Managing mental health in the workplace – the importance of evidence- led measurement

With the overall cost of mental health illness equivalent to double the entire NHS budget – up to £300 billion (Centre for Mental Health, 27 March 2024), and with an estimated eight million working days lost each year (Office for National Statistics, January 2024), the cost to employers has never been higher.

In this article, we consider why evidence-led measurement of mental health and well-being is important to all organisations.

Where to begin?

Organisations need a baseline of evidence to show the prevalence of mental health and well-being issues within their workforce. This can be obtained through some basic management tools to include; staff satisfaction surveys, analysis of both staff turnover and absence rates, exit/leaver interviews, regular “one on one” meetings and scheduled appraisals.

It is important that any trends are analysed though employers need to remain mindful that studies elsewhere show that up to 90% of employees within an organisation may not volunteer stress or mental health as the true reason for their absence from work, given the stigma which some still perceive as being associated with mental health.

More detailed analysis may be gained by using one of two questionnaires; the Karasek Assessment measures the psychological demand on the decisions required of the employee and the support he or she receives. This assessment is predicated on the basis that a “health risk situation” is a combination of a high work requirement, a low decision latitude (lack of flexibility and autonomy) and a lack of social support from the team or work hierarchy. The second, a Siegrist Questionnaire is designed to measure any perceived imbalance between effort and reward.

Both questionnaires are “self-report” and may be perceived to lack the objectivity associated with an independent third-party assessment. They may also be viewed as overly technical, with the alternative of a regular employee wellbeing survey providing a more useful, broad based picture of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

HSE – stress management standards

Organisations would do well to adhere to the guidance provided by the Health and Safety Executive. The HSE designed the management standards to help employers manage the causes of work-related stress and this is based on a “five steps to risk assessment” model which involves; management and staff working together; the identification of stress risk factors, gathering data on who might be harmed;
evaluating the risks; recording findings and finally, monitoring and review.

The HSE deem that there are six areas of work which may have a negative impact on employee health if not properly managed. These include:

• Demands - workload/patterns and the work environment.
• Control - how much say or flexibility a person has in the way in which they do their work.
• Support/resources - provided and the encouragement of the organisation, its management and colleagues.
• Role - whether people and colleagues understand their role within the organisation.
• Change - how organisational change is managed and communicated.
• Relationships - promoting positive work to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.

Commentary

Communication is key to managing mental health and well-being effectively in the workplace in the context that the transition to remote and hybrid working patterns have created additional difficulties both for managers and for workers suffering with mental health issues.

Communication should not be limited to that between managers and workers. Organisations need to have regular dialogue with Occupational Health providers to ascertain the success or otherwise of mental health interventions and to establish what has worked and what hasn’t.

To engineer real change however, we believe that systematic measurement of employee well-being and mental health needs to be embedded within organisations. Arguably, this change may only be realised when larger organisations provide annual reports on employee well being performance as part of their financial reporting process to include a summary of what they have done and what they intend to do to enhance employee well-being.

It is important that employees too recognise that their attitude and motivation will play an instrumental part in their recovery from stress, anxiety or depression. Employers should not fight shy from asking the question ‘what are you doing for your own wellbeing?’ Whether this is engaging properly with talking therapies or strategies to build resilience.

With the costs of mental health ever spiraling, the need to manage mental health and well-being effectively and efficiently has never been so pertinent.