your organisation’s needs. Be prepared to invest in these for the long term and evaluate their effectiveness. 3 . Invest in quality training for your line managers in how to identify and manage mental health issues effectively. 4 . Make efforts to create a psychologically safe working environment, where employees feel able to raise issues without fear. Use existing support available from specialist organisations and charities, such the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and Mind. 5 . Build a positive leadership culture that values mental wellbeing, in which leaders display their active commitment to staff mental health through their actions and communications. It is not just businesses that need to act. We also identified a number of policy recommendations, such as providing a free mental health support service tailored to the needs of smaller businesses, creating a national training programme for line managers, and encouraging the adoption of digital innovations in workplace mental health that can be widely used at relatively low cost. There is no easy cure for the rise in poor mental health. But we need to manage it effectively if we want to prevent it undermining productivity and driving the economy into depression.
We also matched the employer survey findings with wider business productivity data. This revealed that the long-term adoption of mental health budgeting, wellbeing data monitoring, and the provision of physical wellbeing support were associated with productivity gains. Additional analysis also showed that training line managers in managing mental health was associated with improved performance. In particular, it was linked to lower long-term sickness absence, enhanced staff recruitment and retention and improved customer service. The findings from our employee survey also demonstrated the importance of an organisation’s Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) for mental wellbeing and performance. Employees associated firms with a higher-rated PSC with stronger resources (support and leadership), lower demands (workload and emotional strain), better health (lower burnout and higher wellbeing), more positive attitudes (higher engagement and satisfaction), and generally more favourable perceptions
of performance (quality and productivity). We also conducted a number of case studies to examine the factors that helped or hindered the implementation of mental health and wellbeing practices in the workplace. These highlighted the importance of strong leadership and organisational culture in sustaining these practices. On the other hand, financial constraints and limited resources emerged as a common barrier to adoption and implementation. Our findings point to a number of lessons for employers. 1 . Ensure you collect, monitor and analyse key data on employee mental health. This could include simple systems to monitor absence and the reasons for it as well as collecting other wellbeing data through employee surveys or performance review meetings. This can prevent mental health issues from escalating and having a detrimental impact. 2 . Adopt a set of mental health initiatives that are appropriate for
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