Mental Health – Top Tips to Support Employees

Mental Health issues are not something we ought to treat lightly. Recent research by the ONS revealed that around 1 in 5 (21%) adults experienced some form of depression in early 2021 – an increase since November 2020 (19%) – and more than double that seen before the pandemic (10%).

For organisations, it’s crucial mental health is prioritised as it affects employees’ wellbeing and productivity. Worryingly, the latest findings by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England found that a quarter of employees had not received a mental health check-in since the beginning of the pandemic, and 29% of those surveyed said they have never had a conversation with their line manager about mental health.

Mental Health Awareness Week serves as a reminder for organisations to consider their mental health and wellbeing policies and initiate conversations not just with colleagues but also with loved ones.

Organisations and HR teams must recognise that their duty of care not only extends to compliance and health and safety training, but to taking responsibility for mental wellbeing too.

Here are some top tips organisations can do to support employees with mental health:

1) Remember to check-in

It may sound simple but checking in with your employees and colleagues to find out how they’re doing is important. Many of us will simply reply with “I’m fine”, but as a line manager, get to know your staff better and understand if they really mean it or if they’re brushing off something they don’t want to talk about. The fact that 41% of respondents revealed they had none or less frequent wellbeing check-ins is worrying. Employers need to encourage their managers to regularly have a wellbeing check-in with their employees. The pandemic has taken its toll on most of us, and the anxiety around it has affected our personal and working lives.

2) Encourage leaders and managers to undertake training

Organisations that provide the training and resources for their leaders and managers around mental health and wellbeing will be able to better support their employees overall with guidance. Unfortunately, according to a study by IOSH, 62% of line managers are not receiving enough help from their organisation to support their staff’s mental wellbeing. In addition, only 31% of respondents said they feel they have been sufficiently trained to recognise the signs of poor mental health in their direct reports. It’s clear that organisations need to be doing more, and ensuring your leaders and managers understand the signs to look out for means they can start supporting their staff to get the help they need.

3) Support employees with mental health and stress training

Self-care goes a long way when dealing with mental health issues including stress and anxiety. Providing a training course for your employees to take part in can help them recognise if they need help or understand how to cope with it. Dealing mechanisms for stress such as learning to be better organised with work priorities or learning to communicate with colleagues and managers can be the first step in the right direction for them.

4) Create a mental health culture

Creating a culture that is supportive of mental health in the organisation is important. Put up posters around the office or in the kitchen about mental health and make it clear who they can reach out to if they want to discuss issues. Normalise discussing topics in the open, bringing up mental health in team meetings. This will make employees feel more at ease to discuss their worries more openly.

5) Go outdoors

This year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week centres around connecting with nature. Over the past year with the various lockdowns, unfortunately, it’s been hard to get out and about. Organisations need to encourage their employees to go for a walk during lunchtime (whether at home or in the office), stretch their legs and get fresh air. Not only is it good for them and encouraging exercise but having some reflection time in green spaces can bring a sense of calmness. This is ideal for those with stressful jobs.

Don’t forget to check out our training courses on stress management for both managers and employees. Keep an eye out on the site for our upcoming mental health courses.

5 Benefits of Using Astute LMS to Manage All Your Training

We launched Astute in 2015 and have worked tirelessly to build a comprehensive learning management system (LMS) designed to take the pain out of eLearning administration. Now, with the addition of F2F, we have taken the first steps towards developing Astute into an all-rounder learning and development (L&D) system. The new feature is a great addition to our learner-centric, intuitive eLearning platform with the capability to manage your offline L&D activities.

We list out the benefits of using Astute LMS to manage all your learning and development needs.

Manage all your training from one platform

Astute is built for today’s dynamic workplace, offering easy-to-access eLearning to learners – anywhere, anytime. While we cannot stop emphasising on the convenience of eLearning and the value it adds to your L&D program, we appreciate that for some organisations, face-to-face training will be just as important.

This is the biggest benefit of F2F that you can use your existing LMS to manage your entire training program calendar – making Astute your go-to for all things learning and development. Whether you an administrator, trainer or learner, you can use F2F to manage and access offline training events:

  • For administrators: Scheduling and managing face-to-face training events including adding trainers, facilities management and supervising enrolments.
  • For trainers: Accessing course information, viewing course attendees and taking the attendance register.
  • For learners: Enrolling onto a face-to-face training course, viewing course information and requesting withdrawal from a course.

Save money on training management

Some LMS may enable administrators to manage face-to-face training with the help of external integrations which may be expensive and require technical support to set up. F2F is bundled within Astute, so as a subscriber, there are no additional costs or set up required to use the functionality within the learning platform.

F2F enables administrators to maintain a schedule of training events alongside eLearning modules within Astute. With F2F, administrators, trainers and learners can use Astute to access course material in digital format, helping save on paper and printing.

Develop a culture of learning

Learning is key in defining an organisation’s commitment to support innovation, ensure compliance and get employee engagement necessary for success. With the process of managing your training streamlined and time saved on planning training events and informing learners, you are freeing up your L&D team to spend more time developing an all-inclusive program of work. In the long run, a culture of learning will be beneficial for both your employees and your organisation.

Track learner history

Astute already enables administrators to view performance reports for learners using the Performance Manager. With F2F, you will also be able to log face-to-face training hours for learners. With a robust audit trail of all learner activity visible to administrators, L&D teams will be able to determine benchmarks in mandatory training such as compliance and health and safety, as well as mitigate risks by identifying knowledge gaps within the workforce.

Build a high-performance workforce

According to a recent survey, the L&D division of services provider Capita found that 85% of line managers thought L&D was best placed to improve workforce productivity. With the pressure on L&D teams to deliver impactful training for improving workforce productivity and efficiency, the onus lies on organisations to offer the necessary support and tools for managing L&D. Investing in a comprehensive LMS enabling you to manage both eLearning and face-to-face training can help your organisation hit training goals, build a productive workforce, and align culture and business strategy.

Does your LMS offer a cost-effective and seamless integration between online and offline training? If the answer is no, book a demo of Astute today and find out how to make the most of your investment in an LMS.