1) The document provides guidance on developing an effective workplace mental well-being strategy. It discusses conducting an audit to understand existing mental health issues and policies. The audit examines stress levels, staff surveys, and legal compliance. 2) Implementing a strategy can reduce costs associated with absenteeism, presenteeism, staff turnover, and litigation. It also improves staff retention and the working environment. Poor mental health costs UK businesses £30.3 billion annually. 3) The strategy should outline plans for preventing, recognizing, and addressing mental health issues specific to the organization. This will demonstrate a commitment to employees' well-being.

1. A Guide to Producing an
Effective Workplace Mental
Well-being Strategy
Written by
Dr Electra Soady and Katie Buckingham

2. It is inevitable that, at some point in your working life, you will be employing someone suffering from
stress and other mental health issues. A 2007 survey undertaken by the Centre for Mental Health1
found that 1 in 6 employees experience problems with stress, anxiety or depression at any one time.
So what are workplaces doing to combat this issue? A 2010 survey undertaken by the Shaw Trust 2 found
that 72% of workplaces had no formal mental wellbeing policy. In addition to this, 23% of managers
were unable to name a single mental health condition.
We spend a large proportion of our lives at work (approximately 99,117 hours), so being happy and
healthy during this time has many benefits to both employees and employers.
The purpose of this guide is to help your organisation produce an effective workplace mental well-being
strategy tailored to your needs and wishes. The guide covers plans of what you will do and how you will
do it in order to prevent, recognize and tackle mental health issues relevant to your business.
By implementing a workplace strategy, you will be showing your commitment to better mental well-
being for your employees. It will be tailored and bespoke to you, helping to maximise its benefits.
1. Centre for Mental Health - Mental Health at Work: Developing the business case, 2007
2. Shaw Trust - Mental Health: Still the Last Workplace Taboo?, 2010
Foreword
1 in 6 employees experience problems with stress, anxiety or
depression at any one time
72% of workplaces had no formal mental wellbeing policy

3. There are a number of reasons for producing such a strategy:
i) Financial
70 million working days are lost due to mental ill health each year (Centre for Mental Health, ibid), with
stress alone being the most common cause of long-term sickness absence in the workplace (Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development – CIPD.)
Poor mental well-being results in a financial cost to your organisation. The financial cost to UK businesses
currently stands at £30.3 billion per year, equating to £1206 per employee. This can be broken down in
order of financial cost (highest – lowest) as follows:
3. No Health without Mental Health Government Strategy, 2011
4. CIPD Absence Management Annual Survey Report, 2014
1. Why produce a Mental
Well-being Strategy?
What is Presenteeism?
Presenteeism means reduced productivity when employees come to work. They are either not
fully engaged or perform at lower levels as a result of ill health.
Presenteeism is often overlooked when assessing mental health in the workplace, however,
managing it well will lead to reduced financial cost.
How prevalent is it?
1/3 of employers have seen an increase in presenteeism in the year 2013/14. This figure increases
to 49% in organisations anticipating redundancies (CIPD 2014).

4. Staff Turnover
Staff turnover costs include hiring temporary workers, management time spent interviewing,
recruitment agency fees, and advertising the new role.
A 2014 report carried out by Oxford Economics revealed that replacing a member of staff costs a
huge £30,614 per employee.
Absenteeism
Absenteeism, the most obvious factor, equates to around 30% of the total £30.3 billion cost.
However, this may not be representative. Mental health charity Mind found that 19% of workers
have taken stress-induced sick leave however, a massive 93% say they have lied to their boss about
the real reason.
Absence rates (days) per employee per year (CIPD 2014, ibid)
Private Sector 5.5 days
Manufacturing and Production 6.2 days
Non-profit 7.4 days
Public Sector 7.9 days
Cost of absence
The median annual absence costs stands at £609 per employee. To get a rough idea of how much
absenteeism is costing your organization, work out:
Number of employees x £609 = Cost of absenteeism to your organization
How much of this is related to mental health?
The Centre for Mental Health states that 40% of sick days are due to mental health problems (Centre
for Mental Health, ibid).
Again, just for a rough idea:
Cost of absenteeism x 0.4 = Cost of mental health related absenteeism to your organisation
How much is poor mental well-being costing your business?
Have you considered how much you would save through taking a few simple
steps to improve the management of mental health in your workplace?

5. 5. Oxford Economics, The Cost of Brain Drain, Understanding the Financial Impact of Staff Turnover February 2014
The Savings you could make
You can save 30% or more of mental health related costs through the effective management of mental
health in the workplace. That’s a saving of £9.09 billion!
This can be achieved through simple steps to improve the management of mental health in the
workplace, including prevention and early identification of problems. (Centre for Mental Health, ibid)
Steps to improve the prevention of mental health problems, spotting the early signs of issues, and
being able to support someone initially will all help in reducing costs. Simple changes that this strategy
can assist with could even save businesses.
The first step in achieving an ongoing and sustainable cost reduction is to put together your Mental
Well-being Strategy.
ii) Legal costs: avoidance of potential litigation
Legal costs are another cause for concern. Even the best run organisation can find themselves mired in
a costly web of litigation.
As an employer, it is your legal obligation to identify problems that your organisation may be having
with regards to workplace stress. Similarly, this also applies to controlling the potential causes of work-
related stress and protecting employees from harm.
In 2002, firms paid out £321million for stress, ill health and injury. 51,204 members of staff won an
average of £6,269 each. Claims which specifically cited stress totalled 6,428 - a twelvefold increase on
the 2000 tally of 516.
Laws relating to mental health include:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995 & 2005
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Equality Act 2010
iii) Other
Stress and accidents
Individuals who are experiencing high levels of stress are more likely to have, or cause an accident or
injury. This is because staff who are stressed may lack motivation, are unable to concentrate or focus,
and are less able to follow necessary precautions.
Relationships and conflict – Stress can lead to poor communication, interpersonal skills and stretch as
far as relationships. Conflict between employees and teams may then occur as a result.

6. Stress and Insurance Premiums
High stress levels in organisations, and especially in the absence of stress and mental well-being
provision may lead to an increase in insurance premiums, e.g. Employer Liability Insurance.
Some insurers now demand that employers instigate stress management activities as a prerequisite for
insurance.
Staff retention
Your company wishes to operate within the law, but when it comes to mental health don’t you want to
achieve more than that? To be an employer that values its employees?
This strategy will ensure that you have your employee’s needs in your best interests, whilst creating a
nice working environment in the process.
An organisation that breeds stress within its workplaces is less likely to be able to retain quality staff.
Improved well-being provision and stress management strategies are likely to reduce staff turnover.
The Audit
Before you begin writing the strategy, you will first need to perform an audit. For this, you will need to
gather information on:
1) Existing levels of stress and mental ill-health within your organisation.
2) Existing policies and procedures. This will help you establish what is already in place and what is
missing.
(For your plan, you will only need a brief description of the current situation and what you intend to put
in place).
The audit will help you answer the following questions:
• Do we have the information we need in order to produce this strategy?
• Are we complying with the law?
• Do we have a problem with mental well-being in the workplace? Do we know if we have such a
problem?
• What are our organisation’s views/beliefs/actions on mental well-being?
• What do we want to say, who to and why?
• How is this strategy going to be used and how will it be used effectively?
• Why do we want to produce this strategy (what are our reasons)?
2. Preparation
6. CIPD – Building the business case for managing stress in the workplace, 2012

7. The Mental Health Audit should include the following:
Existing levels of Stress and Mental Ill-health
As many as 1 in 10 organisations have noticed an increase in reported mental health problems (such as
anxiety and depression) amongst employees in the year 2013/14 (CIPD, 2014, ibid)
It is important to consider the quantity and quality of information you have regarding existing levels
and incidence of mental health problems within your organisation. Who is aware of such information?
How is it obtained?
Staff surveys
You may already conduct annual staff satisfaction surveys. Why not incorporate questions which gauge
the mental wellbeing of your workplace? Examples include:
1) Do you think that work has an impact on your mental wellbeing?
2) Have you noticed work having an effect on your colleagues’ mental wellbeing?
3) Do you know how your organisation manages workplace mental wellbeing?
4) Are you aware of any support your organisation offers to staff?
5) Do you feel supported by your manager and colleagues?
Legal Position
Undertake a quick audit to find out whether you have the correct policies in place (i.e. the more detailed
lists for the measures needed for implementation) which ensure that you are operating within the law;
specifically:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995 & 2005
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Equality Act 2010

8. Training
What relevant staff training programmes do you already provide?
Who provides this training (in house/external)?
Does this training:
• Create an open forum where mental well-being can be discussed? And create an environment where
employees feel comfortable in telling their manager/s how they are feeling?
• Help build a more resilient workforce?
• Train managers in how to identify the early signs of stress and mental health problems in others?
• Raise awareness of mental health amongst the wider employee base?
• Give managers the tools to be able to help staff initially and provide signposting to relevant outside
organisations?
Relevant Policies, Systems and Procedures
These include:
• Procedures e.g. on mental health and recruitment, sickness absence and rehabilitation, alcohol and
drug misuse
• Procedures for auditing, monitoring and evaluating the mental health of your workforce
• Procedures for stress prevention and management
• Systems for collecting and analysing statistics on absenteeism rates (Is there anything in place?
Does this data include reasons for absence?)
• Systems for collecting and analysing statistics on presenteeism?
• Descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of employees at all levels of the organisation which
relate to promoting positive mental well-being strategies (e.g. senior and line managers, HR teams,
occupational health services and employees)

9. The Workplace and Nature of your Business
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has identified six factors that can lead to work related stress if
they are not managed properly. They are:
1. Demands Employees indicate that they are able to cope with the demands of their jobs.
2. Control Employees indicate that they are able to have a say about the way they do their
work.
3. Support Employees indicate that they receive adequate information and support from their
colleagues and superiors.
4. Relationships Employees indicate that they are not subjected to unacceptable behaviours, e.g.
bullying at work.
5. Role Employees indicate that they understand their role and responsibilities.
6. Change Employees indicate that the organisation engages them frequently when
undergoing an organisational change.
Is there anything with relation to the working environment or nature of job roles which may increase
the likelihood of mental health problems developing? For example:
• Loud Noise
• Dealing with complaints
• Limited resources available to deliver what is expected
• Shift work
• Dealing with difficult situations

10. Writing the Strategy; some useful hints and tips
Having conducted the audits, you will now have some information on existing levels of stress and mental
ill-health. You will also have some information on what is missing or could be improved. The process will
have identified areas for intervention because you will know in what ways your organisation’s structure
and function could be contributing or preventing mental health problems.
The remainder of this guide gives you some ideas on what to include in your strategy and how to
structure it. This is done by suggesting a number of titles which your plan could contain, perhaps as
chapters. You will notice that under each suggested title there is either information and suggested text
which you are welcome to copy and use, or pointers to the areas where you need to customize the
strategy to your own business, or both.
Suggested titles
a. Foreword/ What is this strategy about? / What do we want to achieve, why
and how?
Here, you will need to state why you have produced your strategy. This may include the need to improve
mental health promotion within the workplace, along with improving the prevention, identification and
management of stress and mental ill-health.
Your company plans to:
• Make sure that people with stress and mental health problems get the same help as other people
get when they are ill - you do not intend to discriminate, etc…
• Help prevent stress and mental health problems as far as possible in your workplace
• Be able to identify signs earlier and intervene sooner
• Support/ help your staff with such problems
b. Mental health
According to the 1997 Health Executive Authority (HEA) definition, mental health is the emotional and
spiritual resilience which enables us to enjoy life and to survive pain, disappointment and sadness. It is
a positive sense of well-being and an underlying belief in our own, and others’, dignity and worth.
3. Writing the Strategy; some
useful hints and tips

11. The extent of the problem and the cost of mental ill-health
1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem during the course of a year (Goldberg 1991)
Such problems are common, with a quarter of the UK population suffering with mental ill health in any
given year. Therefore, in our organisation of X employees, it is likely that Y of them will have problems
with their mental health each year.
According to a recent survey undertaken by Capita, 47% of employees know a colleague who quit
work due to stress, while it’s second Annual Employee Insight report found that 79% of the 3,000 UK
employees interviewed had been stressed at work in the past year.
The more stressed an employee is, the more likely it is that they will develop a mental health problem. It
also makes it more likely for them to develop physical health problems too such as back and neck pain
and heart disease.
It is therefore essential that members of our organisation i.e. directors, managers and colleagues are
able to spot the early signs of a problem so that we can support other members of staff.
Early Signs of Mental Health Problems
What are some of the early warning signs of stress and mental health problems?
Here are some that you need to look out for in your employees/colleagues:
• Arriving late to work/ erratic time keeping
• Loss of concentration
• Being tired all the time
• Appearing withdrawn or agitated
• Decreased productivity
• Changes in eating habits/times
• Lack of co-operation/ communication issues
• Seemingly ‘over the top’ reactions
• Physical aches and pains
• Absenteeism
We all experience some of these from time to time but if one or more of these signs are present for
longer periods then there may be some cause for concern.

12. c. How does poor mental health affect our workforce
Think about:
• Absenteeism rates
• Presenteeism rates
• Staff turnover
• Staff surveys
d. What we need to do/ What we plan to do/What actions we wish to take
Download our free ‘Mental Well-being in the Workplace Checklist’ here
(If you are reading a hard copy, please see page 15)
The strategy is going to be different for each organisation: your initial audit will have identified areas
for improvement and those will be appearing here; they will be described in broad strokes, rather than
in detail. For instance, if policies need to be written, they will be mentioned with a brief description of
what they are about - the particular detail will be in actual policies. Again, if systems and procedures are
absent or in need of improvement, what is required here is to point to the elements that need attention,
rather than a full detailed description.
Below you will find suggested areas to include in this part (chapter) of your strategy.
Creating an open forum where mental well-being can be discussed/ losing the Stigma
Startling Facts about Stigma
• Nearly 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems have been affected by stigma and
discrimination
• Nearly 3 in 5 employees in the UK say they would be uncomfortable talking to their line manager
about a mental health problem
• Nearly 3 in 4 people say they have stopped doing things they wanted to do because of fear of stigma
and discrimination
• 1 in 5 people fear disclosing stress would put them first in line for redundancy
(Mind, 2011)
You may wish to write something like this: According to the mental health charity Mind, 1 in 5 people
fear that disclosing stress may cause them to lose their jobs, and this fear increases their stress further.
In our organisation we want to create a climate where mental health can be accepted and discussed
positively. This will help reduce stigma, help us recognise the early signs of problems and help us
support staff sooner.

13. Prevention/ Building Resilience
Every employee, at some point during their working life has to recover from setbacks. Our ability to
bounce back from adversities is called resilience.
How can we do this?
At a physical level, you can include any plans to make changes at the physical work environment in
order to prevent or minimise the causes of stress.
Five ways to well-being
The five ways to well-being are a set of evidence-based actions developed by the New Economics
Foundation which help promote an individual’s well-being:
1. Connect - There is strong evidence that indicates that feeling close to, and valued by, other people is
a fundamental human need and one that contributes to functioning well in the world.
2. Be Active - Regular physical activity is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety
3. Take Notice - Reminding yourself to ‘take notice’ can strengthen and broaden awareness.
4. Learn - Continued learning through life enhances self-esteem and encourages social interaction and
a more active life.
5. Give - Individuals who report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves
as happy.
Sleeping and eating habits also affect an individual’s resilience.
Resilience Training
These courses are designed to enable employees to increase their capability to recover from these
difficult times and helping them to identify strategies to reduce their work based stress.
Find out more here: http://altruistuk.com/services/resilience
Early intervention and identification
It is important that we are able to spot the early signs of stress and mental health issues in the
workplace. As with physical health, the sooner you intervene and begin to help the problem, the quicker
the recovery will be.

14. How can we do this?
Mental Health First Aid is just one example
Mental Health First Aid is an accredited course which will teach you to:
• Spot the early signs of a mental health problem
• Feel confident helping someone experiencing a problem
• Provide help on a first aid basis
• Help prevent someone from hurting themselves or others
• Help stop a mental illness from getting worse
• Help someone recover faster
• Guide someone towards the right support
• Reduce the stigma of mental health problems
Find out more here: http://altruistuk.com/services
Support
Simple training to help managers provide support initially (through talking) before signposting to the
appropriate professional help can go a long way in helping employees.
Does your organisation have an occupational health team, whether that is in-house or outsourced? If
so, how accessible is this service?
Do you have onsite counselling services or an Employee assistance programme in place to provide
confidential support to your employees? If so, how effective is this service?

15. 1. Altruist Training and Consultancy
Altruist can help you manage mental well-being more effectively within your workplace. We provide a
range of skills training courses for Managers, as well as for the wider employee base to help prevent
and identify stress and mental health problems earlier, along with how to provide initial support to
employees and signpost to appropriate professional help.
e: info@altruistuk.com | t: 0121 271 0550 | w: www.altruistuk.com
Mental Well-being in the Workplace Checklist–http://bit.ly/1sqM4Kd (Case Sensitive)
2. Capita Employee Insight Report May 2014
https://www.capitaemployeebenefits.co.uk/en/Current-News/2014/05/Employee-Insight-Report-2014.
aspx
3. Centre for Mental Health - Mental Health at Work: Developing the business case, 2007
http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/pdfs/mental_health_at_work.pdf
4. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development - CIPD
http://www.cipd.co.uk
5. CIPD Absence Management Annual Survey Report, 2014
http://www.cipd.co.uk/research/_absence-management
6. CIPD – Building the business case for managing stress in the workplace, 2012
http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F5B27EA2-1A75-4C26-9140-1C9242F7A9C6/0/4654Stressmanage
mentWEB.pdf
7. Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/
8. New Economics Foundation
http://www.neweconomics.org
9. No Health without Mental Health Government Strategy, 2011
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/213761/dh_124058.
pdf
10. Oxford Economics, The Cost of Brain Drain, Understanding the Financial Impact of Staff
Turnover February 2014
http://www.oxfordeconomics.com/publication/open/246524
11. Shaw Trust - Mental Health: Still the Last Workplace Taboo? 2010
http://www.tacklementalhealth.org.uk/_assets/documents/mental_health_report_2010.pdf
4. Find out more

16. 0121 271 0550
info@altruistuk.com
www.altruistuk.com
malvern house | new road | solihull | b91 3dl
A Guide to Producing an
Effective Workplace Mental
Well-being Strategy