Increasing Awareness
With a continued increase in awareness of mental ill-health in the workplace comes an increase in the expectations on employers to manage these issues in a fair and reasonable way.
The timing of this article follows this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, running from 10th – 16th May 2021. This Awareness Week is an initiative run by the Mental Health Foundation that aims to promote the fair management of mental ill-health in the workplace. Initiatives such as this, coupled with a growing celebrity backing and the inevitable impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have resulted in mental health in the workplace coming to the forefront of Employment Law.
Why Now?
As an employer you may be asking yourself; is this something we really need to deal with? Well, the simple answer is yes.
- 1 in 4 adults have mental health issues which affects their working life in any given year;
- In 2020, 79% of British adults in employment reported that they experienced work-place stress;
- a total of 70 million work days are lost each year due to mental health problems in the UK; and
- that these ‘lost days’ cost employers approximately £2.4 billion per year – a staggering amount.
So what can an Employer do?
First and foremost, it is imperative that employers build good relations with its workforce, and that these good relations are built upon effective and clear policies for managing mental health and stress in the workplace. Relevant policies may include a ‘Stress and Mental Health Policy’, ‘Sickness Absence Policy’ and a ‘Health and Safety Policy’.
Policies such as these provide clarity to both the employer and its workforce in how mental ill-health and stress in the workplace will be managed.
In addition, early intervention by the employer is key. If an employee is behaving out of character, then a procedure should be put into place for management to identify the reason for this behaviour. Management should listen to the employee, without making assumptions or judgments and discuss with the employee how best the employer can assist whilst respecting the employees privacy. Regular training of management is therefore critical.
Helpful guidance is available from ACAS, as outlined below:
Acas: Dealing with stress in the workplace
Acas: Managing staff experiencing mental ill health
Acas: Promoting positive mental health in the workplace (June 2019)
Acas: advisory booklet: Health, work and wellbeing
What are the Benefits?
Generally speaking, dealing with mental ill-health and stress in the workplace has very clear and obvious benefits for employers. It can help to make staff healthier and happier at work and improve performance and productivity. It is no secret that a healthy and motivated workforce will go the ‘extra mile’, provide improved customer service, take fewer ‘sickies’ and provide the commitment and creativity that employers are undoubtedly seeking.
Further, the mishandling of mental ill-health and work-related stress could give rise to claims in respect of:
- breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, triggering a constructive unfair dismissal claim;
- breach of the statutory duty to assess the risk of stress-related ill health and taking measures to control that risk;
- negligence or breach of the common law duty to take reasonable care;
- unfair dismissal; and
- prohibited conduct claims (discrimination) under the Equality Act 2010.
The cost of defending these types of claims in the Employment Tribunal can be very expensive and rapidly escalate.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mental health and stress in the workplace is not an issue that employers can leave at the bottom of the ‘to-do’ pile. Mental health is affecting more people than ever before and is the single greatest cause for absences from work. For an employer to simply do nothing will only exacerbate this issue. Therefore, now is the time for employers to act.
