It's All About People

18th July - 3 minute read

Welcome back

We have been super busy this week creating helpful resources and scheduling a webinar in relation to the employment changes coming in under the new Labour Government 🌹

We are still putting the finishes touches to this but if you would like a copy of the guide and a link for the webinar simply hit return and type yes please, and we will make sure you get this.

This week’s email is all about the key topic of Mental Health in the Workplace.

I am running a free session on this next week (Tuesday 23rd) and when I saw the huge numbers booked on I had two reactions:

😃 that so many people are treating this as a priority and want to look after their team members

😢 that this is an area that is a concern for so many people

📈 The Scale of the Problem

• 14.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK were attributed to mental health conditions, including stress, depression, and anxiety (ONS 2022)

• More than one million fit notes relating to mental and behavioural disorders were issued by the NHS in the UK last year.

• This equates to approximately 17.5 million working days lost due to mental health issues in 2022.

• mental health remains the most common cause of long-term absence, cited by 56% of organisations (CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work 2023)

• poor mental health costs UK employers up to £56 billion a year, a significant increase from £45 billion in 2020. (Deloitte 2022)

👩‍⚖️ What Is Causing the Rise?

There are many thoughts around what is causing the rise, however the rise itself is not new - it has been increasing year on year for many years now.

💡 Increased awareness around mental health and people recognising that their health issue is mental not physical

⬇ Decreased stigma so people are more likely to ask for help

😷 The continued fallout of the impact of COVID restrictions on mental health

💰️ Ongoing cost of living crisis, with financial worries being a big cause of stress

📝 What can you do as an employer?

Ultimately as an employer you have, by law, a duty of care towards your employees.

Of course I hope you would want to protect their mental health regardless of law, and help them to bring their best version to work each day.

Make sure that you are keeping good records of any sickness absence and be aware of any mental health related absence.

Train your managers to recognise the signs and symptoms of someone struggling with their mental health, and how best to support them.

Make sure you have a culture where people are happy to ask for help, and to ask early on before things escalate.

Consider training team members in mental health awareness, and perhaps have Mental Health Champions.

If you would like to know more, you are more than welcome to join me on the webinar on Tuesday 23rd at 12pm. You can book here.

Remember, if you would like our free guidance on the law changes coming in and an invite to our webinar, simply hit return and simply say yes.

That’s all for this week – have a great week.

Emma 

P.S. For those of you reading this who are members of our HR Hub then we have a range of resources in the Hub on mental health - simply take a look in the Wellbeing Zone.

 P.P.S.  If you are not a Hub member you can join here for only £45/month for all your HR needs.

P.P.P.S If we have not connected on LinkedIn yet, I would love to connect

Events to Join in July (click on the links to join us)

Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace (free session) - 23rd July 12pm 

Menopause Café (free for all to attend, and not just for the ladies!) – 23rd July 12pm

Excellence Unleashed - Performance Management Masterclass (free to Hub members or £150/place) - 30th July 9.30-12.30pm