbeing of thousands of working-age people found that lost productivity owing to mental health conditions cost UK organisations £57.4bn in 2023. No employer wants to see their employees suffer from poor mental health and the personal impact of it can be distressing and challenging for all concerned. The important thing from an employer’s perspective is to put measures in place to ideally prevent poor mental health from developing in the first place and if it does to then address it effectively and help employees to deal with it positively.
Improving Mental Health In The Workplace
There’s a whole range of support and interventions that employers can put in place to improve the mental health of their employees and support those who are struggling. Some common ways to deliver on this include having clear and well communicated policies so that there is a consistent approach taken to preventing and addressing issues around poor mental health, having trained mental health first aiders, frequently reviewing workload to ensure that staff are not overworked and overstressed, having an employee assistance programme to provide external support and simply having regular chats and catch ups with employees to talk about how they are and if they need any help or support.
The Samaritans have produced a simple but effective guide which anyone, including employers, can use in order to start to try and help someone who is experiencing poor mental health. The guide takes a clear four step approach.
- Spot the signs – It is very often the case that someone experiencing mental health issues will display a number of symptoms or behaviours that give an indication that something isn’t right. Recognising those signs is the first step to offering help.
- Talk – If you are trying to help someone you’ll probably have to start the conversation, don’t just ask once, ask at least twice, make sure that the person you’re talking to knows that you have recognised something is wrong and you genuinely want to help them. By asking simple open questions you can help and often it is a relief.
- Listen – Make sure your conversation takes place somewhere appropriate and listen to what is said, build trust, show you care and don’t give your opinions or judgement, let the person you are trying to help talk and don’t jump in.
- Get help – There’s no expectation that as an employer or colleague you will be able to solve someone’s mental health issues, these issues are often complex and need professionals. However, suggesting support, offering to facilitate support and signposting to support means that people will get the right help to enable them to deal with things.
Additional Support
There are lots of resources and support services available to help anyone experiencing poor mental health. The Hub Of Hope is a fantastic tool to find local help wherever you are, and Six Connections have provided details of various services on their website as well. Always remember if someone is at immediate risk dial 999.
Do you have any questions about todays blog, need help in becoming legally compliant with contracts/policies or can we support you in taking away any people pains to give you peace of mind?
If you answered yes to any of the above, just give us a call at CUBE HR on 01282 678321, or book in a FREE 30 Minute HR Health Check here FREE HR Health Check and we’ll happily give your business a full HR overview with our personal recommendations absolutely FREE!
Why not also check out our blog on a similar topic CUBE HR & Advocacy Focus Team Up On Mental Health & Wellbeing Podcast
We also have a YouTube channel with loads of handy videos outlining various HR related scenarios.
