Supporting staff with their mental health and wellbeing is important and part of an employers’ duty of care.
Whilst there is now a growing appreciation for employers to address this, a lot still needs to be done to raise mental health awareness in the workplace and reduce the sigma it can have. There are many reasons to invest in mental health training.
Therapy with a licenced Mental Health practitioner
Line manager workshops, mental health training
Providing training universally or to targeted groups
Mental health and employers: Refreshing the case for investment – Deloitte – January 2020
As you will see from the fact and figures below, a lot of work-related mental health issues and be prevented or greatly reduce through training of staff and good management.
Research by Businesses in the community (BITC) has shown that work-related mental health problems are large caused by increased pressure, workload and lack of support.
Therefore training managers and line managers could make a substantial company-wide difference in staff mental health
”Leaveism is a term that describes the growing tendency of individuals to be unable to ‘switch off’ from work. It is becoming increasingly common as working remotely and flexible working have been become easier thanks to technology, and can lead to overworking, a reduction in workforce moral, and burnout”
of employees work outside contracted hours to get work done
of employees use allocated time off (holidays) when unwell
of employees use allocated time off (holidays) to work
Mental health and employers: Refreshing the case for investment – Deloitte – January 2020
The term “presenteeism” is used to describe the issue of employees coming into work while not physically or mentally well, instead of staying home to recover. This can impact on performance and productivity if people don’t take time off when needed.
There are many motives for Presenteeism including money, management expectation, nobody to cover work and concern over career prospects. Feeling the need to turn up to work when unwell can potentially make conditions worsen.
*CIPD Employee Outlook survey
How presenteeism can affects performance
The biggest cause of absenteeism from work is stress and other mental health issues. Improving your staffs wellbeing can reduce this.
Stress, depression or anxiety accounts for 49% of all work-related ill health
The total number of workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or
anxiety in was 875,000
17.1 millions days of sickness absence caused by mental health issues each year
Retaining the good employees is important, not only for the contingently of the business but the cost to replace them.
The average cost of recruiting new staff can range from between £6,000 and £2,000. This figure does not include the the investment in training that is lost when employees leave (CIPD 2017).
59% of people who left their job in 2023 said the decision to leave said it somewhat, largely or entirely due to personal mental health and wellbeing-related issues, and 19% said it was due to poor mental health and wellbeing of a child
There are numerous case studies of how implementing mental health training in the work place has helped organisation thrive. One of the latest reports is here:
MENTOR: MENtal health first aid in The wORkplace 2018
Researchers surveyed 139 participants from 81 organisations across England. The organisations were spread across 20 different industries in the private, public and third sectors.
Participants were asked what had changed in their workplaces as a result of MHFA England training. Responses included:
– 91% said there had been an increased understanding of mental health issues in their workplace
– 88% increased confidence around mental health issues
– 87% said more mental health conversations were happening at work
– 83% had noticed an improvement in procedures for signposting to further support
We can deliver all our mental health courses and bespoke training to your team in a venue of your choice, or online as a group. We can arrange a package of training places on our public courses. Book booking is an effective and economical way to quickly upskill your workforce.
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