Mental Health Responsibilities: A guide for employers
Are you taking all the steps needed to ensure the mental wellbeing of your team?
Mental health is an important part of workplace health and safety. Employers have a responsibility to protect their workforce from harm, and this includes risks to both physical and mental health.
Supporting mental wellbeing is not simply about offering help when somebody becomes unwell. Employers should take a proactive approach by identifying workplace pressures, managing risks and creating an environment in which employees feel able to raise concerns.
Why mental health at work matters
Work can have a positive effect on mental health by providing routine, purpose, financial security and social contact. However, excessive workloads, unclear responsibilities, poor working relationships, bullying, insufficient support and badly managed organisational change can all contribute to work-related stress.
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 776,000 workers reported experiencing work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2023/24. These conditions accounted for nearly half of all self-reported work-related ill health and resulted in an estimated 16.4 million working days being lost.
Poor mental health can therefore affect much more than the individual employee. It can contribute to absence, reduced productivity, higher staff turnover, workplace conflict and an increased risk of mistakes or accidents.
What does the law require employers to do?
There is no single piece of UK legislation covering every aspect of mental health at work. Instead, employers’ responsibilities arise under several areas of health and safety, employment and equality law.
Protect employees’ health, safety and welfare
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers have a general duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees, so far as is reasonably practicable.
This responsibility includes mental as well as physical health. Employers should take reasonable steps to prevent work from causing or worsening stress and mental ill health.
In Great Britain, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 also require employers to assess workplace risks and introduce appropriate measures to control them.
Northern Ireland has separate but broadly comparable requirements under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.
Assess the risk of work-related stress
Work-related stress should be managed in the same structured way as other workplace hazards.
The HSE states that employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress by carrying out a suitable risk assessment and acting on its findings. This means identifying possible causes of stress, deciding who may be affected and introducing measures to remove or reduce the risks.
Employers should consider areas such as:
- Workload, working hours and unrealistic deadlines
- The amount of control employees have over their work
- The support available from managers and colleagues
- Workplace relationships, including bullying or conflict
- Whether employees understand their role and responsibilities
- How organisational change is communicated and managed
These areas reflect the HSE’s Management Standards for work-related stress: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
The risk assessment should not simply be completed and filed away. Employers should implement an action plan, communicate relevant findings to employees and review the assessment regularly, particularly following significant workplace changes or signs that existing controls are ineffective.
Avoid disability discrimination
Some mental health conditions may meet the legal definition of a disability.
Under the Equality Act 2010, which applies in England, Scotland and Wales, a mental health condition may be considered a disability when it has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. “Long-term” will generally mean that the effect has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least 12 months.
Employers must not discriminate against somebody because of a disability. This protection applies throughout employment, including recruitment, training, promotion, pay, performance management, absence procedures and dismissal.
Northern Ireland has separate disability discrimination legislation, principally the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which also protects disabled job applicants and employees.
Make reasonable adjustments
When an employee’s mental health condition amounts to a disability, an employer may have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments if it knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, about the disability.
The purpose of an adjustment is to remove or reduce a disadvantage experienced by the employee. Appropriate adjustments will depend on the individual, their role and the organisation, but examples may include:
- Flexible working hours or adjusted start and finish times
- More frequent or shorter breaks
- Time away from work for medical appointments or counselling
- A phased return following mental health-related absence
- Temporary changes to duties, targets or deadlines
- Providing clearer priorities and written instructions
- Regular wellbeing meetings with a manager
- Moving the employee to a quieter working area
- Offering additional supervision, mentoring or support
- Allowing home or hybrid working where appropriate
There is no universal adjustment that will work for every employee. Employers should speak to the individual, consider medical or occupational health advice where appropriate, agree what support may help and review the arrangements over time.
Even when a mental health condition does not meet the legal definition of disability, offering practical support and exploring suitable adjustments remains good employment practice.
Maintain confidentiality
Information about an employee’s mental health should be treated sensitively and confidentially.
Managers should not share personal information unnecessarily. Where information needs to be shared—for example, to implement an agreed adjustment—it should normally be discussed with the employee first and limited to those who genuinely need to know.
Employers must also handle health information in accordance with UK data protection requirements. Health information is treated as special category personal data and requires additional protection.
There may be exceptional situations where information needs to be shared because there is a serious and immediate risk to the employee or another person. Employers should have clear procedures for responding to urgent wellbeing and safeguarding concerns.
Respond fairly to sickness absence and performance concerns
Mental ill health can affect attendance, concentration, behaviour and performance. Employers should avoid immediately treating the situation as a disciplinary matter without first exploring whether there may be an underlying health issue.
A supportive process could include:
- Holding a private and sensitive conversation
- Asking the employee what support they need
- Considering reasonable adjustments
- Obtaining occupational health advice with the employee’s knowledge
- Agreeing appropriate contact during sickness absence
- Planning a supported or phased return to work
- Reviewing workloads and workplace stressors
- Keeping an appropriate record of agreed actions
Employers can still manage attendance and performance, but processes should be fair, consistent and adapted where disability-related issues are involved.
Create a supportive workplace culture
Legal compliance provides a foundation, but a mentally healthy workplace requires ongoing commitment.
Employers can support positive mental health by:
- Introducing a clear mental health and wellbeing policy
- Providing employees with safe ways to raise concerns
- Training managers to recognise and respond to signs of stress
- Tackling bullying, harassment and inappropriate behaviour
- Encouraging regular conversations about workload and wellbeing
- Promoting a healthy work-life balance
- Providing access to wellbeing resources or employee assistance
- Reviewing absence, turnover and employee feedback for signs of wider problems
- Ensuring senior leaders demonstrate positive behaviours
Training can help managers and employees understand mental health, communicate more confidently and recognise when somebody may need additional support. However, training should form part of a wider organisational approach rather than being treated as a replacement for effective risk management.
A proactive approach benefits everyone
Employers cannot prevent every mental health difficulty, and they are not expected to diagnose or treat mental illness. They are, however, responsible for managing workplace risks, responding appropriately when concerns arise and meeting their legal obligations towards employees with disabilities.
Taking mental health seriously can help organisations reduce absence, retain experienced employees, improve morale and build a safer and more supportive workplace.
Champion Training Solutions offers workplace mental health training designed to help businesses increase awareness, develop confidence and create a more supportive working environment.
To find out more about our mental health training courses or discuss the needs of your organisation, contact the Champion Training Solutions team today, or check out our Mental Health courses here.
This article provides general information and should not be treated as legal advice. Employers requiring guidance on a specific situation should seek appropriate professional advice.
