Three Poor Mental Health Statistics Every Manager Should Know
With recent World Mental Health Day refreshing people’s take on poor mental health, mental health and wellbeing is on everyone’s mind and, with stress and mental ill-health ever increasing, it’s no surprise that managers are particularly concerned.
Over recent years it has fallen much to management and HR to ensure a positive work environment for employees which encourages good wellbeing.
If you want to become more clued up about encouraging positive mental health, here are three mental health statistics every manager should know.
51% of managers admitted viewing a worker who is mentally unwell a ‘liability’
In a recent survey conducted by TalkOut, just over half of all participating managers admitted to seeing unwell employees as a liability.
This statistic, especially in today’s day and age, is both shocking and disappointing.
From a manager’s perspective, we understand the potential inconvenience of frequent absences or work not being completed to the best standard, but managers must remember that they hire their staff for a reason – when they feel their best, they are the best at what they do.
If you are among the managers who feel poor mental health burdens the company, it’s important to seek the training you need to feel confident in handling poor mental health.
85% of managers felt employees would miss out on a promotion by admitting mental health issues
These two statistics go hand in hand.
If management view mental illness as being a potential liability, they are much less likely to give an employee suffering poor mental health more duties and responsibilities.
This could be because they fear they will be adding to the pressure and strain or because they fear that the employees may not do their best, costing the business.
65% of employees believed telling their manager about poor mental health would impact their job
This is, perhaps, one of the most worrying statistics at all and needs to be addressed.
The facts are that 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience poor mental health at any given point which means more of your team are suffering than you might think. When people in employee’s immediate circle, which includes the people they see daily (managers too!) hint or contribute to the stigma of poor mental health, they are much less likely to speak up.
This World Mental Health Day focused on the startling fact that every 40 seconds someone commits suicide.
When it comes to talking openly about mental health in the office, it starts at the top and it starts with you.
What can you do to encourage positive mental health?
As a manager, you can encourage good mental health in a number of ways, from ensuring a positive work environment, good teamwork and happy work relationships, regular socialisation of the team and equipping yourself with mental health first aid training.
