At Mates in Mind, we believe that there is no health without mental health. However mental illness remains a continuing problem in workplaces across the UK.
The statistics behind mental health within the workplace continue to show the challenge facing many organisations, companies and the larger UK economy:
Poor mental health costs UK employers over £33 billion – £42 billion each year.
Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 44% of all work-related ill health cases and 54% of all working days lost due to ill health in 2018/19.
70% of managers still believe that there are barriers to providing support for the mental wellbeing of those they manage.
However, it's no secret that employers who implement mental health support and resources to their employees receive incredible dividends from their investment. According to Mental Health Midlands, programmes addressing mental health issues in the workplace can present a return of up to 800%. The better equipped the leadership and management of a business to identify, discuss and support mental health issues in the workplace, the greater the potential financial return. Investing into workplace mental health is an incredible opportunity for businesses and organisations with an average return of £5 for every £1 spent on mental health support. Employers that ignore the issue not only risk the wellbeing of their employees, but the success and growth of their business.
Supporter Story
The founder and Managing Director of RSE, Russell Stilwell, battled serious mental illness in 2010 – it reached a point where he almost lost his business, his home and his family. As a result of facing his own adversity and experiences, Russell has invested to realign his business values with mental health & wellbeing being on par with the safety culture already existing within the business.
Following our work with RSE, the impacts of recognising and taking action to improve the mental health of the workforce have been brilliant:
• A significant decrease in stress-related absence (2 weeks absence)
• Increased retention rate: proportion of staff leaving after one year
• 9% increase in staff feeling that RSE was supportive to some extent in relation to mental health – up from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2019.
Additionally our work with our Business Champion Tideway, also showed a profound improvement in workforce feedback around the mental health support available to them. When surveyed, Tideway found that:
• 84% of people responded positively to how Tideway is addressing mental health – seeing this as an aspect of H&S management that is being done well
• 87% agreed that their manager cares about their health and wellbeing to any extent
• 73% rated their own mental health as ‘Good’ or ‘Very good’, and similarly site workers were more likely to rate ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’.
Employer Responsibility
It is also important to note that employers have a 'duty of care'. This means they must do all they reasonably can to support their employees’ health, safety and wellbeing (ACAS). This includes:
- making sure the working environment is safe
- protecting staff from discrimination
- carrying out risk assessments
Additionally, employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. (HSE)
Support Mates in Mind
We have started to see some amazing changes within workplace mental wellbeing. But there is still so much to do, and we continue to enhance our approach and resources to make our programme as accessible as possible and to meet the evolving needs of the UK’s workplaces.
If you're interested in finding out more about how we can help you bring in further support for your workplace. Find out more by requesting a call back by filling out our contact us form.
As a Mates in Mind Supporter, you will have exclusive access to a range of resources, training and support, designed to help you organisation implement their workplace mental health program.
- Access an annual assessment of their programme and a tailored recommendations report to help identify any gaps in their approach
- Free access to our 'Start the Conversation' course, an all-employee general mental health awareness programme
- Access to a dedicated Support Manager to act as a guide through your organisations mental wellbeing journey and offer any new resources as they become available
- Counselling through the National Counselling Society at a discounted rate, to help staff members who may need a little extra support.
We look forward to welcoming you to our community.