Managing mental ill-health at work

Mental health has rarely been more relevant – or more in the news.

From World Mental Health Day in October, ITV's recent high profile campaign asking people to focus on mental wellbeing, and most recently National Stress Awareness day on 6 November 2019, the issue is (rightly) high on the global agenda.

For employers, the importance of creating an environment which is both conducive to positive mental health and supportive of mental ill-health, is unlikely to come as any surprise. Mental ill-health is now by far and away the single largest cause of workplace absence, with over 56% of all absences being related to a form of mental ill-health.

Successful management of mental health at work goes beyond the minimum legal requirements, but it is still important to understand the legal lay of the land. Particularly employers should be mindful of:

• their positive duties in respect of employees' health and safety at work
• implied contractual obligations, including the trust and confidence that employees must be able to have in their employer, and
• the protection that the Equality Act 2010 provides to all workers who suffer from a disability.

What constitutes a 'disability' is outside of the scope of this article, but suffice to say the definition is complex, and employers should be alive to the possibility that it may cover a wide variety of long-term mental ill-health.

No two situations will be alike, and the breadth of mental health concerns and the variety of their impact mean that there is no one right approach to managing mental ill-health at work. With that caveat in mind, here are some tips for employers to consider.

Avoid making assumptions

Managing mental health at work is such a challenge because it is often invisible. It is far outside of our expertise to comment on the scale and nature mental health concerns which may affect an individual from time to time, but it is clear that no condition will affect two people in exactly the same way. This makes avoiding assumptions (particularly in relation to what an employee can and cannot do) essential.

Managers must buy in

Setting the right standards and putting in place the right policies is all very well. But it is only if those who are implementing them in practice truly buy into them that the benefits will be seen.

A well-trained manager can often be the difference between a team member feeling isolated and unable to discuss their health concerns, and one who feels supported and able to fully participate at work.

The practicalities can, however, be challenging. Managers the world over are time-poor and required to focus on immediate business goals. Adding to that the time required to properly support team members (not to mention their own) mental health is a challenge. It is however shown that those who invest properly in managing mental health at work reap the rewards, and affording managers the time to properly engage with the health and wellbeing of their team should not be underestimated.

Get the right information

Informed decisions can never be made in a vacuum. This is never truer than when employers manage mental health at work. Regrettably, in cases of absence, employers may get little more than three or four words on a sick note to work from. "Stress at work"; "Anxiety and depression"; "Low mood". These are all fairly regular examples of sick notes employers receive.

It is simply impossible to make an informed decision about what action an employer should take to support its employees based just on this.

As a first step, communication is essential. No one will understand the impact of mental ill-health better than the sufferer. Engaging with employees to try to ascertain more information about their health and the impact it has for them is invaluable. It may be that with some small adjustments, the employer can facilitate an employee's full re-engagement with work.

In more complex situations, obtaining medical evidence will be very important. Occupational health providers can be a useful source of advice, but be sure to pose the right questions to ensure that the report you may receive gives you practical information which the business can assess. There is nothing worse for an employer than receiving an occupational health report which simply records what an employee cannot do – the focus should always be on what they can do.

Be willing to make adjustments

Where an employee suffers from a disability and there is something about the workplace or work itself which put them at a disadvantage, the employer is under a positive duty to make reasonable adjustments for them. The idea is to level the playing field: ensure that any barrier preventing a disabled person from participating at work is removed.

This is a core part of the Equality Act (and a failure to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person would give rise to a discrimination), but it is sensible to consider making adjustments for those suffering from mental ill-health whether an individual is disabled or not.

The challenge for an employer is to strike the right balance. Employers are not expected to do everything and anything, but rather to focus on what adjustments may be reasonable. What is reasonable will always depend on the circumstances (and will vary from employer to employer, including bearing in mind its size and resources) but the bar for what is reasonable is set quite low and simple inconvenience will never suffice.

Being effective here requires a mix of each of the three points above – avoiding assumptions, getting managers to fully engage, and obtaining the right information. Discussing potential changes with the employee, allowing time for them to bed-in, keeping the situation under regular review and being willing to be flexible and open to the possibility of further change is also very helpful.

Effective management of mental health at work is perhaps one of the greatest challenges for employers. Balancing the support of an employee and the needs of the business is no mean feat. Recognising how important it is (both for the business and individual) is the first step in the right direction. Investing time and energy into making it a priority can prove invaluable.