According to a new report by consultancy firm, Deloitte, and mental health charity, Mind, poor mental health in the workplace is costing UK employers more and more. The new research suggests that poor mental health cost UK bosses more than £43bn in 2018, an increase of 16% since the last estimate of £37bn in 2016.
It also suggested that workers are often scared to talk about being unwell and are concerned with the perceived lack of funding available.
In November 2019 Stonegate Pub Company launched an initiative, with the Licensed Trade Charity, to provide mental health awareness to over 1,000 line managers. This came as the company identified the significant cost of mental health issues both to the business and to the well-being of its staff.
In response to its own internal research, Stonegate committed to delivering mental health training to all of its general managers and line managers of pub support teams. Each employee will participate in this face-to-face training workshop, to become mental health champions. The training focuses on educating and is designed to give line managers the confidence to have those difficult conversations with their colleagues who may be suffering from mental health issues.
Stonegate cited the significant cost directly attributed to sick days taken as a result of mental health issues, its impact on productivity, combined with the company’s philosophy deeply ingrained in the well-being of its staff, as fuelling the programme.
Suzanne Haydon, Head of HR, said: “Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and their physical and mental well-being is of the utmost importance. We strive to enable our employees to be the best they can be through our award-winning, forward-looking, ‘Bar to Boardroom’ career development programme, Albert’s Theory of Progression. This equips them with the skills and behaviours they need to progress, however, as the largest operator of late-night venues in the UK, we also recognise that their health and well-being is equally important in their career progression.
“The statistics that were reported on World Mental Health Day, where 84% of hospitality workers reported an increase in stress as a direct result of their job, were alarming and we take this responsibility in looking after our teams very seriously.
“Within the last two years, our employee base has grown by 13%, from 13,200 to 15,000, as we continue to acquire a mixture of pubs and bars, including late-night businesses. We are not trying to turn our managers into counsellors, but this programme is designed to give our people the skills and confidence they need to identify someone who is struggling and guide them towards specialist help and support services.”
