Did you know that 1 in 6 workers, right now, are experiencing mental health difficulties such as stress, depression and/or anxiety. 1 in 5 have taken a day off due to stress. Have you thought about your own workforce?

The Centre for Mental Health has calculated that presenteeism from mental ill health alone costs the UK economy £15.1 billion per annum, while absenteesim costs £8.4 billion.

The demands on both your staff and business can be overwhelming. The impact of workplace mental health difficulties is costing the UK economy approximately over £29 billion a year through lost working days, staff turnover and lower productivity.

It is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, accounting for 11.7 million sick days in 2015-2016.

How does the reality of this look do you ask? Well, this currently equates to £554 per person per year, 40 per cent of organisations now report an increase in stress-related absence, and the probability of employees who have been off work for six months getting back to work in another six months is reduced to 10 per cent.

The average days lost per case for stress, depression or anxiety (24 days) was higher than for musculoskeletal disorders (16 days).

This is one of the highest average days lost per case figure amongst the recognised health complaints covered in the LFS.

The LFS estimated that the top work activity causing work-related stress, or making it worse was workload (incl. tight deadlines, too much work, pressure or responsibility) with an estimated prevalence of 186 000 cases.

Attentive and perceptive employers know the benefits of having a health and productive workforce. If you manage and support your employees’ mental well-being, you can ensure that your staff perform to their potential, allowing your business to achieve peak performance.

Sources

(1) https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/managing-presenteeism

(2) http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/dayslost.htm

(3) http://www.unum.co.uk/absence-management-simple-guide

(4) https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/absence/absence-management-surveys

Management can often fail to appreciate factors causing poor mental health as they are naturally quite resilient and don’t have a problem dealing with pressure themselves. Therefore they expect everyone else to cope.

We know that training is about more than how to motivate your staff to drive as many sales as they can.

We live in a period of accelerated change where training recognises the enormous improvements that can be made in staff well-being, leaving you to concentrate on your business.