Mental health in the workplace has been a topic we have returned to over the course of this year and with Christmas on the way many people will be thinking about how they can spread a little love and bring some joy to the world. One way to do this in a workplace context is to take steps to help support your employees with their mental health or to build on those you have already put in place.
You might want to consider how you can create an environment where employees feel able, or better able, to be open about how they are feeling as this can help them to get the workplace support, they may need sooner. This may involve:
- Promoting mental health awareness in your organisation
- Putting in place extra training for those who have people management responsibilities to help them recognise possible early signs of a deterioration in mental health, to empower them to have a basic conversation with employees about mental health and enable them to signpost employees to external sources of support where appropriate.
- Being aware of the rights employees have and your organisation’s responsibilities if an employee’s mental health is such that they are considered to have a disability under the Equality Act. In particular, it’s important to be alert to the employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee if they are put at a substantial disadvantage in the workplace, for example by a work practice or policy.
If you have an employment law matter you would like assistance with, please do not hesitate to contact Kingfisher Professional Services Ltd as we are happy to help.