Assess mental health risks in your workplace

The Drive to Thrive

HR teams need to be mindful of mental health risks in the workplace at any time, and never more so than during a pandemic. Not only is there a human cost to employees of stress, anxiety and depression, but these challenges also leave organisations exposed to lower productivity and higher costs.

You can assess and address these risks, however, while also supporting your people and running your business.

Every HR leader knows about managing occupational health risks. Now it’s time to introduce occupational mental health services that can help anticipate and mitigate mental health risks in the workplace.

It’s a timely move – at laya healthcare, we’re seeing 46% of all occupational health requests now relate to mental wellbeing.

Benefits employees and employers

When employees have access to and can benefit from an occupational mental health service, they see real benefits. Not only do their stress levels reduce, meaning they enjoy a more positive sense of health and wellbeing, but they are also more productive.

With this service, problems are more likely to be addressed sooner, and that early intervention pays, as any employee who needs time off is more likely to recover quickly and be able to return to work. Furthermore, problems that go unaddressed are likely to worsen and become harder to resolve.

There are more benefits for employers too. By adopting an active management of mental health risk rather than a passive one, they can reduce both absenteeism and presenteeism. They can improve morale, motivation and employee commitment, while also being able to cut potential costs for labour relations and legal services.

Not only that, but a dedicated occupational mental health service can help to improve retention, reduce employee churn and support your organisation’s work in becoming an employer of choice.

1. Stress from time to time: mental health and wellbeing

Most employees, if not all, will occasionally experience the symptoms of stress without it really affecting their overall performance or how well they cope in life.

To support these employees, ensure you promote mental health and wellbeing resources and services throughout your organisation, making use of all internal communications channels and issuing regular updates.

Given that 41% of employees still see there being a stigma around mental health issues in the workplace, these comms are vital to help combat that concern.

If someone loses a day of work due to stress, anxiety or another mental health issue, we can move to the actions outlined in the next section.

2. When distress increases: minor symptoms

Sometimes, employees who feel under pressure experience mild to moderate stress more often. This can impede on their ability to manage day-to-day responsibilities and impinge on their performance at work. It can cause them to take some sick days as they try to cope.

When an employee loses a day of work for mental health reasons, we can immediately intervene with an early case management process. This involves a review by the occupational health advisor (OHA). They can assess the situation to see if the employee is showing signs of a mental health issue.

The employee may seem to be struggling with burnout or exhaustion, for example, or be experiencing repeated interpersonal issues or little if any progress with a performance management plan.

If needed, the OHA can refer the employee to the occupational mental health service. See the following section for more information.

3. Handling a crisis: significant mental illness

Occasionally, an employee will suffer a mental health crisis with significant symptoms and a marked effect on how well they can function at work and outside it. They may also have had previous episodes of mental health-related absence.

In these cases, the OHA may recommend the employee is offered a complex clinical assessment at a Spectrum Mental Health clinic (in person or digitally). This will happen within five working days.

Following this assessment, the employee will partake in a one-to-one feedback session with the psychologist who assessed them. Within three to eight working days, Cognate will receive an in-depth report with clear recommendations for the employer and employee.

This may include guidance on how the employee can make the most of their own strengths or resources, or may also suggest ways they could benefit from further psychological input, talk therapy or psychiatric care.

Laya Healthcare’s A Brave New 2.1 Research was conducted by Spark — The Strategic Insight Agency. The Research involved 1,000 online questionnaires with employees and 68 online questionnaires with HR leaders. The research was conducted in August and September 2021. This research follows two previous waves of Brave New Era research and was commissioned to provide content on how opinions and behaviours are changing.

Discover our occupational mental health service

Delivered by our expert partner, Cognate Health, our occupational mental health service focuses on addressing and reducing different levels of severity of mental health risk in the workplace.

This service offers many benefits, including:

reliable and valid clinical insight into an employee’s current mental health
a transparent sickness absence management process, in which the employee is fully involved
clear treatment plans with clinically-backed recommendations
access psychological care pathways