GUIDANCE FOR ORGANISATIONS AND SENIOR LEADERS

Information, suggestions and strategies for organisations to help create a mentally healthy working environment.

 

1. Why creating a culture that supports mental wellbeing for all is a good idea¹

As well as being the right thing to do, it:

• Increases productivity and reduces staff absences.
• Reduces the risk of mistakes and other work-related problems.
• Helps staff retention; less turn over.
• Helps recruitment; younger employees especially are more likely to be attracted to a company that looks after their mental health.

 

2. We suggest using a 3-tier model – Preventative, proactive, and reactive

1. Preventative: creating a culture that supports good mental health and wellbeing for everyone. This includes considering the impact on staff mental health in all policies, procedures and company development.
2. Proactive: this includes risk assessment and putting in place initiatives aimed at preventing mental health difficulties occurring or anticipating when they might arise (in both teams and individuals).
3. Reactive (targeted support for individuals): having the mechanisms in place (including training leaders) to support individuals who may be struggling with their mental health.

 

 

 

3. Actions you could consider

• Assess the mental health risks in your workplace and take steps to address them (including better capacity planning and flexible working arrangements).
• Ensure that the voices of all communities can be heard, taken seriously and recommendations acted on regarding impact on mental health at work.
• Create and implement a mental health policy or plan. Even the act of introducing a policy can produce a more open working environment, by signifying to your employees that workplace mental health is something you are aware of and take seriously.
• Introduce training for your team members in, for example, mental health awareness, stress management and inclusive behaviour.
• Ensure all line managers have training in recognising and managing those with mental health difficulties, including facilitating sickness absence, reasonable adjustments and managing returns to work.¹
• Consider introducing coaching as standard for all staff progressing to a more senior role.
• Set up an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) or other workplace scheme that guarantees your team members access to professional support when they need it.
• Introduce mentoring or ‘buddy’ schemes, especially for new starters.
• Encourage staff to discuss mental health in the workplace, involving senior members as role models, to create an atmosphere of openness and candour. Reverse mentoring, where older, more senior staff learn from younger employees, can also be helpful. This can also help in learning more about the experience of being in a minority group.
• Use times such as Mental Health Awareness Week, Time to Talk Day (Mind) or World Suicide Prevention Day as a focus for activities and events to raise awareness of mental health issues (see the Events page of our website for a useful calendar²).
• Make use of the power of sharing stories, eg. the stories on LawCare’s website³, IP Inclusive’s ‘Our Menopause Stories’⁴ and ‘This is me’⁵.

 

4. References and further information

1. WHO guidelines on mental health at work

2. IP Inclusive Events page

3. LawCare stories

4. IP Inclusive ‘Our menopause Stories’

5. ‘This is me’ blog post and story