Employers have a fundamental duty of care for the health, safety and welfare of their workers and this includes protecting their mental health aswell as their physical health.
Although a significant proportion of the workforce will suffer from poor mental health during their working life, unfortunately stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination around mental health issues still remains a workplace problem.
Poor mental health can result in illnesses ranging from the most common conditions such as anxiety and depression, to more severe conditions such as eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Individuals suffer these conditions to a different extent and can experience different symptoms, affecting both their personal and working lives. Mental health conditions can have a detrimental effect on an employee’s work resulting in low morale, reduced productivity and increased absenteeism.
A range of mental health conditions may qualify as a disability under the Equality Act 2010 meaning that the employee is protected from discrimination. Disability is a protected characteristic defined in the Equality Act as a ‘physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.
If an employee has a disability, the employer has an additional responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate their needs and this includes those with mental health conditions. This may include adjusting someone’s working hours or duties, providing a mentor, allowing flexible working and working from home and increasing supervision and support.
Even if an individual’s mental health condition is not classed as a disability, it is still good practice for an employer to make appropriate changes to support them at work.
In order to promote good mental health at work and look after the mental health of the workforce, we recommend employers put the following key actions in place:
- Increase awareness of mental health in the workplace by opening up conversations to help break the taboo and start to build a more open and inclusive culture.
- Train line managers to spot early signs of mental health issues, have open and sensitive conversations and offer support and flexibility.
- Provide early access and signposting to external support such as occupational health and counselling.
- Carry out risk assessments on work-related stress across the workforce to identify the main causes of stress at work.
- Review job descriptions and workloads to manage work-related stress.
- Promote work-life balance so employees remain refreshed and productive.
- Offer flexible working and working from home arrangements.
- Offer employee benefits such as paid sick leave, employee assistance programmes, healthcare plans, discounted gym memberships, office yoga/walking groups.
- Put a Mental Health and Wellbeing policy in place to demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to mental health issues.
If you require advice and assistance with supporting the mental health of your workforce, training managers or drafting policies, please contact on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form to discuss this further.