As many as 52 per cent of people in tech suffer from anxiety and depression. This is much higher than the national average where one in four people in the UK suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lives. Whether work or home life is the cause, employers have a legal and moral responsibility to help their employees, and so this week we held an event
to discuss mental health, offering attendees credible ways to change this stat.
Work-related mental health issues must be assessed to measure the levels of risk to staff. Where a risk is identified, steps must be taken to remove it or reduce it as far as reasonably practicable.
How can your organisation support employees with their mental health? We’ve developed 10 steps to help you to make a difference to your team.
- Designate mental health ambassadors at work.
- Commit to reviewing work culture and resilience.
- Promote mindfulness and make exercises easily available to staff.
- Undertake regular staff surveys, audits and build data about the current state of mental health.
- Provide training to support mental health problems and open the discussion of wellbeing with staff.
- Communicate how staff can gain access to mental health services, including access to HR and external services.
- Formalise Mental Health Days.
- Set up peer support and mentoring programmes for staff with lived experience of mental health problems.
- Partner with organisations like Hero and Headspace to support healthy behaviour, promote mindfulness and measure impact.
- Host and promote Mental Health Weeks and Days!
Some employees will have a pre-existing physical or mental health condition or may develop one while at work. Employers may have further legal requirements, to make reasonable adjustments under the equalities legislation. Information about employing people with a disability can be found on GOV.UK or from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in England , Scotland and Wales .
There is additionally advice for line managers .to help them support their employees with mental health conditions. .
