Business Support from Lynn 

Is your business experiencing high sickness levels due to stress? 
 
Do your line mangers struggle to know how best to support staff experiencing mental health issues? 
 
Is staff morale having a negative impact on productivity? 
 
Do you have a high turnover of staff? 
 
Then I may just be the person you are looking for …. 
Addressing mental health is one of the biggest challenges faced by organisations today. Implementing change frequently results in raising anxiety and stress and with Covid -19 restrictions in place, maybe this has been an issue for you? 
 
Perhaps you have had to furlough staff or ask them to work from home? 
 
Maybe you have had to make others redundant or you are considering shutting offices and introducing long-term home working? 
 
Or if you are in the caring sector, your workforce is probably feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and mentally drained. 

Why is workplace mental health important? 

The Business Impact 
 
According to the Labour Force Survey 828,000 workers suffered from work related stress, depression or anxiety in 2019/20 and 17.9 million working days were lost due to the same issues. 
 
Not addressing poor mental health practices in the workplace can result in: 
 
High sickness and absence rates 
High staff turnover 
Drop in productivity 
Loss of skilled staff 
Damage to the reputation and image of the organization as an employer and a provider of choice 
Potential litigation 
A very unhappy working environment for all 

The Legal Impact 

 
Under the Management of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers have a duty to assess the risk of stress related ill health arising from work activities. The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 means that they have a duty to take measures to control that risk. 
 
In addition, through the Equalities Act 2010, mental health is a protected characteristic which means that employers may need to make reasonable adjustments for staff experiencing conditions such as depression. If they fail to do so, they could be taking to a tribunal. 
 
Beaching any of these laws can result in large fines as well as adverse publicity. 
 
And it’s not just about issues directly caused by the workplace, there are also challenges resulting from staff who are struggling in their personal lives. Some may still be recovering from the long- term effects of contracting Covid, some may have been bereaved, others may be juggling caring responsilities or have financial worries.  
 
All of these issues can overspill and impact on their ability to function at work. 

What you need to do 

Engaging with staff in order to understanding and evaluate their perception of the organisation’s culture is the best starting point and having a mental health plan with related policies is absolutely key to addressing any workplace mental health issues. 
 
In terms of education, maybe you have already taken some steps such as training staff in Mental Health First Aid, which is a great first step. However, mental health first aiders are not experts in all aspects of mental health and there is a limit to what they can do.  
 
Your organization ideally needs to provide flexible and tailored mental health awareness training to every member of staff as one size does not fit all. 
 
This is not something that you are expected to do alone. 

How can I help? 

 
With 35 years of experience as a mental health nurse, much of it spent as a trainer and senior governance manager, I can work alongside your HR team to put mental health at the heart of your human resources agenda through a range of initiatives including. 
 
Undertaking an independent baseline review of mental health within your organization. 
Giving you the skills and supporting you to produce a workplace mental health plan using my knowledge of initiatives implemented successfully elsewhere. 
Reviewing and amending your policies to ensure that they are robust in terms of mental health. 
Facilitating staff consultation and engagement events. 
Delivering mental health awareness training sessions for all levels of staff including line manager who are struggling with supporting staff experiencing mental health issues. 
Delivering stress management/resilience training 
 
The most important asset in your business is your staff and ensuring that you address their mental health needs is non-negotiable. Enlisting the services of a mental health expert such as myself will not only save you money by avoiding potential litigation and improve your productivity by reducing sickness rates, it will improve your reputation as a caring employer and create a much happier and healthier place to work. 
 
To get my free '5 Tips on Improving Workplace Mental Health' please click HERE 
 
To download my 'Mental in Business' brochure please click HERE 
 
If you would like more details about my Business Support service please feel free to contact me for a no-obligation discussion click HERE  
or call me on 07851 570447