How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

As a manager, you’ll need to talk to an employee about concerns around their mental health at some point. Perhaps you’ve already been there. It’s not a comfortable position for anyone.

You know the person’s potentially vulnerable, you know you’re not a mental health professional, and you don’t want to say the wrong thing or make anything worse. But you have a duty of care that’s a heavy responsibility.

Here, we’ve listed some of the warning signs of poor mental health and a general guide to having that initial conversation in a considerate but useful way.

Recognising warning signs of poor mental health

If you notice that someone isn’t how they usually are at work, it’s a good idea to trust your instincts and tune in a bit further. Physical, emotional or behavioural changes can be the early warning signs of a decline in mental health.

By spotting a possible issue and acting promptly, you can help that individual get the right support before their mental health deteriorates any further. It’s crucial to remember that different people can show different symptoms for the same mental health issue.

Common early warning signs include:

Behavioural changes

Changes to behaviour at work include things like:

  • Someone who’s never late has a problem with punctuality
  • An individual’s engagement with their work, and subsequent performance, is dropping off
  • Someone who’s usually enthusiastic develops an air of resignation or apathy
  • A usually social person withdraws from team activities, social events, or everyday social interactions (for example, choosing to eat lunch alone)
  • Irritability, anger, or even aggression towards colleagues
  • Different work patterns, like leaving early, arriving late and taking extended breaks
  • And the opposite – working extra hours than normal
  • Taking more risks than usual
  • Over-reacting to problems they would previously have managed fine

Physical symptoms

Physical symptoms of mental ill health can be quicker to spot and may include:

  • Change to appearance by neglecting personal grooming
  • Appetite and weight fluctuations, or digestive troubles that may necessitate more frequent toilet breaks
  • Fatigue – beyond usual tiredness
  • Joint and back pain, or more frequent illnesses
  • Visible signs of tension, like trembling
  • Nervous, strained speaking voice

Psychological indicators

These psychological factors are often those that people are best at masking. No one wants to feel out of control of their emotional state, especially at work. So these signs may be more obvious indicators:

  • Mood changes
  • Tearfulness and other signs of sadness
  • Loss of humour during usual daily interactions, which often goes hand-in-hand with increased sensitivity
  • Expressions of hopelessness and a distinct lack of motivation
  • Being indecisive, confused and/or distracted by usual work expectations

These signs can be picked up from verbal or non-verbal cues that will be unique to the individual.

Decline in work quality

As a manager, it’s most likely that a dip in work performance will initially cause concern. This might look like:

  • Someone struggling to take in or remember information
  • Lack of ability to focus on the task at hand
  • Standard of work slips
  • Missed deadlines, or taking it right to the wire

Mental health issues can be caused by an ongoing medical condition, grow incrementally over time, or occur suddenly due to a life event.

It can be difficult to see the signs, regardless of the cause. This is partly because social stigma makes people reluctant to discuss their mental health and partly because individuals all present different combinations of indicators.

Approaching the individual to address your mental health concerns

So, you have concerns about an employee. What do you do now?

You know you have a legal duty of care to fulfil and the HSE guidance states: “As soon as you notice that an employee is having difficulties, talk to them – early action can prevent them becoming more unwell…Managers should concentrate on making reasonable adjustments at work, rather than understanding the diagnosis.”

Even when you fully agree with all of this, it doesn't help you broach this delicate subject or keep a very personal conversation professional.

Dr Nicole Lipkin describes the difficulty of the situation for both sides: “It can be extremely isolating to be at work while privately dealing with a mental health issue, afraid of being found out, but desperately wanting support. By the same token, it can be uncomfortable, awkward and confusing trying to navigate how to help or support someone who is struggling, even if every molecule in our body wants to help.”

Does this ring true for you? You’re not alone. Here is some practical advice to use as a starting point for raising your concerns.

1. Privacy

Make sure you have conversations about any kind of health issues in a private space. This might be in your office, if it’s not an open-plan design. Or the person you want to talk to may prefer to be somewhere other than their workplace to express their difficulties. This might mean visiting a local cafe or going for a walk.

It’s more likely that people feel they can share their honesty if they’re comfortable. Explain you won’t share their private information with anyone unless they give their permission. They may actually want you to tell particular people for them because they’re finding it hard to communicate.

At this point, it’s crucial to point out any parts of your Health and Safety policy that state when you won’t keep information confidential.

For example, ‘I’m not going to tell everyone what we discuss. But if I feel that you’re not safe, I may have to tell specific people.’ This means that you can maintain trust, even if you have to inform medical professionals or other staff members, because you’ve been upfront about that possibility.

2. Express concern, not judgement

Social stigma around mental ill health prevents people from seeking help. Particularly when you’re initiating a first conversation, it’s really important to make it clear that you’re coming from a place of concern.

To avoid sounding like you’re judging negative behaviours or performance, start questions with ‘I’, rather than ‘you’ and use open wording. For example:

  • A simple, ‘How are you?’
  • ‘I noticed you seem a bit stressed/angry/down recently, and I just wanted to check in with you.’
  • ‘I spotted that your work was filed late and you’re usually great at meeting deadlines. Is everything alright?’
  • ‘What can I do to help?’
  • ‘What would you like to happen?
  • ‘Have you spoken to anyone else who can support you with this?’ (Like your GP, or other mental health professional?)

3. Be an active listener

The CIPD has a useful ‘conversation checklist’, but in essence, active listening involves several key things:

  • No interruptions from outside the conversation like phone calls, people ‘popping in to ask something’ or pre-arranged meetings
  • Give them the time and patience to explain in their own way
  • Allow the individual to direct the conversation outside your prepared questions
  • Validate their feelings by accepting them as true
  • Lead with calm empathy

This isn’t always easy. But before anything can be solved, the individual needs to feel heard and understood. You need to hold back your need to give advice or develop an action plan – and just listen.

4. Avoid diagnosing or assuming

It’s best to avoid trying to define a possible mental health illness diagnosis. For example, ‘You’re feeling worried all the time. Maybe you’ve got anxiety, so maybe that means you can’t be client-facing any more.

Of course, you’re considering how you can make reasonable adjustments to their work if necessary. But assuming a particular condition and speculating about how it impacts their job will only make people feel insecure about sharing their mental health challenges again.

5. Hold boundaries

The very nature of the causes and symptoms of mental health issues is personal. Your role is to be supportive – but you also need to maintain professional boundaries.

If an individual is upset in the moment or at a crisis point, they may be asking you for the kind of help that’s way out of your remit. Of course, human instinct is to try and help, but in the workplace, this needs to be within your policies and structures.

For example, you can arrange for them to have weekly time off to see a mental health professional. You can’t be that counsellor, therapist or psychiatrist.

And it’s OK to say that you’re going to help them find the right person to help them with the situation because that’s not you. Not because you don’t want to help, but because you’re not qualified.

Providing mental health resources and support as a manager

One of the most useful ways to support someone with mental health issues is to help them find the right resources. Often, just locating the right support is a step too far for people already exhausted by their current state of mind.

Suggest resources

There are all types of resources available to help with mental health issues. The first point of call should be a GP’s appointment because that’s the gateway to a variety of NHS experts that they might not be able to access otherwise. Then you can suggest things like:

  • Local or online counselling services
  • Mental health hotlines
  • Wellness apps, that often focus on one area, like sleep disruption
  • Employee assistance programmes within your organisation
  • Occupational health
  • Educational online courses that offer self-paced learning about different mental health and wellness issues

Offer practical support for their role

This is all context-specific, but perhaps you can do things like:

  • Adjust their workload
  • Push deadlines
  • Remove some responsibilities associated with their role
  • Flexible timetable - maybe with some working from home
  • Arrange time off, so they can do some initial recovery
  • Have a phased return-to-work plan

These kinds of arrangements needn’t be a permanent change to their work life. But a temporary supportive structure while they recalibrate their mental health.

Create an open, supportive culture

Creating a supportive work environment is more complex than it seems. It’s shaped by the diverse personalities and perspectives of each employee. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to define and foster a truly supportive culture.

Ideally, all staff trust that being vulnerable enough to seek help is expected, encouraged, and not detrimental to their career. They also need to believe their private mental health information is treated with full confidentiality and won’t become the next gossip topic in the break room.

Part of creating a supportive work culture is having carefully worded policies in place that deal with mental health issues and the procedures managers should follow. It’s also crucial that if individuals feel victimised because of their mental health issues, that action is swift, fair and decisive.

Follow up

Make sure you check back in with any employee who’s shared any mental health issues with you. Nothing intrusive, just a conversation about how they’re feeling and how the support is working for them.

This keeps communication open and strengthens your connection with them. It also means that you can adapt their role with any practical changes needed.

Get specialist mental health training to further support your team

In 2022, an ERC insight paper called ‘Line managers: The emotional labour of managing workplace mental health issues’ came to some interesting conclusions.

  • “...for some managers, dealing with workplace mental health is a significant emotional burden”
  • “...managers feel the weight of expectation to manage those with mental health issues in an appropriate and professional way, but that they also experience anxiety and unhappiness because they feel unprepared and unsupported”
  • “Employers are often over-reliant on these individuals to manage workplace mental health issues, and the study suggests that they should recognise the potential emotional toll it can have. This is an important first step in the development of resources (e.g., training and counselling) to help and support these individuals.”

Who’s looking after the managers in your organisation? Listening to and supporting employees through mental health issues requires emotional energy. But your managers also need specific training to do this part of their job successfully.

Getting an expert partner on board helps take the strain off your managers and build their knowledge, skills and confidence. We offer a holistic approach, so you can get the right training for your managers, well-being champions, and the entire staff.

Contact us to talk about how we can help support all your employees – including managers.

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

20.12.2024

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

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Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

Physical health first aid training, whether it be whole staff annual refreshers or courses for designated first aiders, is part of everyone’s CPD calendar. But that’s not all you do to keep your employees physically healthy and safe at work, is it?

As an employer, you do as much as possible to keep your employees physically safe – everything from installing accessibility ramps to toolbox talks about your latest piece of kit.

The same is true for keeping your employees psychologically safe. Mental health first aid training is only one part of a holistic approach to supporting good mental health across your organisation.

But an MHFA course doesn’t do the whole job by itself.

What else can you do to create a work environment that helps good mental health to flourish? Build on your strong MHFA training foundation with these three practical ways to support your staff’s mental well-being.

The problem with relying solely on MHFA courses

The main aim of the accredited MHFA training is to train people to spot the signs of mental ill health and to provide support. Course participants then become the mental health first aiders in their workplace. Just like your other first aiders.

Unfortunately, some organisations stop there. While it’s good practice to train mental health first aiders, there are challenges with MHFA courses if that’s the only thing your organisation relies on. Such as:

  • Standardisation: MHFA courses follow a set curriculum and give a solid grounding of mental health awareness in the workplace. But they’re not designed to address complex issues or specific mental health needs of your workplace.

  • Lack of follow-up training: Only so much can be covered in a 2-day course and if there’s no further customised training, there’s no opportunity to go under the surface of mental health issues.

  • Only ticking the box: ‘Doing MFHA’ can be seen as a compliance tick, rather than actually investing in employee well-being – missing the opportunity to effect lasting cultural change.

  • Supporting the supporters: Your mental health first aiders need to build their confidence and upkeep their skills. They also need to have a way to process their responses to the distress and crisis moments they witness.

  • Not embedding MHFA within the company culture: Your MFHA training needs to be one part of an organisation-wide mental health strategy. Policies, procedures and practices encompass everyone, from the boardroom to the contractors. Otherwise, the MFHA training will have little impact on the more nuanced issues.

It’s great that you’re considering MHFA training for your people. But it’s not a cure-all to the complexities of managing mental health issues in the workplace.

Here are 3 other ways you can construct a robust mental health strategy that really supports your employees’ well-being.

1. Ongoing mental health initiatives to support employees

Creating a workplace culture that values mental health requires consistent, proactive efforts. Here’s how ongoing initiatives can make a difference:

Regular mental health campaigns

Foster awareness and reduce stigma with year-round initiatives. Host workshops, awareness days, and speaker sessions that address mental health topics like stress management and mindfulness.

It might be useful to align with national and international mental health campaigns, like World Mental Health Day.

Keep employees informed by consistently promoting available mental health resources through emails, posters, and internal communication platforms. Ensure these efforts are engaging and highly visible to sustain their impact.

Provide accessible support

Make it easy for employees to seek help by offering counselling services, employee assistance programs (EAPs), and wellness app subscriptions. Use anonymous feedback channels to give employees a safe space to share concerns and suggest improvements.

Regularly highlight the availability of these resources to ensure employees know where to turn when they need support.

Sometimes, when you meet a mental health challenge, the biggest barrier to getting support is actually finding the right type of help. Wading through the internet’s worth of resources can be too overwhelming. So simplifying this step by curating a range of highly visible options is extremely valuable.

Flexible work options

Rigid work environments can exacerbate stress, so introducing flexibility can significantly improve mental well-being. If you can, offer adjustable work hours or remote work policies to help employees balance personal and professional demands.

Encourage managers to maintain manageable workloads and foster a culture of understanding when personal challenges arise. By empowering employees to tailor their schedules, you create a workplace where people can thrive.

2. Provide regular mental health training and updates

You need an ongoing mental health strategy that focuses on early intervention. By identifying mental ill health indicators quickly, you can get support in place before they escalate, which is better for both the individual and your business.

Advanced mental health training

Basic Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a strong foundation, but advanced training equips managers and teams with deeper skills to support mental health effectively.

Go beyond the basics by introducing organisation-wide workshops that teach a deeper understanding of wider mental health issues, or focus on a particularly relevant area, like trauma-informed workplace training.

Your training should be tailored to reflect the unique challenges of your workplace, sometimes even focusing on a particularly vulnerable group within your organisation.

Continuous learning

Mental health support isn’t static—it evolves with workplace dynamics, medical advancements, and societal changes. Plan ongoing education to keep employees informed about emerging mental health challenges and solutions.

Regularly update training materials to incorporate the latest research, tools, and trends. Topics such as navigating burnout in remote work, fostering inclusivity in mental health discussions, and stress management can ensure your organisation remains proactive.

Integrate continuous learning opportunities, such as webinars, discussion forums, and online courses, to keep mental health top of mind across the team.

Upskilling leaders

Leaders play a crucial role in shaping workplace culture, and equipping them with the right tools can make a profound impact. Train leadership teams to model healthy behaviours, like setting boundaries and prioritising their own mental health, to inspire employees.

Provide specialised training on creating psychologically safe environments where employees feel heard and supported. Additionally, integrate mental health considerations into leadership decision-making processes, ensuring policies and strategies actively promote employee well-being alongside hitting business targets. A well-prepared leadership team sets the tone for a mentally healthy workplace.

3. Make mental well-being an essential part of your workplace culture

Ideally, all your policies and practices are interwoven – with mental well-being, this may need some subtle layering.

If people feel like their mental health is being treated as an afterthought or an ‘extra compliance thing’, it’s unlikely that you’ll get anyone’s buy-in, no matter how good the training.

Here’s how to make your mental health strategy a fundamental part of your workplace:

Embed mental health policies

Integrating mental health into your organisation’s policies and values ensures it becomes a core part of your workplace culture. Embed mental health priorities into your company values and reflect them in performance reviews to signal their importance.

Update HR policies to include clear guidelines for supporting mental health, ensuring employees know what help is available and how to access it.

Additionally, incorporate mental health considerations into return-to-work and absence management plans, offering tailored support to employees transitioning back after a leave of absence.

These steps demonstrate a commitment to mental well-being that permeates every level of the organisation.

Foster psychological safety

Creating an environment of psychological safety encourages employees to speak openly about mental health without fear of stigma or judgment.

Promote honest conversations by normalising discussions about mental health during team meetings or through leadership-led initiatives. Ensure managers have the skills to actively listen and respond empathetically to concerns, building trust among their teams.

Recognise and reward behaviours that contribute to a supportive workplace, such as colleagues who demonstrate empathy, offer assistance, or advocate for mental health resources.

Celebrating these actions reinforces a culture where employees feel safe and valued, empowering everyone to contribute to a mentally healthy workplace.

Normalise honest conversations about mental health

When leaders and managers openly discuss mental health, they set a powerful example that encourages acceptance and reduces stigma.

By sharing their own experiences or challenges, leaders demonstrate vulnerability and authenticity, which can inspire employees to do the same. Even just hearing a manager admit to feeling stressed gives other staff licence to say the same.

Highlighting organisational initiatives, such as mental health campaigns, support programs, or success stories from employees who have benefited from available resources, reinforces the message that mental well-being is a shared priority.

A combination of these actions creates a culture of openness and trust, where discussing mental health is as routine and accepted as any other workplace topic.

Personalised mental health training with Resilient People

Going beyond MHFA training to more effectively support employees’ good mental health is a strong investment. You need to build an approach to well-being that goes beyond identifying poor mental health indicators and reacting to crises.

By investing in bespoke solutions, businesses can create a healthier, more innovative, and sustainable workforce. With Resilient People as your expert partner, you’ll get a mental health training package that’s personalised to the unique needs and challenges of your organisation.

After detailed consultations, we’ll construct tailored training that aligns your mental health initiatives with your business objectives.

Give us a call and let’s talk about how we can best support your people.

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

20.12.2024

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

Read more Read more
Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

19.12.2024

Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

Read more Read more
7 ways to improve mental health in the engineering industry

17.12.2024

7 ways to improve mental health in the engineering industry

Read more Read more
More news

7 ways to improve mental health in the engineering industry

Problem-solving, precision, innovation: the perfect three words to describe an engineer. Across multiple specialisms, engineers are known for their ability to tackle complex challenges and deliver results under pressure. Yet, behind the technical expertise, mental health often gets overlooked or swept under the rug.

With so many analytical brains contributing to fixing these issues, you can make a hugely positive shift by prioritising mental health as a core part of your organisation’s culture.

Let’s take a look at 7 key ways you can create a psychologically safe environment for engineers at every level.

Common mental health challenges in the engineering industry

TW: mention of suicide and self-harm. If this isn’t the right time for you to read these figures, please skip to the next section.

Why are we talking about mental health in engineering now?

Unfortunately, the prevalence of poor mental health within engineering is a growing issue. This doesn’t just affect individuals, but the growth of the entire sector. And, with 18% of the UK working population working in engineering in some capacity, we’re looking at a large, diverse and dispersed industry.

The numbers

Let’s look at the statistics first. Several mental health surveys have been completed by different professional bodies and reliable sources. It’s a sobering picture.

Hays and ‘The Engineer’ research found:

  • 63% feel moderate to extreme stress in their job
  • 25% employer doesn’t offer mental health support
  • 35% employer doesn’t offer tools to decrease stress
  • 15% experienced/are experiencing a mental health condition because of their job
  • 3 in 10 rate their own mental health as moderate to poor

Equal Engineers ‘Masculinity in Engineering research’ found:

  • 70% of respondents in their 2022 survey “felt men are expected to control their emotions, refrain from showing weakness, fear, or crying openly.”
  • 25% of men in engineering consider self-harm or suicide
  • Less than 25% felt comfortable discussing issues like depression with employers or colleagues
  • Only 50% are comfortable talking about stress with their employer
  • Over 80% experience some form of emotional or mental health issue

Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) found:

  • Work-related stress was the biggest cause of poor mental health for 66%
  • 40% of people have taken time off work to recover from mental ill health in the last 5 years
  • 49% receive no support at work for mental health issues
  • 13% of people didn’t know anywhere they could access mental health support

But what specific mental health challenges are we talking about?

There are many causes of mental ill health and the combination of related symptoms will be unique to each individual. But it’s helpful to consider issues that are common to a specific group, like engineers, so that you can mitigate those risks in your organisation.

Broadly speaking, engineers often experience mental health challenges like:

Workplace stress: High workloads, tight deadlines, and complex projects can lead to significant stress and burnout. The nature of engineering work often involves solving intricate and high-stakes problems with huge pressure to avoid mistakes.
Decision fatigue is real and exhausting.

Anxiety: Engineers may experience anxiety due to performance expectations, fear of failure, or the pressure to meet safety standards.

Depression: The isolation and long hours common in some engineering roles can contribute to feelings of loneliness, fatigue, and depression.

Work-life balance issues: Long hours, extensive travel, porous boundaries, and project deadlines can make it difficult for engineers to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Imposter syndrome: Engineers may struggle with self-doubt and fear of not being good enough, particularly in high-pressure roles or when transitioning into new areas of expertise.

Chronic fatigue: Consistent long hours, travelling across time zones, and working on demanding projects can lead to mental and physical exhaustion.

Burnout: The prolonged stress of handling multiple responsibilities and high expectations can lead to burnout, with symptoms such as a lack of motivation and diminished productivity.

Stigma around mental health: Toxic masculinity in the engineering industry contributes to individuals avoiding discussions of mental health challenges. This leads to underreporting, untreated conditions, and the continuation of unhealthy work environments.

Isolation and high-risk work environments: Engineers working on remote sites or in solitary roles may feel disconnected from their colleagues and lack social support. There’s often the added stress of working in dangerous environments. Some engineers regularly face extreme safety concerns, such as the threat of kidnap, as ‘part of the job.’

High responsibility and accountability: Engineers hold significant responsibility, especially when their work impacts safety, performance, and budgets, which can be overwhelming.

Job insecurity: Economic fluctuations, project uncertainty, or company restructuring can create stress and anxiety about job stability. Self-employed engineers have the simultaneous stresses of crunch time at the end of their current project while looking for their next job.

Of course, you want to create a psychologically safe workplace where everyone thrives and keeps your business on the road to success. Perhaps you haven’t previously considered some of these factors. But you’re probably already thinking of ways to support your engineers to tackle these challenges!

We’ve curated a list of seven ways you can improve mental health conditions for the engineers in your care – to help you, help them.

1. Mental health awareness campaigns

Employers can support mental health in engineering by raising awareness through various initiatives. Organising workshops and seminars with mental health professionals tailored to the unique challenges of engineering can provide valuable insights and lay the foundation for eliminating toxic masculinity from your culture.

Digital campaigns using internal communication channels like emails, intranet, and Slack can share resources, tips, and uplifting messages to keep mental health top of mind.

Perhaps sharing your personal stories will encourage employees to share theirs – helping to normalise these types of conversations and, ultimately, reduce stigma.

Additionally, participating in global awareness events like World Mental Health Day or hosting company-specific mental health initiatives can further promote openness and support within the workplace.

2. Mental health training

Knowledge has the power to eliminate stigma. Most organisations don’t have in-house experts to lead mental health training, but there are plenty of options from external sources.

Resilient People provides a holistic approach, which starts with listening to what you think will most benefit your people. Then we can help with things like a mental health risk assessment, specific training programmes and additional support that’s specifically designed to meet the needs of your engineers – and entire staff.

Here are some of the courses we offer:

  • Aware: To raise awareness of mental health issues for your whole staff
  • Thrive: To equip everyone with the knowledge to spot the signs of potential mental health problems and know what steps to take
  • Respond: Leadership training to give you confidence with a foundation of knowledge around mental health, well-being and psychology
  • Mental Health First Aid: 2 days accredited course to train designated mental health first aiders (similar to physical health first aiders)
  • Trauma Risk Management: This is specific training on how to handle traumatic events in the workplace.

By acknowledging there are issues and investing in their resolution, you’re showing your engineers that you understand and value their mental health. This is powerful in itself.

3. Create a supportive workplace culture

Creating a supportive workplace culture is crucial for promoting employee well-being, particularly when it comes to mental health. When employees feel valued, safe, and supported, they are more likely to thrive, leading to higher productivity, job satisfaction, and overall well-being.

You need to find the right combination of solutions for your organisation, which may include:

  • Creating psychological safety throughout your organisation ensures that team members can express concerns or seek help without fear of judgment or retaliation
  • Flexible work options, like hybrid models or flexible hours, help improve work-life balance, allowing employees to manage personal and professional responsibilities more effectively
  • Implementing buddy systems provides informal peer support, creating a sense of camaraderie and connection that can alleviate feelings of isolation
  • Recognition and gratitude play a key role in cultivating a positive atmosphere. Celebrating accomplishments publicly helps employees feel their efforts and skills are seen and appreciated

These practices not only enhance mental health but also contribute to a more engaged, resilient, and productive workforce. The ultimate key to getting this right is listening.

  • What do your engineers consider ‘supportive?’ They might have a different perspective than other members of staff.
  • Do they feel trusted to get on with their job, or is micromanagement contributing to increased workplace stress levels?
  • Are your engineers involved with work social events? Why? Or, more importantly, why not?
  • Do the male engineers feel pressure to ‘man up’ and not discuss their feelings and concerns?

There are so many different factors to consider on the ‘create a supportive work environment’ list. And you can’t do it alone.

You’re leading the charge, everyone makes the culture. So the most important thing is to find a way to listen to your engineers when they’re brave enough to share their honesty.

4. Provide access to mental health resources

Providing access to mental health resources in engineering is essential because it equips them with the tools they need to manage workplace stress and mental health issues. Most organisations don’t have in-house mental health experts.
But you can collate a selection of mental health support options, so those in need of help are relieved of that time-consuming part of seeking help.

This might look like:

  • Counselling services: Partner with mental health professionals or offer employee assistance programmes (EAPs)
  • Wellness apps: Provide subscriptions to mindfulness and mental health apps (e.g. Headspace, Calm)
  • Anonymous feedback channels: Set up platforms where employees can share concerns or ideas about workplace well-being in a safe space
  • Signposting: List local mental health organisations that offer face-to-face support and well-reputed national networks that provide similar services in a different way (like a phoneline or online chat)

5. Promote a healthy work-life balance

You need to actively promote good work-life balance to your engineers. If you don’t speak out when you see an individual going off-balance, you’re silently agreeing that work is the absolute priority.

You need to explicitly say that you don’t want to see them spending the majority of their precious time at work and things like:

  • Make sure holidays are booked and taken
  • Ensure that a ‘weekend off’ really means a weekend off
  • Set communications boundaries – don’t expect that your engineers are answering your, or clients’, emails from home
  • Expect that timely breaks are taken during the working day
  • Offer flexible working patterns where possible
  • Set a good example by modelling a healthy work-life balance yourself – leaving work at a decent hour, sharing what you do when you’re not at work, and actually taking lunch breaks!

6. Embed mental health practices into daily operations

To rectify the current mental health issues for engineers requires a nuanced approach. You need to start with an audit of where you are right now.

Listen to your engineers and respond with improvements they suggest. But to make a long-term impact, this can’t be considered a ‘one-and-done’ conversation.

To really embed good mental health theories into your organisation, you need to continually monitor and evaluate your practice. Achieving consistency and cultural change needs:

  • A clear policy that defines workplace stressors like harassment and bullying, acceptable language (including for discussing mental health issues), and sets clear expectations for staff behaviour – with consequences
  • All leadership needs to act quickly, to ensure policies are put into practice, whenever negative behaviours are displayed
  • Regularly check in with people and include their viewpoints when decision-making
  • Monitor identified areas of workplace stress to see how efficiently your mitigations are working.

7. Collaborate with other industry professionals

You can significantly impact mental health by actively collaborating with other industry professionals, like the Institute of Civil Engineers Benevolent Fund, to foster a supportive environment.

By partnering with engineering organisations, you can help develop industry-wide mental health initiatives that address common challenges and promote well-being across the field.

Additionally, hosting or attending conferences offers an opportunity to exchange best practices, gain insights from peers, and stay informed about the latest strategies for supporting mental health. These collaborative efforts not only enhance individual well-being but also contribute to creating a more compassionate engineering community.

Let’s improve the mental health of your engineers together

In an industry where resilience is key, ensuring mental health support should be just as integral as any technical tool or safety procedure. It takes more than just a one-off training session; it requires an ongoing commitment to change the norms and attitudes surrounding mental health.

As leaders within the industry, it is crucial to set a strong example when it comes to talking openly about stress, well-being, and mental health in the workplace. By normalising these conversations and establishing non-judgemental, open lines of communication, you can begin to dismantle the stereotypes and workplace attitudes that often leave engineers feeling unsupported.

But you also need experts in the field to deliver the right mental health training for your circumstances. Give us a call today and we’ll get started, together.

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

20.12.2024

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

Read more Read more
Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

19.12.2024

Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

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What to do if your employee is experiencing burnout

Even though burnout is a common experience for many people, it’s only recently been defined as a concept. This is great news because it removes its misdiagnoses as anxiety, depression, and mental health breakdowns.

For you as a manager, burnout should be easier to discuss compared to other mental health issues because it’s less stigmatised.

Let’s get into what burnout means, the signs employees might be suffering burnout, and how to provide effective support.

What is ‘burnout’?

The World Health Organisation defines burnout as “an occupational phenomenon…not classified as a medical condition”.

Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been managed successfully. It is characterised by three things:

  1. Feelings of exhaustion
  2. An increased mental distance and negativity towards work
  3. Reduced professional efficacy

Burnout is often confused with mental illnesses like anxiety and depression because they may cause similar feelings and symptoms. However, burnout is specifically related to the workplace and is not considered a mental illness.

In contrast, depression and anxiety have varying causes, pervade all areas of life, and need professional treatment. It’s worth bearing in mind that individuals can be suffering from burnout and mental illness simultaneously.

Look for these common signs of burnout in employees

Employees may exhibit some or all of these common signs of burnout. It’s important for you to be aware of these signs, so you can recognise when employees need support.

Decreased productivity

The usual level of performance takes a nosedive, with employees struggling to complete previously manageable tasks and meet deadlines.

Chronic fatigue

Constant tiredness is a hallmark sign of burnout. Even after a full night’s sleep, someone suffering from burnout is always tired. To you, this may come across as sluggish energy or disinterest in their work.

Emotional detachment

Another telltale sign of burnout is a withdrawal from the social aspects of work. Employees may be less willing to involve themselves in conversations with colleagues, are increasingly reserved in teamwork activities and simply don’t attend work social events.

This is because burnout can result in feelings of emotional detachment from all areas of work, even from people they’ve been close to.

Irritability and mood swings

When you know people well, it’s easy to pick up on when their moods are substantially different to their usual demeanour. People with burnout often exhibit frequent mood changes, are more easily frustrated, or are unusually short-tempered.

Decreased creativity and problem-solving ability

Burnout hampers both decision-making and creative thinking. Look out for employees who are struggling to apply their usual creativity and make a decision on work problems.

Increased absenteeism

Watch out for more frequent sick days, especially if it becomes a recognisable pattern. People with burnout often hope a short break will make things better and take time off in an attempt to ‘sort themselves out’.

Physical Symptoms

Our bodies and minds are one whole unit of being. Many people are surprised to learn that burnout can have physical symptoms like headaches, gastrointestinal issues, increased susceptibility to germs because of a weakened immune system, and the consequences of sleep deprivation.

Pay attention to staff that mention assorted ailments that increase in volume over a period of time. Physical and mental health are inextricably linked, so we need to consider employees holistically.

Lack of motivation

It’s likely that you’ll see employees lose their previous enthusiasm for work, possibly to the point where the motivation for even the most routine tasks disappears. This symptom can be misinterpreted as laziness and care needs to be taken to discuss it with compassion. Burnt-out employees are not deliberately trying to shirk their work onto someone else.

Cynicism or negative attitude

Someone who’s burnt out may express this through a generally negative attitude or cynical comments towards their specific job, their colleagues, management, or the organisation as a whole.

Feelings of inadequacy

Burnt-out employees may lose self-confidence in their work and abilities. They can continually feel that, regardless of the amount of effort they put in, they’re not achieving anything worthwhile.

How to support burnt-out employees as a manager

As a manager, your response to burnt-out employees needs to operate on two levels:

1. Immediate actions against burnout

If burnout triggers an incident at work, you need to be able to provide immediate support.

For example, an employee abandons their work and comes to you to express their difficulties. What are you going to do and say in the moment? It’s important to think this through and discuss it with senior leaders, hopefully, before it ever happens.

Consider what this person needs from you in this vulnerable position of exposing their difficulties. Firstly, they need to feel heard by someone who’s not sitting in judgement.

Secondly, they need reassurance that they don’t have to tackle this workplace burnout alone. That you’ll help them and there’s a range of support available.

2. Long-term actions against burnout

That initial interaction is important. And help like ‘take the rest of the week off’ is most likely welcome, but it’s not the whole answer employees with burnout need. It’s like using a plaster to cover a wound that needs stitches. It covers things up, but it's not going to heal properly.

Organisations are increasingly looking at the range of support they can offer employees who suffer from burnout. If you recognise the signs of burnout in an employee, it’s time to think about and discuss what you can do together to dig out the root causes for that individual.

This includes things like:

Encourage open communication

Actively create a safe environment where employees like them can discuss their stress levels, workload and concerns – without fear of negative consequences. They need to know they can discuss feelings of burnout in the workplace with the people who can help change things for the better.

Promote work-life balance

Take notice of how much work-life balance your employees achieve and:

  • Enforce taking breaks
  • Ensure all vacation days are booked and taken
  • Don’t pile on additional work, if the expected workload has been achieved. This behaviour from management leads to overworking and the uncertainty of ever-changing parameters.

If you don’t step in when their work-life balance is off-kilter, it’s a tacit agreement that work should be prioritised over all else.

For example, if you see someone consistently working late, ask them why. Tackle the issues that make them feel they can’t leave things until the next day. Maybe offer help to prioritise their tasks.

This demonstrates to staff that you don’t expect them to behave this way – that you’d prefer them to have a healthy balance.

Offer flexibility

As much as possible, offer flexible working hours or remote work options. Of course, this isn’t possible for lots of businesses, simply because of how they operate. But sometimes just flexible start and finish times to the working day can make a huge difference to your employees.

For example, reducing stress for those doing the school run by saving them money on breakfast and after-school clubs, and decreasing the rising tension of ‘getting there on time’ during the daily commute.

Showing empathy and giving a practical solution in this way helps bring stress levels down and helps prevent burnout. Really the question should be, ‘Is there any reason not to offer flexible or remote working?’

Redistribute workloads

Keep an eye on how workloads are distributed across and within teams. Be particularly vigilant for individuals who are taking on too much. Tasks need to be delegated fairly and with realistic expectations of outcomes.

If workloads are consistently too much for the number of employees, either reduce the workload or take on more staff.

Set clear expectations

You can’t know you're being successful at work if you’re not sure what you’re aiming at. Make sure employees are crystal clear on their roles, responsibilities and the outcomes you expect from them. Clarify priorities within their task list. This helps them understand where to direct their focus, especially if things get overly busy.

Provide resources for stress management

It’s a great idea to include a resources section within your Mental Health Policy. Some companies provide internal support, like:

  • Counselling services
  • Wellness programme
  • Stress management workshops
  • Meditation classes
  • Gym memberships

It’s also a good idea to include external sources of support that are available, that you don’t pay for. Things like: wellness apps, online learning, local classes, and numbers for various helplines that tackle specific issues.

Different people have different ways of managing stress. So it makes sense to curate the broadest range of available resources possible. That way all employees will find something useful.

Encourage professional development

Do your employees often stay in the same role, doing the same job for long periods of time? Some people are totally happy with that position. Others begin to feel like they’re stagnating, which is often the start of burnout.

To make sure everyone has a sense of purpose and feels like they’re growing at work, facilitate professional development. Training and mentorship are obvious options, but also ask them if they’ve seen anything they’d like to pursue that you can help make happen.

Foster a positive work culture

No, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, we know. But the culture of an organisation starts at the top. Promoting a positive work culture means you:

  • Celebrate achievements
  • Thank people for their effort, as well as their work product
  • Value people’s individual skills and personalities by openly acknowledging their ‘soft skills’ contributions
  • Always use respectful language and appropriate tones of voice
  • Collaborate with other colleagues and recognise the part teamwork plays in the organisation's successes

You are the example to everyone else in your organisation. If you regularly do these things, others will take your lead and you’re more likely to create a positive work environment that keeps workplace stress and burnout at bay.

Lead by example

One way to bolster honest communication is to talk about your struggles with work-life balance, previous colleagues, clients, your mental health, or recurring physical health issues. You also need to model healthy work habits, like taking breaks and leaving at a reasonable time.

This is not the time for ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ Show the importance of balance by sticking to the same rules as everyone else, maintaining your own boundaries, and truly leading by example. If you’re leaving when you said you would, it’s OK for them to leave at the appointed time, too.

Provide time for recovery

Have a recovery plan specifically for burnout. Encourage the individual to recharge during some time off, then perhaps have a staggered return.

This might look like part-time hours for the first couple of weeks before they go back to full-time hours. Or perhaps they return to full-time hours, but you adjust their workload to avoid instant overwhelm.

Regularly check-in

Make sure you regularly check in with employees who have returned after being burnt out. Things rarely resolve immediately, overnight. Keep the dialogue open and make any necessary changes for long-term support.

Professional burnout and mental health training for employees

You’re not on your own. Managers everywhere are implementing strategies to prevent burnout and support systems for employees who are suffering from the syndrome.

Resilient People can help with various training packages and continued support that’s specific to your organisation's needs.

These are just some of the options you can choose from:

  • Aware: Half a day, for all staff, to raise awareness of mental health issues in the workplace
  • Thrive: Half a day, for all staff, equip everyone with the knowledge to spot the signs of potential mental health problems and know what steps to take
  • Respond: Full day, for managers and team leaders, delivers a foundation of mental health, psychology and well-being knowledge for you to take back and apply in a holistic approach to mental health in the workplace.
  • Mental Health First Aid: 2 days, accredited, trains designated people to be mental health first aiders
  • Trauma Risk Management: 2 different courses, 1 for practitioners that lasts 2 days. 1 for managers that takes 3 days. Specific training on how to deal with trauma in the workplace.

Give us a call today and we’ll figure out what’s best for your team.

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

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11 practical ways managers can support employee mental health

Employers can be such a force for good in the lives of their employees. But with so many individuals to take care of and the responsibilities of legal compliance, this can weigh heavily on management’s shoulders.

This list of 11 practical things to support employees’ good mental health is a useful place to start to share some of that load.

Why mental health is so important for your company

Deloitte’s fourth report, ‘Mental health and employers: the case for investment’, contains some interesting findings that illustrate why employee mental health is important to employers.

The bad news first:

  • Cost of poor mental health to UK employers is £51bn per year (Down from £55bn in 2021)
  • Presenteeism is the biggest element of this statistic, costing employers £24bn
  • Absence due to sickness cost £7bn
  • Staff turnover costs £20bn
  • Working parents' worry over their child/ren's mental health costs employers an additional £8bn, on top of the £51bn

The good news:

  • 64% of 18-24 year olds say their overall mental health is good
  • 58% of all respondents say their mental health is good or excellent
  • Employers can get an average ROI of £4.70 for every £1 spent on employee mental health and wellbeing

Research author and Deloitte partner, Elizabeth Hampson concludes:
“Employers are increasingly putting mental health and wellbeing at the heart of their business and providing effective mental health support for their people. The benefits of providing targeted support for employees are clear and compelling.

“Employers need concrete evidence to make informed decisions about how to invest in workplace mental health programmes and maximise benefits, including financial returns. We hope to inspire employers to take stock of the importance of their people’s wellbeing and mental health and put in place effective interventions to support their people, including working parents.”

Managers should focus on creating a nurturing work environment where individuals can be honest and receive appropriate levels of support.

It’s clear that prioritising mental health support isn’t just crucial for individuals to thrive, but also for businesses to be as productive as possible.

11 practical things you can do to support employee mental health

If someone breaks a bone, there are standard treatments that work for everyone. This isn’t the same for mental health and work-related stress issues, which makes it a bit trickier to navigate.

Each employee is different, will react to the same situation in different ways, and will need the right kind of help for them. Your approach needs to be flexible to allow for the individual humans that are attached to the payroll numbers.

There are a range of different types of interventions and support that you can offer. No one’s expecting you to become an expert in mental health. Just curate a good range of support, so you can point people to their options and find the best thing for them.

You and your managers need to know your employers as people - at least, as much of themselves as they usually share at work. Then you’ll be in a better place to recognise any signs of mental ill-health and they know you’re someone who listens without judgement.

Here’s how to create a mental health safety net for as many of your employees as possible.

1. Regular check-ins with employees

Make talking about workplace challenges and overall well-being the norm in your organisation. Schedule regular meetings with your employees to discuss exactly these issues.

To encourage employees to trust you with their honesty, you need to put listening at the top of the agenda. It’s a risk for people to reveal negative emotions about their workplace, to their management. There’s a real fear of repercussions, or personal judgements, that impact their ability to make a living.

You need to be consistent in your approach and meet each individual where they are right now. Hearing their concerns and empathising with their feelings is one way you can get a truthful picture of your real workplace environment and how your people are actually doing, in themselves.

2. Promote a healthy work-life balance

There are all kinds of practical adjustments you can make for your employees to promote a healthy work-life balance for everyone. Of course, it depends on the type of work, but you can consider options like:

  • Remote work – where everything can be done on screen
  • Flexible hours – like variable start/finish times, rather than a rigid 9 to 5 workday
  • Compressed workweeks – where all the work still gets done in, for example, 4 days instead of 5

It’s important to make sure that all managers and supervisors ensure that everyone gets their regular breaks at reasonable times. Also, monitor holiday usage to make sure all employees take their holidays within the agreed dates, so they have adequate time to recharge.

You should never contact employees outside their working hours unless there’s an emergency situation. Or, if you prefer to send emails at night, make it very clear that you don’t expect them to be read until employees are at work.

Lead by example

If it’s appropriate, be vulnerable and discuss your own need for work-life balance. Maybe even share that you learned this the hard way and don’t want to see anyone else stumble down the path to burnout.

What do you do to keep your work-life balance on an even keel? Talk about what you do in the evening, at the weekend, on holiday – really lead by example. Being real with your employees cultivates their trust and improves their connection to you at a human level.

3. Provide mental health resources and policies

Your mental health policy needs to be a living document that adapts to new research, laws, and changes in your organisation. Ideally, employees feel a sense of ownership over the mental health policy because they had some input in its creation.

Your policy will make it clear to everyone where they can get support, inside and outside your organisation. Include as wide a variety of resources as possible, so all individuals can find what best suits them.

Depending on your organisation, these may be internal resources that are delivered onsite, or external resources that are local or digital such as:

  • Counselling services
  • Mental health professionals
  • Wellness days – that offer a range of wellbeing strategies
  • Other support services - that advise on broader issues that affect mental health, like Citizens’ Advice
  • Mental health hotlines – company-run ones specific to your industry or a particular issue (like addiction), generally available phone lines like The
  • Samaritans
  • Local workshops
  • Wellness apps – like sleep meditations
  • Online courses that offer support with wellness or mental ill health issues, like anxiety

4. Create a supportive work environment

Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? ‘Create a supportive work environment.’

Your organisation’s work environment is generated by the personalities and behaviours of each individual employee. And they might have different definitions of what ‘supportive’ actually means. That’s what makes it more complex.

Your role as a leader is absolutely crucial in defining what a ‘supportive environment’ means and how seriously you take it.

This includes:

  • Having clear definitions of bullying, harassment, and discrimination
  • Acting immediately when any negative behaviours occur, making sure policy is practised
  • Making people feel included by carefully taking different viewpoints into account when making decisions. For example, do social events always revolve around alcohol? Is that putting some people off attending?
  • Regularly monitor and makes changes to alleviate identified areas of workplace stress
  • Trust your staff to do the work you’ve hired them to do – don’t micromanage!
  • Model healthy behaviours yourself, like asking for help, changing your mind when presented with new evidence, and taking lunch breaks.
  • Listen carefully to what employees consider a ‘supportive environment’.

5. Provide training and education

Organisations often bring in experts in mental health training and education. This might be to support managers, specified mental health advocates, or all employees with their knowledge and understanding of mental ill health impacts at work.

When you’re deciding on the right type of training for your workforce, it’s wise to involve them in the decision-making. Well-intentioned, free-but-compulsory yoga sessions may be a great de-stressor for some staff, but actually cause others to feel more tense.

Start with an audit of what your staff needs – from your point of view as management and theirs as employees.

You may see that employees need space to explore how to discuss mental ill health and not be afraid of ‘saying the wrong thing.’ So you bring in a mental health expert to help define appropriate language and discuss how different mental illnesses present themselves.

Employees may individually identify time management as something they’d like to improve on, so it makes sense to organise training for time management skills.

If you invest a training budget into things that improve mental health, you’re showing your employees how much you value their well-being.

6. Set realistic goals and expectations

You need to reverse engineer your processes to make sure that goals are in alignment with what can realistically be achieved in the time constraints. Burnout results from too many goals that aren’t achievable within set deadlines.

  • If employees are expected to deliver on a number of tasks, be clear about what should be done first.
  • Always make sure your instructions are clear – to your employees – before any work begins.
  • Applaud questions. Make sure employees know that questions are expected and should be asked immediately. This ensures individuals can check their understanding of what’s expected of them at all times.
  • Clear feedback. If something’s not quite right, give specific feedback and an example of how it needs to be done in the future.

To really be certain that your systems and goals work together, do a task yourself with the same parameters you set for your employees. You’ll immediately see where bottlenecks and hurdles arise and can test if deadlines are genuinely realistic.

7. Encourage social interaction

Nobody wants to participate in ‘forced fun’ with their colleagues. So that’s a good ‘first rule of work socials’ – they’re optional and there are no repercussions for not attending.

It's great to help employees get to know each other as people, as well as colleagues, and there are so many great options outside of ‘Fridays at the pub after work’.

  • Team challenges or problem-solving experiences on training days – yes, that would include escape rooms!
  • Volunteering for a particular charity
  • Random food-based informal events in the staffroom – like a doughnut delivery or chippy lunch order
  • Entertainment venues in your local area: sports, theatre, comedy club, music
  • Ask your staff, they’re bound to have loads of suggestions!

8. Recognise and appreciate employees

Simply acknowledging everyone’s part in the success of the company is a huge morale booster for your staff. Include all levels of employees in quarterly updates that show how everyone’s work contributes to wider business goals.

There’s plenty of scope to give specific positive feedback to individuals during private conversations, especially official reviews. But why not make their attributes, improvements and successes public?

Anything from a traditional ‘employee of the month’ scheme, to bigger reward programmes that celebrate outstanding employee performance.

Accentuating the positive is just as important as supporting in times of difficulty. It acknowledges the value of each person and increases the visibility of individuals. This strengthens the trust needed to ask for help with mental health, or any other, issues.

8. Be mindful of mental health indicators

There are lots of different signs that may indicate that someone is struggling to maintain good mental health. Things like changes in mood, withdrawal from usual levels of social interaction, decreased productivity, and increased absence can be caused by mental ill health.

It’s a good idea to combine your knowledge of your employees with training for mental health first aid. This will give you more information and confidence to intervene, have the necessary tricky conversations, and signpost the right support. Always have this type of conversation in private and keep its contents confidential.

10. Provide opportunities for growth

People can display signs of presenteeism and give reduced effort if they feel they’re stagnating in work. You can take a really holistic approach to your employees and build your company’s future with them – embedding a sense of purpose and growth.

What does this look like? Encourage staff to suggest conferences, courses and workshops that they want to go on as part of their CPD.

Actually talk about their career path and the opportunities they have in your organisation. Consider if you can offer cross-training or mentorship programmes from your in-house experts.

This positive, proactive attitude keeps people engaged with their job, encourages their talent, gives them a sense of ownership over their career and presents a hopeful view of their future in the workplace.

11. Offer trauma support for difficult situations

Some jobs, like those in construction and agriculture, come with the expectation of experiencing or witnessing trauma. Often this is around life-changing accidents or deaths in the work environment.

Trauma-informed workplace training is essential for any business in this position. It lays preventative groundwork that’s invaluable for your team, should they need to process trauma in the workplace.

But even in industries that aren’t used to more frequent traumatic events, TRiM training is a really important way to understand how to manage trauma in the workplace.

Traumatic events happen unexpectedly, to individuals and groups of people. By investing in this level of training, your employees are equipped to support each other and themselves should the worst happen.

Improve employee mental health with Resilient People training

Supporting good mental health is great for your employees and your bottom line. Some of these practical strategies will be quick and easy for you to implement – and you’ll probably have some of them in place already.

For those that are outside your areas of expertise – like Mental Health First Aid and TRiM training – we’re here. Contact us to talk about what’s best for your people.

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

20.12.2024

How to address concerns about a colleague’s mental health

Read more Read more
Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

19.12.2024

Going beyond MHFA courses to truly support employee well-being

Read more Read more
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17.12.2024

7 ways to improve mental health in the engineering industry

Read more Read more
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5 common problems with MHFA training (and how to avoid them)

You’re a caring, forward-thinking person who sees the importance of investing in good employee mental health. But you don’t want to waste that investment on the wrong thing for your people.

The range of options is already somewhat daunting, and workplace mental health provision is an ever-growing market. Let’s look at the 5 most common problems with MHFA training and how partnering with an established expert helps you avoid them.

Why is mental health first aid (MHFA) training so vital in the workplace?

Our mental health is just one part of our overall health – and we all know how important it is to have a healthy workforce. Tackling mental health issues in the workplace is more difficult because it’s a relatively new topic of open discussion.

Generally, there’s a lack of knowledge about mental ill health and some stigma still attached to people dealing with mental health issues.

Taking care of mental health in your organisation can have a significant positive impact. Only paying lip service to tackling mental health issues in the workplace has huge costs to your individual employees, your workplace culture, and your bottom line.

These figures are from Deloitte’s fourth report, ‘Mental health and employers: the case for investment’:

Individual employees

  • 63% of employees feel at least one of the three main symptoms of burnout
  • 24% of respondents are diagnosed with a mental health condition

Workplace culture

  • Presenteeism costs UK employers £24bn every year (Staff turnover costs £20bn)

Overall business

  • Cost of poor mental health to UK employers is £51bn per year
  • Absence due to sickness costs £7bn

Startling figures. And that’s just one report’s findings.

How much do you lose to absenteeism, sickness, presenteeism, and recruitment costs?

What is mental health first aid training?

Like any medical emergency, you need to know that your workplace is kitted out to deal with mental health first aid situations. Mental Health First Aid Training is an internationally recognised, accredited course. The idea is the same as a designated ‘first aider’ for physical health situations – each workplace has an appropriate number of MHFA-trained employees.

During the 2 days, attendees are given the tools to recognise and support mental health issues among their colleagues, including:

  • Deeper understanding of mental ill health and what stressors impact well-being
  • How mental health issues manifest themselves in the workplace, and how symptoms and triggers are different for each individual
  • Develop useful skills that underpin their confidence to support someone with mental ill health – like active, non-judgmental listening
  • Knowledge to signpost the most relevant support

Mental health first aiders become touchpoints for mental health information and immediate support during a workplace crisis across your organisation.

But not all MHFA training is created equal. As discussions around extending the legal requirement to compulsory MHFA training continue, so does the list of potential training programmes on offer – as the market becomes more lucrative.

It’s essential that you check your provider is following the licensed MHFA England programme.

It’s absolutely critical that you get the right training for your people, in your context. And understand that mental health first aid is only one part of creating psychologically safe workplace environments.

These are 5 common problems that you face when implementing MHFA training in your organisation.

Problem 1: One-size-fits-all training

By definition, MHFA England training courses follow a set curriculum. They’re limited by time – and only so much can be covered in 2 days. They are a solid overview of mental health issues in the workplace.

But each workplace has distinct dynamics and challenges – like managing stress, organisational change, and building resilience. These factors can vary significantly across industries; for example, doctors, construction workers, and traders all face very different stressors.

Due to the nature of the MHFA programme, it’s not always possible to address complex mental health issues and specific situations. Without a full, customised package of mental health training, this standardised course risks providing only a surface-level understanding of mental health, potentially leading to misconceptions or an inability to address nuanced workplace issues effectively.

How to avoid it

You need to ensure that you don’t stop at MHFA training. See it as a brilliant starting point for a fuller programme of mental health education for your staff.

Good MHFA trainers will be able to discuss your specific workplace needs and suggest further provision that suits your organisation. You should ensure that they have the expertise to address a range of mental health conditions and be able to signpost high-quality, ongoing for your staff (just like we do at Resilient People).

Problem 2: Seeing MHFA training as a ‘tick-box’ exercise

You know the various legislation you need to comply with, underpinned by: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.” (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.) And you’ve got the shelf/desktop full of HSE folders to prove it!

But if you treat MHFA as another formality, another tick box to complete, it’ll be entirely obvious to your staff. Only considering mental health as a legal necessity is not the same as genuinely investing in something you recognise as important.

MHFA training is a conversation starter that establishes a baseline of mental health first aid knowledge. Yes, this raises awareness and provides a basic level of peer support. But you’re not going to see the attitude shifts, reduced stigma, or create an inclusive workplace culture change you want without enabling deeper understanding.

How to avoid it

There are so many ways you can support your employee's mental health that makes them feel genuinely cared about. A standalone, MHFA ‘toolbox talk’ won’t cut it – in any industry. Partnering with a workplace mental health expert gives you the opportunity to find the right initiatives for your people.

We can help you do a mental health risk assessment and prioritise investment in the most valuable resources – whether that’s trauma-informed workplace training, or wellness days at a local spa.

What’s most important is that your employees feel that you see their mental health as an ongoing priority, not just another bit of statutory compliance.

Problem 3: No follow-up training

Skill-fade is real! MHFA training is a starting point for your attendees. They’re great for raising awareness and generating confidence to discuss difficult issues. But skills learned in a single course can fade over time, reducing the long-term effectiveness of training.
These brief sessions lack the continuity needed for employees to develop a deeper understanding of mental health, or to feel fully equipped to support colleagues with ongoing challenges.

How to avoid it

Develop a plan for comprehensive, ongoing training that allows for reflection, discussion, and reinforcement to keep knowledge and skills fresh. Yes, this is harder than it sounds! This is why we offer follow-up personalised training and support as standard.

Problem 4: No additional support for mental health first aiders

It’s one thing to learn about mental health issues, in theory, on a course. It’s another thing to deal with those situations with real people. The whole idea is that people can approach your mental health first aiders to get help when they’re in a time of distress, even crisis. They listen non-judgmentally and see their pain as an initial source of comfort.

This can be as distressing as witnessing a physical accident or injury, leaving them feeling stressed, anxious and overloaded by the emotional outpouring. If they feel unsupported, there’s every possibility they feel a negative impact on their own mental health. And that’s the last thing anybody wants.

How to avoid it

Pre-emptive, joined-up thinking is crucial here – which a good mental health training provider will advise on. You’re asking employees to take on an extremely responsible role by being a mental health first aider. They need to know that they’re part of a system that includes guardrails for their actions and support to process what they experience.

This means having policies and procedures in place that support their role. For example, confidentiality is an important expectation of any employee sharing their thoughts and feelings.

But mental health first aiders need to know that there’s also an expectation that this will be broken if someone reveals suicidal ideation or plans. You should have a process in place that details exactly what they should do if this situation arises.

Aside from such extreme situations, your first aiders need to know where they can regularly access mental health resources and share their experiences through networks of support or debriefs with HR.

Problem 5: Not integrating MHFA training within the company culture

Training a couple of your employees to be mental health first aiders is not going to make a great deal of difference to your organisation if:

  • Management doesn’t participate in any ‘mental health’ training or discussion – maybe they don’t want to reveal a perceived weakness by association? It’s for everyone else, not them
  • Anyone expressing any feelings is met with ‘banter’ as the response
  • People don’t discuss anything related to burnout, workplace stress or trauma, for fear of management taking it as criticism – or that they can’t do their job

These are just a few examples of company culture that doesn’t nurture good mental health. If your work environment or policies don’t align with MHFA training, it’s going to be nearly impossible to implement in practice.

How to avoid it

Make your MHFA training, and entire mental health strategy, fully inclusive. From management to contractors, everybody needs to be involved in holistic training in order to make sure everybody reaps the benefits.

Training that’s perfectly matched to your company culture is the way to get complete buy-in to good mental health support. Not just a couple of people sent on an MHFA training course to tick the ‘mental health box.’ But professionally directed, ongoing training that builds a healthy workforce – and bottom line!

Get comprehensive MHFA training and ongoing support for your team

There’s a huge range of MHFA training within an expanding workplace mental health market and it can be challenging to find the right fit for your team. By partnering with an established expert, like Resilient People, you can avoid the main issues with MHFA training.

Your full mental health training strategy will be tailored, relevant and impactful in your organisation – helping you develop a healthier, more resilient workplace culture that’s better for your people, and better for your business.

Give us a call today to discuss kicking off your mental health strategy with MHFA training.

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How to carry out a mental health risk assessment for employees

It’s a given that taking care of people’s physical health is an important part of making sure employees realise their full potential and companies thrive, yet many businesses are still unaware of how to carry out a mental health risk assessment.

And while most organisations are on their way to accepting that mental health is just as crucial, there's a big difference between being committed to the idea of mental health support and actually putting it into practice.

That’s where a mental health risk assessment comes into play to boost your business through happier, healthier employees. It gives you an opportunity to support, understand, and make reasonable adjustments to people who are dealing with mental ill health.

In this blog post, we go into how you can identify potential mental health risks, evaluate their impact, and how you can implement measures to mitigate these risks in your workplace such as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training.

What is a mental health risk assessment and why is it important?

A mental health risk assessment is your internal procedure to identify, evaluate, and address risks to the mental health of the people in your organisation.

The prospect of defining your organisation’s mental health risk assessment can be somewhat daunting. There are several legal obligations to meet and the issues themselves are of a delicate, personal nature.

But this can be an incredibly positive experience because, at its very core, you’re finding the best way to look after your employees.

It’s not just individual employees who benefit from robust mental health risk assessments and supporting policies. Healthier staff usually means a healthier bottom line too!

Benefits to your business include:

  • Less sickness absenteeism
  • Reduced staff turnover
  • Increased productivity

Step 1: Identify potential mental health risks for your employees

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards is a framework designed to help employers gauge their mental health risk system against a ‘good practice’ example.

It divides the experience of work into 6 key areas that are connected to:

  • Increased absences due to sickness
  • Higher accident rates
  • Lower productivity
  • Poor health

It’s your good management of these 6 areas that make sure your workers have the opposite experience.

What are the HSE 6 key areas of work design?

1. Demands

When employees have high-pressure roles with big demands, it can cause a strain on their mental health. People feel like they are constantly failing and under pressure if they’re overloaded with too much, or the wrong type of, work.

When you properly manage employee demands, they feel that they can cope with the workload, work patterns and work environment of their job.

How to ensure demands are not causing poor mental health:

  • Ensure employees understand what they have to do and how to do it
  • Regularly assess if the demands and deadlines of the work are achievable
  • Update training as required
  • Match your staff’s abilities and skills to the requirements of each role
  • Evaluate the idea of flexible working hours as a way to manage demand on employees

2. Control

If people lose autonomy and control over their work, they become disengaged and less productive – especially if there’s no obvious way to grow and advance.

You should avoid micromanaging and ensure that employees feel they have a say in how they do their work.

How to give employees adequate control:

  • Involve employees in decisions about work patterns, breaks, and workloads
  • Encourage employees to use their existing skills and take initiative, and to learn and apply new skills that put them in the position to advance to more complex jobs

3. Support

If employees feel that they have no one to talk to about workplace issues, they can’t see any resolution to those problems. This lack of support likely leads to an increase in sickness absence, as people can no longer tolerate a situation they see no way out of.

Instead, you want employees to feel that they get the right level of information and support from both their immediate colleagues and senior leaders.

How to offer the right support:

  • Your organisation has policies, procedures, and systems in place to support employees – particularly in terms of what support is available and how to access it
  • Your management team have clear systems to support their teams
  • Your employees know how they can look after each other
  • Regular formal and informal feedback helps to identify any resources employees may need to do their job to their best

4. Relationships

Anything relating to poor relationships is a high cause of workplace stress. Discipline issues, frequent grievances between staff and bullying exist when there hasn’t been enough investment in building a positive working environment.

To create a good workplace culture with healthy relationships, you need all colleagues and managers to act professionally and shut down unacceptable behaviour immediately.

How to maintain good workplace relationships:

  • Zero tolerance of any bullying or harassment behaviours in your organisation
  • Active promotion of positive workplace behaviours to promote fairness and cooperation
  • Clear systems for reporting and dealing with unacceptable behaviour, for employees and managers

5. Role

People feel nervous and anxious about their job if you don’t set clear expectations about their role. Everyone in your organisation needs to understand their role and responsibilities and be kept in the loop if anything changes.

How to set clear employee roles:

  • Make sure every role has a clear set of requirements and responsibilities: job description, induction checklist, and new employee job specification statements
  • Make it clear who employees should go to if they have questions about their roles and responsibilities
  • Explain how each role fits into the success of the wider organisation
  • Update your team if any roles change and how it impacts them

6. Change

Any changes at work can be incredibly stressful for employees, particularly if there’s a risk to their job security. The worry of uncertainty in the organisation’s future reduces people’s ability to focus on their work.

You want employees to feel that they’re kept in the loop during times of change, though regular, clear communication.

How to positively approach change:

  • Explain the reasons behind changes to employees, ideally with time to process what they mean for them
  • Consult with staff about prospective changes to get their ideas and so they feel invested in the new thing, rather than just someone that has to deal with the fallout
  • Give clear timetables for when any changes are becoming reality and support for any job changes this causes.

A key factor for all these 6 areas is that there’s a well-understood system in place to hear and address employees' concerns with any of these issues.

Being listened to and seeing action taken around individual issues is essential to mitigating workplace stress.

How to measure mental health risks at work

These 6 factors – and any other elements that are important in your organisation – can be measured in a number of ways, such as:

  • Questionnaires and surveys
  • Focus groups
  • Observations
  • 1:1 interviews
  • Reviewing employee records – employee turnover rates, exit interviews, and absenteeism rates

Using the data insights from both qualitative and quantitative research is a powerful way to get an accurate picture of your organisation's current risks to good mental health.

Step 2: Evaluate the impact of those identified risks

Let’s be honest, you were probably muttering ‘Yes, we already do that’ as you read through that list!

Of course, you’re already taking care of your employees’ mental health and making sure you’ve reduced the level of workplace stress for as many people as possible...

But even when you already know the inner workings of your organisation, using the HSE framework gives you a panoramic perspective on your employees’ experience and spot any workplace risks to employee mental health.

You can now evaluate the impact of those risks and put control measures in place to reduce or remove them.

Assessing severity and likelihood

You need to consider the likelihood of each risk happening and your proposed controls.

It’s easier to see the big picture by using a table, grid or other visual framework to map out your risk matrix for mental health. You’ve probably already got something similar for physical risk assessments.

However you decide to present it, your mental health risk matrix has all the key information in one place, including:

  • Risk: All the risks to employees mental health
  • Impact: Their impact on individuals, other staff, and the organisation, if they occur
  • Likelihood: What are the chances of them actually happening?
  • Controls: What you put in place to mitigate or eradicate the risk

Prioritising risks

It makes sense to focus resources and attention on the highest-impact risks that either affect the highest number of employees or have the most severe consequences.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t recognise the importance of other risks, but it indicates where to start as you tackle the risks to employee mental health you have identified.

Legal compliance considerations

Legal compliance underpins all your policies, and mental health is no exception. Just as with physical health, you have a legal responsibility to help employees with mental health. This applies whether work is causing workplace stress or exacerbating an existing mental illness.

It’s also your responsibility as an employer to minimise the risk of work related stress by identifying any risks and mitigating them as much as possible.

The current UK laws relevant to your management of your employees’ mental health at work are:

Step 3: Implement measures to mitigate mental health risks

Risk assessments are one thing, but it’s action that makes the real difference. You’ve moved through a lot of important steps already:

  • A full mental health risk assessment to identify areas of risk in your organisation
  • Considering the impact of each identified risk
  • Evaluating the likelihood and severity of each identified risk
  • Prioritising the order in which to tackle the risks

Now you’re at the action plan stage. You need to plan what you’re going to do, who’s responsible for this action point, and the timeline for getting things done. This needs to be clearly articulated for each of the risks you identified during your mental health risk assessment.

Organisations often invest in professional training to support whole staff mental health awareness development. Sometimes issues can be resolved with simple adjustments to work patterns or communications.

Mental Health First Aid Training

At Resilient People, one of our core services is delivering Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training – an internationally recognised 2-day course.

It’s a great way to kick off education around mental health awareness, spotting signs and symptoms of mental ill health, and workplace stress management techniques.

Mental Health Policy Development

It’s important that your documentation is fully interconnected. This means using the information from your risk assessments to inform your DEI policy, bullying and harassment policy, and any other policies where you see relevance – not just creating or updating a specific Mental Health policy.

You need to make sure your policies don’t just sit in a Health and Safety folder until something goes wrong.

Your mental health policy needs to be a working document that people in your organisation understand and feel they can contribute to.

Just like your policies for physical health and safety, when things change – either within your organisation or externally – update the policy accordingly.

Employee support services

Many organisations include employee support services that offer professional support for good mental health. For example:

  • Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Providing access to counselling and mental health resources. This might be simply signposting all the locally available support there is and curating it in one place for your employees to easily access. Other organisations may be able to invest in actual on-site, or paid-for counselling services for their staff.
  • Wellness Programs: Promoting physical health activities that can improve mental well-being. This might look like free yoga classes at the end of the working day, or subsidised membership to the local gym. Again, even just doing the ‘finding out’ and putting all the available local activities into one list is positive input from an employer.

Workload management

Workload management can be tricky because it can be quite nuanced. But it’s essential to hear how your staff are feeling about their workload, and type of work, in order to avoid burnout and eventual resignation.

Even slight adjustments, like flexible start and finish times, can make all the difference to productivity and good staff mental health.

Improve employee communication and involvement

Honest communication is at the heart of understanding your employees. You need to know:

  • What will help them avoid workplace stress?
  • How you can support them in times of mental ill health?

These are difficult things to talk about, so trust needs to be built by regular check-ins and employees being involved in developing solutions. They need to know that you will listen empathically, maintain confidentiality, and together find practical and effective ways forward.

Regularly review your mental health risk assessments

A mental health risk assessment isn’t a ‘one and done’ thing. Like any other risk assessment, time for review and adjustment needs to be put in the diary.

Situations change, people experience unexpected trauma or mental ill health, work environments need to adapt to a new challenge, so ongoing mental health risk assessments need to incorporate all those things.

Whatever review structure you already have in place for other areas of your business are likely to be helpful with this. Figure out how you’re going to measure the success of your risk management measures, how you’re going to get feedback from employees, and embed the expectation that this will be reassessed on an ongoing basis.

Take a proactive approach to mental health risk assessments

As managers, you have a brilliant opportunity to add another layer of protection for your staff through your mental health risk assessment process. It will become another reason why your people love working in your organisation.

Hopefully, this has helped you envisage a framework to build out your mental health risk assessments. Resilient People are here to back up your bold leadership with expert training and support – for you and your employees.

Let’s have a chat about how we can help you support good mental health in your organisation.

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Trauma-informed workplace training to support your employees

Your interest in trauma-informed workplace training is to be commended. It’s not an easy topic for anyone to discuss, much less lead. But expert support is there to help you and your staff navigate this serious and sensitive subject matter.

In this article we’ll take you through:

  • Advanced trauma support training options
  • UK government’s 6 core principles of trauma-informed care
  • Impact of leadership on trauma response in employees
  • Integrating trauma-informed practices into daily working life

The importance of trauma-informed training in the workplace

Training to deal with trauma in the workplace is crucial. And not just a quick half an hour’s toolbox training. Real trauma-informed training, delivered by experts and tailored specifically to your employees’ needs in your work environment.

The central concept is to put compassion at the heart of people’s workplace experience. It’s not something just the senior management can do, or the appointed ‘mental health ambassador’.

Good trauma-informed training gives everyone the tools they need to support each other during and after a traumatic event: a shared language, proper understanding, and practical strategies.

Trauma-informed training helps employees to:

Spot signs of trauma

Trauma-informed training is not a medical or professional counselling or therapist qualification. But it does mean that everyone has a heightened awareness of what reactions to traumatic incidents might look like.

Discussing what trauma is and the signs they, or others, may exhibit after a traumatic event is the foundation. Recognising that how you feel is the result of a traumatic event is the first step to dealing with it.

And sometimes we don’t see these changes in ourselves. We need those around us to gently point it out if they think we’re acting differently and maybe there’s a reason beyond ‘just being a bit tired’.

Support others through traumatic experiences

Trauma-informed training is another way to create an empathetic workplace where there’s an understanding of how to appropriately respond to traumatic workplace events.

It’s one way for leaders to make sure that judgement of trauma-induced behaviours won’t be tolerated. There’s no, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ derogatory attitude. But instead, ‘What happened to you? How do you feel and how can I help?’ This reduces the stigma that can surround asking for help with mental ill health.

It’s difficult to broach personal subjects involving emotional reactions to horrible things. Professional training embeds the confidence that you won’t be too clumsy, or say the wrong thing, or make it worse. It helps leaders and employees to know what to say and how to say it – even in the worst-case scenarios.

The earlier distress is recognised, the quicker support can be given and, hopefully, prevent the more extreme reactions to trauma mentioned above.

Do no harm

A workplace with a working understanding of trauma will avoid feelings of institutional betrayal and prevent unintentional re-traumatisation of workers who have experienced a traumatic workplace event.

Trauma-informed training is being proactive about your people’s psychological safety.

Advanced trauma support training options

There are different types of trauma-informed training programmes available to organisations, such as:

  • Online courses
  • One-off workshops
  • Expert-led, in-person sessions
  • Mental-health first aid training
  • Trauma Risk Management course (TRIM) – for practitioners and managers

TRIM is a recognised training programme that’s designed to create a peer-led system of support for traumatic events.

We offer a 2-day course for TRIM practitioners that gives you the tools to support your colleagues. And a third day to develop management capabilities to monitor and take a wider view of how to handle traumatic events in the workplace.

Core principles of trauma-informed care

It’s crucial to select the right course for your work environment and employees. They should all be grounded in the 6 core principles of trauma-informed care, as defined by the UK Government:

1. Safety: There are policies, practices, and safeguarding arrangements in place to protect physical, psychological, and emotional safety.

2. Trustworthiness: Trust is built through the transparency of everyone explaining clear expectations and doing what they say they’ll do.

3. Choice: People are supported in shared decision-making, choices and goal-setting to determine the plan of action they need to heal and move forward from a traumatic event.

4. Collaboration: Between organisations and their workers, and between peers.

5. Empowerment: People feel heard, validated, and supported to make shared decisions – their voice is important to the organisation.

6. Cultural consideration: Treat everyone as an individual, not as a cultural stereotype based on their gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, geography, race or ethnicity.

During the TRIM training, your staff will gain knowledge about things like characteristics of traumatic events, trauma psychology, and risk factors for traumatic stress. They’ll also practise key skills like active listening, de-escalation techniques, and creating psychologically safe spaces.

How leaders can improve trauma response in employees

Leading an improvement in trauma response goes way beyond crisis management. It’s a commitment to a more compassionate attitude.

Leaders model the attitude and behaviours they expect of their employees, as trauma-informed training broadens everyone’s understanding of how to recognise the impacts of trauma and give appropriate support.

The fact that you’re investing time, resources, and money into expert trauma-informed training is a strong signal in itself. But it’s your language and continued actions that reinforce your commitment to a trauma-informed approach. That includes things like:

Be there and listen

Rebecca Brown is a professor of social work specialising in trauma. She explains,
“When people are struggling, they often just need someone to bear witness to their pain, to acknowledge their experience, and to sit beside them in the mess of it all. This is part of the recovery process…

Sitting with this discomfort alongside an employee can be a powerful step towards moving forward and feeling supported by leaders and the organization as a whole.”

No giving solutions – tempting as that may be – just listening, acknowledging and being there with people.

Have the difficult discussions

Find out how a traumatic event in the workplace has altered people’s perceptions about their jobs. What’s changed for them? Reveal if something’s changed for you. And figure out the way forward together.

Workplace culture is led by management, but it only changes if everyone embraces a new collective meaning. So create it together.

Get real about work-life balance

This doesn’t mean offering freebie yoga sessions and fruit deliveries. It means you model real work-life boundaries, discuss how you disconnect from work, and remove any barriers you’re responsible for that get in the way of your people doing the same thing.

Enabling your workforce to properly attend to self-care ultimately makes them more productive at work.

Highlighting what you do, verbalising the difference it makes, and showing that you value this in others tells everyone they should be proud of how they’re managing their mental health. It normalises just having the conversation, which makes it easier to discuss the impact of traumatic events when they happen.

Integrating trauma-informed practices into daily operations

In her Harvard Business Review article ‘We Need Trauma-Informed Workplaces’, Katharine Manning says:

“A trauma-informed organization is one that operates with an understanding of trauma and its negative effects on the organization’s employees and the communities it serves and works to mitigate those effects.

It may not be possible to predict or avoid the next crisis our organizations will face. However, with forethought, planning, and commitment, we can be prepared to meet the next challenge — whatever it may be — and come through it stronger.”

This is not ‘do a course, write a policy, put it in a folder and forget about it’ territory…

It’s more like this:

  • Start with a course such as TRIM
  • Discuss your specific aims and challenges
  • Put them and the practical ‘how’ into an official policy document
  • Evaluate
  • Act on your conclusions – maybe do some more training, or train more employee practitioners
  • Keep the evaluation cycle going. Test and learn. Listen to your people. See what other improvements can be made
  • Repeat…

Your commitment to your employee's mental health is unshakeable. Putting these principles into practice can be tricky to define and shouldn’t be ‘set in stone’.

You also need to remain dynamic so it can change to encompass every individual and traumatic event you may endure as a workplace.

Phew, that's a lot, isn’t it?

Health and Safety issues are always a heavy responsibility.

But you don’t have to create this trauma-informed strategy yourself.

Resilient People helps leaders establish and maintain a trauma-informed approach by offering continuous support and regular check-ins after the initial training sessions.

Everything’s about what you and your staff need – not just an off-the-shelf programme. We use our expertise to tailor the right trauma-informed training sessions and continued support for each organisation.

Expert trauma-informed workplace training with Resilient People

Take your first step towards a trauma-informed workplace today. Get in touch for a chat to discuss the best trauma-informed training for your organisation.

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Understanding trauma in the workplace and how it affects employees

Before we can protect our employees from physical danger, we must understand the threat and assess the risks involved. Then we can provide effective protection.

Likewise – before we can create a trauma-informed workplace environment, we must understand what trauma means and evaluate its impact on our workforce.

A quick look at ‘trauma’ as a Google search term, demonstrates the rise in interest in the topic from an interest value of 31 in the UK in 2019, to 63 in 2024. That means there’s over double the amount of people searching for ‘trauma’ today than 5 years ago.

While this indicates there are more discussions and awareness around trauma, it can also result in the diffusion of meaning. That’s why establishing the definitions of what we mean by ‘trauma’ and ‘trauma-informed training’ is so important.

In this article, you’ll find:

  • Definition of trauma and it’s context
  • Experiences that can cause trauma – including specific workplace trauma
  • Effects of trauma on your employees
  • How widespread trauma is among your employees
  • The importance of trauma-informed training in the workplace
  • Expert trauma-informed workplace training with Resilient People

TW: In this article you’ll read a list of different events that can cause trauma, and references to emotions and behaviours that can be induced by experiencing a traumatic event, this includes suicide.

It also includes statistical information about fatal workplace accidents and non-fatal workplace injuries. Consider whether this is the right time for you to read this, before you go any further.

Understanding the impact trauma has on your employees

Words matter. You need everyone to have a shared understanding of what ‘trauma’ means, before you can build a trauma-informed workplace.

What is trauma?

In a 2022 article for Vox, ‘How trauma became the word of the decade’, Lexi Pandell explores how, “The very real psychiatric term has become so omnipresent in pop culture that some experts worry it’s losing its meaning.”

She discusses the various research done through the 1990s into the specifics of different traumatic experiences – like ‘generational trauma’ and ‘collective trauma’.

And then the world went online. As she says: “It didn’t take long after researchers began to grasp the concept of trauma for the nation to reach a flashpoint: trauma as trend.”

Now, we hear the word ‘traumatic’ used to describe a really long tailback on the motorway. Or someone telling you about their recent trip to the supermarket exclaims, “What a trauma that was!”

Trauma has become a term to overstate an everyday inconvenience – often for comic effect.

But it's also used more seriously in news reports, particularly around stories involving someone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

What’s your employees’ existing understanding of ‘trauma’?

Your employees arrive at any trauma-informed workplace training with a confused definition, where only the most extreme symptoms of trauma response are common knowledge.

Building a genuinely trauma-informed environment begins with a clear, shared understanding of what ‘trauma’ actually means – with all its nuances.

It doesn’t help that even mental health professionals don’t have one clear definition. So we look to our policy makers for clarity. In its 2022 guidance, ‘Working definition of trauma-informed practice’, the UK government defines trauma as:

“Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as harmful or life threatening.

While unique to the individual, generally the experience of trauma can cause lasting adverse effects, limiting the ability to function and achieve mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.”

This definition is our foundation.

What experiences cause trauma?

The mental health charity, Mind, highlights the personal nature of trauma:

“There's no rule about what experiences can be traumatic. It's more about how you react to them.

What's traumatic is personal. Other people can't know how you feel about your own experiences or if they're traumatic for you. You might have similar experiences to someone else, but be affected differently or for longer.”

They list all feelings that a traumatic event can generate, like fear, shame, humiliation and invalidation.

Importantly, Mind also defines the different ways that trauma can happen – it’s not always caused by a one-off tragedy.

You may experience trauma from ongoing situations, childhood experiences, living or working in a traumatic environment, or from historical trauma in your family or community.

A traumatic event includes things like:

  • A near-death experience
  • Witnessing someone else’s death
  • Serious accidents
  • Complications during childbirth
  • Serious illness diagnosis
  • Physical or sexual assault
  • War or conflict
  • Natural disasters, like flooding or fire
  • Terrorist attacks

Workplace trauma

Workplace trauma can also start from one incident or from enduring repeated stress over time.

Situations that can cause workplace trauma are:

  • Moral injury: When you’re put in a position that goes against your sense of integrity – that’s in opposition to your values, beliefs or morals. This can happen when there are poor safety practices, a lack of resources, rules that don’t look out for everyone’s best interest, you’re part of a failing system that you aren’t in a position to fix, or you witness regular immoral or dangerous behaviour from other colleagues or senior leaders.
  • Financial insecurity: You’re only contracted from project to project, you’re concerned about losing your job, you see no pathway to promotion – all of these things create a constant lack of job security.
  • Bullying or harassment: This takes many forms – including extremely subtle tactics – and causes severe distress.
  • Witnessing criminality: Seeing regular criminal acts, including violence, in your workplace is incredibly stressful.
  • Unfairness: Treatment that persistently discriminates against, or ignores, an individual or group of people - in practice or policy.
  • Absence of support: Lack of support from colleagues, immediate supervisors, senior management or the company as an entity.
  • Physical injury or fatal accident: Having an accident, or witnessing harm to someone else, is a common source of workplace trauma in several industries.

To fully support all your employees, it’s worth bearing in mind that there are certain groups of people who are considered more likely to experience trauma than others, or experience it more frequently, including:

  • LGBTIA+
  • Part of an ethnic minority group
  • Serving members of the military
  • Military veterans
  • Serving a prison sentence
  • Ex-offenders
  • Refugees
  • Asylum seekers
  • People living in poverty

Effects of trauma on your employees

People react to traumatic events in their own way, so the effects of that trauma can vary enormously person-to-person. They include a range of physical and emotional reactions that affect how people behave.

Physical reactions to trauma

Our body can have physical reactions to a traumatic event like, headaches, shaking, tiredness, randomly placed aches and pains, changing appetite, memory issues, dizziness.

Emotional reactions to trauma

Traumatic events can cause a range of emotional reactions, including:

  • Self-blame, shame, guilt
  • Anger, fear, panic, shock, horror, betrayal
  • Grief and sadness
  • Hypervigilance
  • Confusion, loss of memory
  • Disconnected and numb to any emotions, including positive ones

A workplace trauma can leave people questioning not just their own purpose in life, but how they perceive who they work for.

Behavioural changes after a traumatic event

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, new behaviours resulting from trauma may include:

  • “Not doing or being interested in things you used to enjoy
  • Feeling detached from other people
  • Acting in ways that are reckless or self-destructive
  • Being angry and aggressive towards people or things
  • Being hypervigilant, or ‘on guard’”

All of these may become apparent in the workplace, as well as at home – especially if the traumatic event happened at work.

For example, a train driver being involved in a suicide, or construction workers that witness the fatal accident of a colleague.

Productivity at work after a traumatic event

If your sleep is plagued with dreams, you’re constantly worried about having another flashback, you’re struggling to contain difficult feelings and your memory is fuzzy – it’s unlikely that you’re going to be working to your full potential.

An individual’s productivity level may well decrease as they tackle their trauma. But the right trauma-informed training within your organisation ensures that they are safe while they heal and get back on form.

Each of your employees will try and deal with their personal reactions in their own way. Some people use drugs and/or alcohol to self-medicate the physical and emotional effects. Others might use self-harm to self-soothe their pain.

Trauma can leave people unable to meet their own basic needs, like personal hygiene, clothes and home cleanliness, and eating properly. Suicidal thoughts can become constant for people dealing with trauma – including thinking about ways to take your own life.

How widespread is trauma among your employees?

‘Trauma experience’ isn’t usually something that’s often measured. But what we can do is look at what causes traumatic events in your industry and see how likely they are to impact your employees.

Trauma in the construction industry

Based on the HSE’s ‘Construction statistics in Great Britain, 2023’ report:

  • Rate of fatal injuries in the construction industry is 4.2 times that of all industries
  • 45 fatal injuries to construction workers in 2022-23, 3 fatal injuries to members of the public on sites
  • 51% of fatalities resulted from falls from heights, 12% trapped by collapse or overturned vehicle, 10% hit by a moving or falling object, 10% hit by a moving vehicle, 6% electricity
  • Between 2020-2023, 53,000 non-fatal injuries, 28% required 7+ days off work
  • Total cost in 2021-22, £1.3bn, which accounts for 6% of the total cost of all work-related ill health and injury
  • Reasons for self-reported work-related ill health: 54% musculoskeletal disorders, 24% stress/depression/anxiety, 23% other

Trauma in train workers

From the Office of Rail and Road’s ‘Rail Safety’ report for 2022-23:

Fatalities

  • Mainline train workers: 2
  • Mainline passengers/public: 10
  • Trespassers: 10
  • London Underground passengers/public: 2

All reportable injuries

  • Mainline train workers: 4,251
  • Mainline passengers/public: 5,588
  • Trespassers: 62
  • London Underground workers: 947
  • London Underground passengers/public: 3,625
  • London Underground trespassers: 18

Shock and trauma

  • Mainline train workers: 799
  • London Underground workers: 199

Looking at just those two industries’ figures for non-fatal and non-reportable injuries shows how regularly employees are experiencing or witnessing just that one type of traumatic event.

What’s the HSE report for your industry? The starkness of the numbers really illuminates the potential scale of the trauma suffered by your employees as they go about their everyday job.

Just as you diligently mitigate physical risks, the right training helps you build structured support for those impacted by trauma.

The importance of expert trauma-informed workplace training

By investing in trauma-informed workplace training, you’re leading your team towards a compassionate and psychologically safe environment. It helps your people confidently look out for each other after a traumatic event, which means that individuals can access the help they need more quickly.

And your business benefits by having less staff turnover, increased productivity from healthier staff, and an atmosphere for real growth and innovation.

If you want to understand more about how to support employees with any potential workplace trauma, the TRIM courses we provide are perfect. Get in touch for a chat about the best trauma-informed training for your organisation’s needs.

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Why a toolbox talk won’t cut it for mental health in construction

You hear ‘construction industry’ and you picture hard hats, steelies, and high-vis vests. The physical danger of the work is both notorious and normalised. Everyone’s got folders full of Health and Safety policies and training guides, covering everything from Fire Safety to Asbestos removal. And employee Mental Health safety is also part of your long list of responsibilities…

But, unlike operating instructions for a new bit of kit, ensuring good mental health takes more than a 20 minute toolbox talk. It’s a great place to start, but a toolbox talk is not designed to dig deeply into the complexities of mental health in the construction industry.

You want to be just as circumspect in your approach to your employees’ mental health as you are with all HSE compliance. But where do you start? Ensuring psychological safety is way more complicated than ordering the right PPE.

With Resilient People as your expert partner, you don’t have to tackle this on your own. We support every level of your organisation to embed the skills, knowledge, and confidence you need to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of mental health support.

So read on to find out how to properly address mental health in your construction firm to ensure psychological safety.

Some sobering statistics about mental health in construction

TW: This section discusses suicide rates in the construction industry. Skip straight to the next paragraph, if this is not the right time for you to read this information.

Suicide rates

The need to focus on mental ill health in the construction industry is most starkly illustrated by the suicide rate. A combined team of Glasgow Caledonian University’s BEAM Centre and the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity conducted research to monitor the suicide rate for tradespeople over five years and found:

  • In 2015, 25.52 people died by suicide per 100,000 employees
  • In 2021, 33.82 people died by suicide per 100,000 employees
  • Compared to 9.14 people who died by suicide per 100,000 people employed in other professions in 2021

That’s a substantial rise, year on year. And a significantly higher number of suicides in the construction industry than other professions.

Alongside these extremely concerning suicide statistics, ‘On The Tools’ published their research whitepaper into mental health in the construction industry, ‘Behind the High Vis’, and found that 73% of participants said they are experiencing mental ill health right now, or have experienced mental ill health in the past. The report also published that absenteeism due to ill mental health costs the industry a huge £2.75 billion annually.

The focus on mental health in the construction industry right now is urgent.

The positive?

Although there is much work to be done, there are strong indications of hope. When employers invest in employee wellbeing, they are seeing average of £5.00 return on every £1.

Why is the state of mental health in the construction industry so bad?

There are a combination of factors within the construction industry that lead tradespeople to have increased mental ill health, including:

  • Job insecurity: Limited term contracts, uncertain work pipeline, late payment for work, and the volatile nature of the construction industry overall.
  • Finances: 65% of participants in the ‘On the Tools’ survey said their financial situation impacts their mental health. Add in the cost of living crisis, COVID recovery, and constant threat of van thefts.
  • Lone working: Either working completely alone, or on site with people you don’t know.
  • Antisocial hours: Night work and weekend shifts are often an expected part of a project with long hours and lengthy commutes to sites. For example, 7 out of 10 members of the ‘On the Tools’ community worked on Christmas Day last year.
  • Physicality: The physical danger of some construction work is taken for granted as a norm by most tradespeople. There’s also the constant physical discomfort of working outside in all weathers, with very limited facilities.
  • Toxic masculinity: Traditional ‘just get on with it’ attitude, combined with ‘macho’ banter, and traditionally male ways of communicating makes it very difficult for tradespeople to share how they’re feeling about their mental health without stigma.

There’s also the fragmented makeup of how people are employed in the industry. As Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said:

“More than 87% of our construction workforce are male and more than 50% of the sector is made up of self-employed, agency staff or zero-hour contract workers. Financial insecurity is a major factor for poor wellbeing in our workforce and the pandemic added greater anxiety and emotional burden.”

It's important that employers consider the individual people under the hard hats, by leading with an attitude of understanding and specialist mental health training.

Typical construction mental health toolbox talks

The ‘toolbox talk’ format is usually a 15 to 30 minute talk, at the start of the working day, with one specific health and safety focus. For example:

  • Fire exits and equipment placement on a new site
  • A new piece of equipment has arrived - here’s how it operates
  • Safe use of ladders
  • Night working safety lighting
  • Falls from vehicles
  • Working on roofs

They’re designed to share important information, about one specific topic, within a reasonable concentration span. A toolbox talk is a good way to share the same information, with everyone at the same time, in the spirit of preventative and proactive physical health and safety management. But they don’t replace the more detailed compliance training required for, say, the Fire Safety Officer.

When it comes to mental health toolbox talks, the focus becomes a general awareness of some mental health issues. As this is designed for all staff, it’s foundational knowledge about common mental health conditions, symptoms, and how you can help someone that’s suffering from mental ill health. A construction mental health toolbox talk will mention that there’s a lot of unnecessary stigma around mental ill health and share some safe language that colleagues can use to discuss it.

Toolbox talk limitations

Of course, this learning format doesn’t lend itself to developing depth of understanding and can’t address underlying issues in your workplace. A toolbox talk on mental health is generic and can only deliver the superficial headlines of an extremely complex area. There’s no instruction manual for managing our own mental health, or numbered guide for supporting a colleague with a mental illness. There’s also limited time to explore people’s own thoughts or raise questions.

Your employees need specialist training and a safe space to have meaningful conversations about how mental health issues impact them. A one-off, standalone session isn’t the way to do this.

A mental health toolbox talk is the start of a conversation. It makes sure that everyone’s working from a baseline of information about mental health first aid and where they can get further support. But it’s limited to awareness - which is not the level of understanding you need to reduce stigma, change attitudes and develop the culture you want in your construction business.

How to create psychological safety in your construction company

You can make a huge difference to the employees in your care by investing in mental health training. This helps you create a working environment that has psychological safety, alongside physical safety, as its foundations for productivity.

“It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.” Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The legislation that underpins and connects all the physical safety precautions you take and maintain for your employees, to ensure their physical safety. It can be helpful to approach psychological safety in the same way – understand the risks to mental health and minimise them as much as possible.

What psychological safety really means to your employees

Psychological safety doesn't just mean that your employees trust you’ll treat them fairly as an employer. It’s about having a culture where everyone can express themselves honestly without harm to their mental health.

  • Where you can say you’re depressed, without the name-calling ‘banter’
  • Where you can say you’re having a hard time with your mental health, without worrying about losing your job
  • Where the psychological effects of a work incident are taken as seriously as a physical injury
  • Where you’ll be guided to the right help at the right time

Of course you want this for your employees – it’s just ‘the right thing’. To embed principles of good mental health into your company culture, you need to put it at the heart of your entire business strategy. A couple of days, ‘bolt-on’ training won’t create the kind of nurturing ecosystem you’re aiming for.

Resilient People provide training for people in different roles in your company, so that everyone works together on a multi-layered approach to mental health.

Awareness ‘toolbox talk’ training is your first layer. Let’s build on that…

Reactive training for mental health in construction

These are mental health training courses that organisations will often look for as a reaction to an issue or incident that’s already happened. This might look like:

Mental Health First Aid training

This is a two-day, accredited course that gives you certified mental health first aiders for your organisation. Participants are trained to understand factors that affect people’s mental health, spot triggers and signs of mental ill health, and knowledge of where to get further support.

There is some work on their own social skills, like non-judgmental active listening, and how to reassure someone in a mental health first aid situation. It goes beyond basic awareness by giving trainees the skills, knowledge, and confidence to deal with such sensitive subject matter.

Trauma Risk Management (TRiM)

The 2-day TRiM Practitioner course is to train middle leaders to understand how traumatic events impact individuals. They’re able to spot particular signs that lead to early intervention after a traumatic incident and how to scaffold ongoing support.

Organisations often ask about this course after a serious accident, suicide, or death on site. The aim is to develop a peer-led framework to handle the mental health impact of traumatic events. It’s not a ‘one-and-done’ passing of information.

The idea is that you put a monitoring structure in place to provide continuous support. In times of crisis, your TRiM practitioner’s will be able to guide people through a known process. If your company is regularly operating in high risk environments, this kind of preparation is invaluable.

There's an additional day’s training for managers to take a wider lens view of trauma support – from policy, to leading Tactical Incident Briefings. Another critical element is teaching managers to carefully monitor and support their TRiM practitioners.

Proactive training for mental health in construction

Resilient People don’t just deliver the same boilerplate training for every client. We listen to what you need in your organisation and give management the right training and subsequent support to be able to successfully handle mental health issues in your specific organisation.

This means:

  • Finding the right people to be TRiM practitioners
  • Investing time in your practitioners, like hosting monthly drop-in sessions about psychological safety so they can network, get advice, or simple offload in a safe space
  • Understand how to recognise signs of mental ill health, so they can be part of the support system
  • Proactively find ways to make maintaining good mental health at work easier

We help managers have a deeper understanding and see mental health support as part of the culture they want for their employees. In the On the Tools whitepaper, 47% of participants said they were ‘somewhat unsupported’ or ‘completely unsupported’ when they were experiencing mental ill health.

Only 28% said they felt ‘somewhat supported’ or ‘completely supported’ during mental ill health. We’d all rather be in the last category. And this new perspective, combined with the power to make proactive changes, secures self-sustaining psychological safety across your organisation.

Wherever you have a culture of real mental health support, you have a workforce that’s better engaged and more productive.

Start being proactive in your approach to mental health training

We all know the adage, ‘prevention is better than cure’, and it’s stuck in our lexicon for a reason – it’s true! As managers you have the opportunity to be utterly proactive in your response to mental health.

Developing an understanding, supportive culture through the right expert training means that your tradespeople are able to be their best, healthiest selves at work – and at home.

Sure, start with a Mental Health Toolbox Talk – but make sure it’s just the start!

Reducing the damaging stigma still attached to mental health in the construction industry will need your leadership and guidance to make sure everyone’s heading in the same direction.

Resilient People won’t just helicopter in, ‘do the training’ and disappear over the horizon – it’s your training, we tailor it to your strategic goals. And we’re here as ongoing support, to help you build the multi-layered, self-sustaining ecosystem your people need to thrive.

Get in touch for a chat about how we can help you build resilience into your construction company.

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