How To Support Mental Health In The Workplace

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to support your employees’ mental health and well-being in the workplace.

Whether by implementing mental health policies, or by directly providing employee benefits that support mental health, caring for the well-being of your staff can have numerous benefits for your company, from increased productivity to a reduced number of sick days and long-term absences.

If you’re looking to implement mental health policies and benefits at your company, this handy guide will take you through the options available to you.

The benefits of supporting employee mental health

As an employer, you’ll want to get the best out of your employees. Whether that means higher productivity, lower rates of absences or even higher employee satisfaction, supporting the mental health and well-being of your staff is one way to help your business grow and be more profitable.

Workplace absences due to employee mental health

According to the UK’s Mental Health Foundation:

Mental health problems account for 8% of employee absences
Mental health is the most common reason for absences with employees under 44 years old
Poor mental wellbeing costs the UK economy at least £42 billion per year in employee absences, presenteeism and turnover

In recent years, mental health has emerged as one of the most important topics in the workplace. Since the pandemic, 81% of workplaces have announced they have started to focus more on the mental health of their employees. Still, around 1 in 6 employees will experience a mental health problem in their workplace, with mental health problems now accounting for almost 8% of sick days.

This is especially true for younger employees. The New Statesman reported in 2023 that nearly two-thirds (63%) of employees aged 18–34 said work was having a negative effect on their mental health, and mental health has now become the most common cause of workplace absences for those aged 44 and younger.

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Therefore, there are a number of benefits to supporting your employees mental health. These can include:

Higher productivity – People who are not struggling with mental health issues can be up to 23% more efficient.
Lower absences – In 2022/23, stress, depression and anxiety cost the UK 17.1 million working days.
Improved retention – Forrester found that 79% of employees were more likely to stay at a company that provided mental health support.
Higher job satisfaction – Employees who feel mentally supported at work are more likely to speak positively about their employer.
Better morale – 52% of employees say they feel more engaged with their company when they have access to mental health resources.
Beating the stigma – 35% of employees say they have experienced discrimination or stigma due to their mental health. By making mental health a priority, you can help fix this.

In summary, supporting your employees’ mental health at work will not only save you money in the long run, it will make your company a healthier, happier place for everyone – and earn you a reputation as a caring employer.

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How to support your employees

As an employer, you have many options when it comes to improving mental health and well-being in your workplace. The options you choose will depend on the size of your company, the type of work your employees perform, and of course your budget.

We can break your options down into three categories:

Culture
Policies and procedures
Mental health benefits

1/ Culture

The average adult will spend around 90,000 hours of their life at work, which is why it’s important to build a workplace culture that makes them feel happy, secure and cared for. Many employees agree, with 81% of employees saying the culture of their workplace is important when deciding whether to apply for a job.

There are many elements that make up the culture of your workplace, from your leadership, through to your values and vision. By adapting these elements to prioritise mental health, you can help to make your organisation a happier, healthier place:

Build a culture of openness

Mental health carries a great stigma. According to the charity Mind, more than half (51%) of adults in the UK believe there is an element of shame attached to mental health conditions.

Your workplace can help to break this stigma by prioritising open communication, signposting employees to mental health resources, and by providing mental health training to managers and staff.

To achieve this, you may wish to change or add to your company values so that they include something around openness. Some companies go a step further by providing mental health seminars and roundtables, while others ensure that managers are capable of spotting the signs of stress, burnout, anxiety and depression, and are empowered to talk openly with their employees about these things.

However you choose to do it, what’s important is that your employees feel they can raise mental health concerns in an open, humble and non-judgmental environment.

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Focus on work-life balance

Work-life balance means allowing your employees to have a strict separation between their work and social lives. This can manifest in a number of ways, such as encouraging your employees to clock off at the end of their working hours, encouraging them to switch off from emails during evenings and weekends, and even allowing them to work flexible hours.

Since the pandemic, many offices around the world have even started to include remote and flexible working in their work-life balance policies. Some companies have switched to a fully-remote model, while others allow employees to work remotely for at least a couple of days each week.

As an employer, you can support work-life balance in a number of other ways too. Offering time off in lieu (TOIL) to employees who need to work overtime, encouraging employees to take their lunch breaks away from their desks, and ensuring staff take their full allowance of annual leave can all help to ensure your employees balance work with down time.

Work-life balance is becoming increasingly important to employees around the world. 73% of employees say it’s essential when choosing a job, while 48% say they would leave a job if it did not offer a healthy work-life balance.

Offer support systems

The final thing you may wish to embed into your company culture is a support system for people who experience mental health problems.

One novel solution that many businesses are trying is to train people in the workplace as mental health first aiders. A mental health first aider is someone who is trained to identify, understand and respond to the first signs of mental health problems, and can help to refer your employees to more advanced support.

Over 4 million people in the US have been trained in mental health first aid already.

You may also wish to consider enlisting outside support. Whether it’s by offering your employees access to a registered therapist, or by inviting mental health speakers to visit your company, you will find plenty of options available.

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2/ Policies and procedures

While your employees will certainly see the effort you put into building a company culture that supports mental health, it’s also important to make sure you are adapting your company policies to meet the needs of mental health support.

A mental health policy for your business is a set of guidelines that outline your commitment to ensuring the well-being of your staff.

It should codify your company’s responsibility and outline steps for managers to take to ensure they are supporting their teams adequately.

Your mental health policies and procedures may include:

Awareness

Do your managers and employees know how to recognise the symptoms of stress, burnout and other forms of mental health distress?

You may wish to include a standardised procedure to help people recognise when their colleagues are suffering, and the steps they should take. This may include standardised methods of communication they should take in the first instance.

In order to help your people become more aware, you may wish to ensure they are offering training to help them recognise the signs of mental health problems, and that they know how to refer their colleagues for help, or escalate these problems if needs be.

Resolutions

Once you’ve identified instances of poor mental health in your workplace, your policies should outline the procedures that need to be taken to resolve these problems. It’s best to outline a range of procedures depending on the severity of each case. For instance, an acute case of burnout will need a different response to someone who is diagnosed with chronic depression.

Your policies may outline accommodations that can be made in these instances. Whether they include paid time off, fewer responsibilities, a change in job position or access to mental health resources is up to you – what you must do is communicate these policies with your employees to let them know that help is available if and when they need it.

Review

It’s important to make sure that your mental health policies remain up-to-date. New challenges in the workplace, and the world, create new issues that may impact the mental health of your employees. By regularly reviewing the effectiveness of your mental health policy, you will be able to spot potential shortfalls and find new solutions.

A good first step to reviewing your policies is by seeking employee feedback, perhaps in the form of an anonymous survey. You may also wish to hire an external consultant, especially if you are stuck for ideas on how to improve your policies.

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3/ Mental health benefits

The final thing you may wish to consider is offering your employees access to mental health benefits. These are non-cash benefits that you provide for your employees, which give them access to mental health services.

Your mental health benefits may be included with your company health insurance plan. With William Russell, our international employee benefits package includes international group health insurance with optional mental health benefits. Our policies are tailor-made for businesses employing staff across the world, especially those living and working abroad.

With mental health benefits, your employees can independently and discreetly access the services they need without incurring the financial burden themselves. This allows them to find the type of services that benefit them most, whether it’s short-term counselling for stress and burnout, or more specialised treatments and medications for long-term mental health disorders.

Mental health benefits may also include access to services that help to strengthen your company culture and prevent mental health problems from arising in the first place. They may include access to activities such as yoga and meditation, partnerships with local organisations that provide advice and advocacy, and access to online tools and apps that employees can use in their own time.

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Things to think about when it comes to mental health in the workplace

Building a workplace that supports good mental health isn’t something you can do overnight. But you can start taking steps today to ensure your business is doing what it can to care for its employees.

Here are some of the things your business can start doing today to support employees with their mental health:

Celebrate mental health

When it comes to building a culture that supports mental health, the first step you may wish to take is to show your staff what good mental health looks like. According to Claro Wellbeing, 71% of companies already celebrate mental health awareness days, which may feature seminars, training or even an extra day of annual leave to unwind.

The purpose of these days is to make employees more conscious about their mental health, making them more likely to seek help if and when they need it.

Ensure employees can take time off when they need it

If an employee is suffering from a mental health condition, whether it’s long-term or short-term, it’s important to let them know that they are entitled to take time off.

From your perspective as an employer, it’s better to give employees time off to rest and recuperate when work becomes overwhelming, as employees will be less productive when they are dealing with stress, anxiety and depression.

Be proactive – if you spot an employee suffering from poor mental health, be sure to offer them time off to recover.

Support employees coming back to work

Whether they’ve been gone for a few days or signed off with long-term sickness, it’s important to welcome employees back from leave with open arms. It’s important to remember that your employee may not be back to full strength, so ensure their return is staggered and that they don’t feel overwhelmed from day one.

Be supportive and communicative, and be ready to discuss their needs and concerns without stigma. You may wish to schedule check-in conversations to understand how they are dealing with their return to work.

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Encourage physical health too

Good mental health goes hand-in-hand with good physical health, so make sure your employees are taking care of their health holistically. Encourage your staff to get outside and exercise during their lunch breaks, and provide them with fresh fruit to help them eat a balanced diet.

When it comes to providing employee benefits, it’s a good idea to mix in physical activities – you may wish to consider gym and sports club memberships as perks.

Stop problems at the source

Stress in the workplace can come from many sources, so it’s important to be mindful of all of them. As an employer, it’s up to you to spot the signs of, and stamp out instances of workplace bullying and micromanagement.

If your employees are feeling overwhelmed by work, this can cause stress to build-up – the signs of this may include low productivity and employees regularly working overtime. Poor working conditions may also have an effect, so ensure your employees are able to work in a comfortable and safe environment.

Finally, try not to implement sudden changes in the workplace too often, as this can leave employees feeling confused and like they have little control over their environment.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Most importantly, you can make a start today in helping your employees communicate their needs.

Ensure your company has an open and non-judgmental culture by encouraging staff to be forthcoming about their mental health concerns. This can help your employees to get things off their chests rather than bottling up their emotions, which can help them to avoid a small problem becoming a big one.

It will also have immediate benefits to you as an employer, as companies that foster a culture of open communication see a 20% increase in employee retention rates.

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Support your staff with international employee benefits

At William Russell, we have over 30 years’ experience helping companies around the world provide benefits to their employees. Our international employee benefits package is tailor-made for businesses who employ staff globally, and our group health insurance includes mental health benefits to ensure your staff get access to the help and treatment they need, anywhere in the world.

Our comprehensive employee benefits package offers three essential policies, offering flexibility to fit your budget and requirements. With William Russell, your employees gain access to world-class healthcare globally, alongside life and income protection for complete peace of mind.

Speak to our award-winning team to find out how our international employee benefits can support your business today.

Find out more about international group health insurance and how it can support your employee’s mental health

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How To Support The Mental Health Of Your Employees

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