A recent study conducted in England involving numerous companies revealed that providing mental health training for line managers resulted in various organizational benefits. These advantages included reduced instances of long-term mental health-related sickness absence and improvements in business performance, customer service, and staff recruitment and retention. The research was spearheaded by Professor Holly Blake from the University of Nottingham and Dr. Juliet Hassard from Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Their findings were published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 17.
Mental health training for line managers aims to equip them with the necessary skills to effectively support the mental well-being of their employees. While ongoing research is investigating how such training enhances managers’ knowledge, skills, and confidence in supporting their staff, limited studies have explored its potential business benefits for organizations.
To assess the organizational-level advantages, Hassard, Blake, and their team analyzed anonymized survey data from thousands of companies in England collected by the Enterprise Research Centre at Warwick Business School between 2020 and 2023. The survey included queries about the mental health and well-being practices of these companies, such as whether they provided mental health training for their line managers. To ensure the accuracy of their analysis, the researchers adjusted for factors like the age, sector, and size of the companies.
The analysis revealed a notable correlation between mental health training for line managers and enhanced business performance metrics, customer service quality, and staff recruitment and retention rates. Employing managers who had undergone mental health training was also associated with a decrease in long-term sick leave due to mental health issues.
These findings suggest that training line managers in mental health could offer strategic business advantages to companies. Based on their results, the researchers recommend that organizations provide mental health training to their line managers and implement workplace policies that define the managers’ role in supporting employee mental health.
Furthermore, the researchers emphasize the necessity for additional research in this field, including investigations based on objective data rather than subjective survey responses, and comparing the potential benefits of different approaches to mental health training for line managers.
Blake remarked, “Our study across various types, sizes, and sectors of companies highlighted that training line managers in mental health was associated with improved staff recruitment and retention, customer service, business performance, and decreased long-term sickness absence due to mental health concerns. This is the initial study demonstrating the positive connection between training line managers in mental health and enhanced business outcomes.”
