Half of all the working days lost in the UK due to ill health are connected to mental health. Managing employees with mental health issues is complicated, and poor mental health has significant consequences for employers including lost productivity and increased staff turnover.
These are the key things you should be considering when managing employees with mental health issues:
1. Be aware of your obligations
Employers are responsible for helping employees manage work related stress. Although many employers feel reluctant to interfere, there are positive legal obligations upon them:
• to take reasonable care of employees’ health and safety; and
• to assess the risk of stress related ill health arising from work activities.
Employers should therefore be mindful of the following risk factors and manage them where possible:
• long hours
• unrealistic expectations and deadlines
• high-pressure environments
• lack of control in your workload
• job insecurity and change management
• lone working
It is also important to note that some mental health issues will be classified as a disability under the Equality Act, which means that reasonable adjustments may have to be made in the workplace. These adjustments should be considered in conjunction with medical evidence and the employee should have input to any adjustments.
The reasonable adjustments that should be made will of course depend on the individual, (and the size of the employer) but some common changes could include:
• different hours,
• phased return after a long absence,
• reduced workload, or
• a mentor.
Even where employees have not formally disclosed they are suffering from mental ill health, reasonable steps should be taken and systems should be in place to find out relevant information, whilst also considering issues of privacy. Employers should always give the employee the opportunity to explain the reason for their actions or dips in performance at work, and if health issues are mentioned in these discussions, should then investigate further before reaching a decision.
2. Be proactive
There are preventative steps you can take to try and proactively support employees and prevent problems occurring as follows:
1. check in with employees regularly – make sure regular catch ups are scheduled in advance with employees, both individually and as a team. These may need to be more frequent when dealing with remote workers.
2. create a positive atmosphere which encourages conversation – you need to ensure that employees feel like they can ask for help when it is needed. It’s important that employees generally feel comfortable to talk about issues impacting on their work. If they do feel comfortable talking about childcare or other health issues, then this is a good step towards them talking openly about their mental health.
3. encourage employees to use the support tools available to them. This may be sharing external resources or internal resources like your employee assistance team.
4. encourage a positive work/life balance – encourage employees to take breaks and also look after their own wellbeing.
5. appointing mental health first aiders – appointing and training mental health first aiders can be a great way to support your employees and spot issues early. It also means that employees have someone in the business they can go to that isn’t their manager, to sign post them so they can get the support they need.
3. Recognise the signs
Knowing whether or not an employee is struggling with a mental health issue can be difficult. Behavioural factors that you may see are:
• lateness
• withdrawal
• working long hours, change in work pattern
• uncharacteristic problems with colleagues
• short term absences
• long term absences
These behavioural red flags are even harder to spot when someone is working from home, so it makes open and frequent communication even more important when managing employees with mental health issues and a need to ensure regular face to face meetings.
4. Keep communication open
If an employee discloses a mental health issue it is important that the manager:
• listens and makes the employee feel ‘listened to’
• avoids dismissing the concerns
• avoids failing to take them seriously
• avoids offering an immediate solution.
The aim should be to come away with an understanding of the employee’s concerns and for the employee to feel they have been listened to in a safe place. Then you can consider how best to support the employee.
5.How to manage poor performance
Poor mental health can affect performance but despite the mental health issues you should still follow your performance management process. You may begin with some informal support, but you can and should then engage in your normal processes.
A fair performance management procedure will involve:
• consultation with employee
• medical investigation often with input from a GP or Occupational Health
• considering re-deployment
• reasonable adjustments
In a nutshell….
When it comes to managing employees with mental health issues you are not expected to have all the answers…. the following are important to keep in mind:
1. be proactive, don’t shy away from issues and communicate, communicate, communicate!
2. ensure you have fair processes in place and adjust them as necessary.
3. get help from medical professionals and other organisations such as Mind.
For advice contact nicola.goodridge@goodhr.co.uk or on +44 (0)7917878384
