In the last few years, mental health has risen to the forefront for HR and benefits professionals, largely driven by the pandemic’s stigma-breaking influence. Yet, while more employers are actively tending to the mental health of their workforce, those efforts could be missing the mark without one key support system: mental health training for managers.
New research out this Stress Awareness Month by mental health platform UnMind on mental health workplace trends found that employees increasingly expect support from their employers. And organizations are largely appreciating these new expectations: Last year, a full 99% of HR leaders surveyed rated the role of employee mental health to the organization’s business success as somewhat or very important, a figure that dipped slightly to 91% this year, in the survey of 2,500 respondents, including HR decision-makers, C-suite members, managers and individual contributors.
Yet, despite managers being the organization’s first line of defense when it comes to protecting—or inhibiting—employee wellness, mental health training for managers remains lacking. Last year’s survey found that 28% of managers reported having no training focused on employee mental health.
That stat dropped to 16% this year, but some of the improvement could be superficial, says Dr. Nick Taylor, co-founder and CEO of UnMind. Of those who said they received mental health training for managers, nearly half reported the training was delivered in a one-off session. What’s more, over a third of managers surveyed said they don’t receive ongoing support to help them navigate employees’ mental health.
Mental health training for managers: A journey, not a destination
Non-comprehensive training may “tick a box” for the organization, Taylor says, but it doesn’t build sustainable “confidence or capability.”
Without ongoing efforts to improve managers’ skills in this area, he says, they “are left unprepared, risking inconsistent responses, increased stigma and missed opportunities to catch early warning signs that could prevent crises.”
In addition, researchers write, “given the profound influence managers have on employee wellbeing, organizations must prioritize equipping them to lead with confidence and care.”
To that end, Taylor says, HR should help managers understand mental health training as a “continuous journey, not a destination.”
This involves incorporating the focus into ongoing education, coaching and storytelling efforts, while encouraging an organizational culture that enables feedback. Importantly, Taylor adds, manager awareness efforts should explore the entire “spectrum” of mental health, not just mental illness.
Approaching mental health awareness as a continuous learning journey, he says, can help HR position mental health as a “true organizational priority, rather than an annual obligation.”
Training and the future of wellbeing strategies
Convincing the C-suite to prioritize employee mental health will likely involve an emphasis on the business impact.
While cost containment may be a concern for decision-makers, particularly given the uncertain economy, “the truth is that businesses don’t have to choose between performance and mental wellbeing,” Taylor says. “They work together.”
When organizations invest in mental health training for managers, the impact is clear, he says: They tend to see better employee retention, lower burnout rates and higher productivity.
Recent research from Reward Gateway | Edenred, for instance, found that about half of employees surveyed would choose to work for a company that prioritized their wellbeing over a 10% pay raise. Younger workers are even more likely to value the wellbeing support, suggesting the need for growing investment in wellbeing strategies, Alex Powell, director of client cultural insights recently told HR Executive.
“[Wellbeing support is] something that’s increasingly part of the employee calculus about where they’re going to work, how long they’re going to stay and how hard they’re going to work,” Powell says.
The ROI of wellbeing supports such as mental health training for managers, Taylor adds, makes this strategy “not just a moral imperative but a smart commercial decision.”
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