Mental health training for line managers linked to better business performance

In a study of several thousand companies in England, mental health training for line managers was associated with organizational-level benefits, including lower levels of long-term mental health-related sickness absence and better business performance, customer service, and staff recruitment and retention. The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.

Mental health training for line managers aims to equip them with skills to support the mental health of the people they manage. Ongoing research is exploring whether such training increases the knowledge, skills and confidence of managers to support their staff and benefits employees. However, few studies have addressed its potential business value for companies.

To explore organizational-level benefits, the researchers analyzed anonymized survey data from several thousand companies collected between 2020 and 2023. The survey included questions about the companies’ mental health and well-being practices, including whether they offered mental health training to line managers. To avoid errors in their analysis, the researchers statistically controlled the age, sector, and size of the companies.

The analysis showed that mental health training for line managers was associated with significantly better outcomes in terms of business performance, customer service, and staff recruitment and retention.

What the researchers say: “In firms of different types, sizes and sectors, we found that training line managers in mental health was related to better staff recruitment and retention, customer service, business performance and lower long-term sickness absence due to mental health,” the lead author said. “This is the first study to show that training line managers in mental health is linked to better business outcomes.”

These results suggest that mental health training for managers may hold strategic business value for companies. The researchers recommend that organizations provide mental health training to line managers and institute workplace policies that clarify line managers’ role in supporting employee mental health.

Meanwhile, the researchers outline the need for further research in this area, including analyses based on objective data rather than subjective survey responses, and comparison of the potential benefits of varying approaches to mental health training for line managers.

So, what? This study’s findings are similar to those that I found in surveying law firms and other companies in which lawyers work for a major national Law Society a few years ago.

However, the solution to the problem of mental ill-health in companies does not just lie in better mental health training for managers - though that is good and necessary. The more fundamental answer lies in reducing the stress level that workers feel they’re under.

Recent studies have shown that work stress is increasing by over 70% every four years. Clearly this is not sustainable and mental health training of managers alone is not going to have much effect on it.