Mental HealthMaintaining good mental health in the workplace is a real and constant challenge facing employers, but one that’s definitely worth tackling head on.

Whilst it can be tempting to accept mental health issues amongst staff members as inevitable, there are proactive and cost-effective steps you can take to improve mental health in your business.

Improving mental health in your business will deliver significant benefits in terms of both your productivity and profitability, whilst helping to improve the working environment, job satisfaction and attendance of your employees.

Let’s take a look at 5 reasons why you should invest in mental health training.

1. The cost of mental health problems

Around 1 in 4 people are affected by mental health problems each year in the UK – at a huge cost to the UK economy. In fact, it’s estimated that mental health problems cost businesses in the UK in excess of £30 billion annually!

In addition to the costs associated with absenteeism, such as sick pay, reduced output and lost production, mental health problems also cost businesses through presenteeism.

Presenteeism is when staff members come to work despite suffering from mental health difficulties, reducing their effectiveness and output, and costs a hidden £600 per employee per year.

One cost effective solution designed to reduce the financial impact of mental health problems is by investing in professional mental health training for your management team and employees.

2. To raise awareness

The first step to effectively managing any problem lies in understanding it – and the same is true with mental health.

By providing mental health training, you’re empowering your managers and employees, giving them the information and tools needed to spot the signs of mental health problems, so that you can start to address and manage them.

3. Support and understanding

There is still a lot of stigma surrounding talking about mental health, which can lead to people feeling unwilling to admit they are having difficulties. Whilst staff members are suffering with mental health problems, they can’t perform to their full potential, costing your business money.

By investing in mental health training and increasing understanding about symptoms, causes and conditions, you’ll help to de-stigmatise the issue, meaning that your staff members will be more willing to talk about mental health.

In turn, this means that your management team and employees can start to effectively support people suffering from mental health problems in your business at an early stage, before these problems become more serious.

4. Staff welfare

Improving mental health within your workplace can deliver significant benefits in terms of staff retention and job satisfaction, helping to improve morale, productivity and attendance.

Investing in your staff members by providing mental health training is also a great way of showing you care about their welfare and personal development, helping them to feel valued as individuals and more satisfied with their roles.

5. Enhance the skills of your workforce

Mental health training is designed to help you, your management team, and your employees to effectively protect and manage mental health within your business.

Mental health training comes in many different forms. Popular courses include those designed to help you and your staff members to understand, identify and manage different mental health problems, to those focusing on reducing stress in the workplace and improve performance.

Other courses include teaching on how to manage mental health and you’re your employees cope during big changes in your business, like redundancy.

 

About the author:  Patrik Knowles is a Consultant for MindWorks Training which is the training division of Hull and East Yorkshire Mind – a mental health charity based in Hull. As a Consultant Patrik works with organisations on their workforce wellbeing strategy and as part of that work with them to identify specific training needs in the area of mental health and wellbeing that staff, line managers and more generally their organisations will benefit from. Find out more at www.mindworkstraining.co.uk