Addressing mental health in the workplace

Mental Health Day does more than just bring awareness to mental health. It helps businesses like ourselves recognise when we need to do more, both for our team and to support the businesses we work with.   

We wanted to understand the mental health landscape as it stands today and see what the impact is on employees and employers. And the results are shocking!  

In a recent survey from Mind, a mental health charity, 30% of staff felt they wouldn’t feel open to talking about stress with their line manager and over 56% of employers said they’d like to do more to improve staff well-being but don’t feel they have the right guidance. While in the past few years, we have come a long way with regard to mental health policies, there is still a way to go. 

What conducting this research has helped us discover is that we ourselves have more to do! We have a lot of care for our team, and do whatever we can do to make sure they are supported when they feel unwell, both physically and mentally. But we’ve recognised our lack of a formal policy to show this!  

In the year ahead, we’re going to be working closely with our team members to understand what they would value from us and what they would like to see to allow us to better support their mental health.  

Here are some suggestions to help you, and us, get started;

• Set up a mental health framework with actionable steps to help address any issues in your team
• Review any employee benefits packages, particularly health related to ensure they also address mental health
• Review the wording and guidelines of your sick policy so that it discusses both physical and mental health
• Consider training for both physical and mental health first-aiders
• Offer flexibility for your team, whether that’s start and finish times, or hybrid working! If an employee would give 100% from their home and heading into an office on that day would mean they’d give 70%, what would you prefer?