How much time do you spend each day talking with your employees or colleagues? How much of that time is spent talking about work, or what you got up to at the weekend? How much of it is spent talking about how you, your employees and your colleagues are feeling? And I mean, really feeling?

It feels like people are finally starting to take mental health as seriously as they do physical health, and businesses are uniquely placed to help increase awareness of mental health challenges and provide support networks to help people cope with whatever issues they may be facing.

Businesses can benefit from ensuring the welfare of their people. A resilient workforce means a resilient company. Management need not just be about helping staff up-skill or improve on a professional level, it can also be about helping people move through their lives in a happy, healthy and fulfilled way. If nothing is done, the impact on businesses, let alone the individuals concerned, is stark, with mental ill-health the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK. Poor mental health was estimated by the government in 2017 to cost employers £42 billion a year.

How you can support your staff

Assess how much support is possible within your team. Ask yourself if you think your employees would feel comfortable approaching you with a mental health-related issue. If not, think what you can do to change that. Have you considered appointing a mental health ‘workplace champion’ to take the lead on initiatives, or a mental health first aider alongside a traditional physical first aider?

Time To Change

Time To Change is an organisation that aims to end mental health discrimination and provide support for those in need.

Visit www.time-to-change.org.uk for more details on their employer pledge, action plans for employers and further resources, including for its ‘Ask Twice’ campaign encouraging people to make sure their friends, family members and colleagues really are “fine” when they ‘auto-reply’ with that phrase whenever asked.

What are you doing to support good mental health?

If you have introduced any mental health initiatives in your workplace, I would love to hear about them. We can help to spread the word so that all employers can utilise your great ideas.

Email me at Philippa@bbf.uk.com.