Mental health training for line managers ‘could save millions in lost sick days’

It is associated with better business performance, study shows.

Mental health training for line managers linked to better business performance, says new study (Lauren Hurley/PA) (PA Wire)

Mental health training for line managers could save companies millions of pounds in lost sick days every year, research suggests.

Organisations offering managers mental wellness training experienced better customer service, improved employee retention and recruitment, and reduced long-term sickness absence, according to the study published in the journal Plos One.

The findings show mental health training is associated with better business performance and may “hold strategic business value for companies”, the experts said.

Professor Holly Blake, from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham – who led the study, said: “Mental ill health at work is costly to organisations in terms of sickness absence and lost productivity.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that training line managers in mental health is linked to better business outcomes.

“This is an important finding that strengthens the business case for why employers should invest in mental health at work.”

Around one in six people in the UK experiences mental health challenges in the workplace, with 12.7% of all sick days attributed to mental ill health.

This is an important finding that strengthens the business case for why employers should invest in mental health at work

Prof Holly Blake

The cost of poor mental health to British employers is around £51 billion a year, recent figures from YouGov and Deloitte show.

For the study, the researchers analysed anonymous survey data from thousands of firms in England collected between 2020 and 2023 by the Warwick Business School’s Enterprise Research Centre.

The survey included questions about mental health and wellbeing practices followed by each company.

The researchers said their recommendation to businesses is “a clear call to action” to create workplace policies that outline the role of line managers in supporting employee mental health.

The team said further research is needed to investigate the different approaches to deliver mental health training for line managers.

Dr Juliet Hassard, from Queen’s Business School at Queen’s Belfast University and co-author of the study, said: “Encouraging employers to invest in employee mental health can be challenging.

“Knowing that improving line managers’ knowledge, skills and confidence in managing mental health at work is linked to better business outcomes will help to highlight the strategic value of this approach to employers.”