Duration - Essentials course:    3 hrs

Duration - Advanced course:    1 day

Group size: 5-25

Audience:   People / line managers

Overview

People managers are hugely influential in setting workplace culture. They have direct impact on team member’s wellbeing and are well placed to spot early signs of poor mental health. Indeed, the WHO’s evidence-based guidelines for employers strongly recommends that businesses should train managers to support employees' mental health.

Our live, interactive training will help your people managers build the knowledge and confidence to support mental health in their teams. This is a vital foundation for sustained high performance. By improving their understanding of mental health and psychological safety, your managers will be better equipped to lead with empathy, spot early signs of stress and burnout, and create conditions where their teams can thrive.

As well as learning how to look after their own wellbeing, participants will develop practical strategies for recognising and responding to signs of poor mental health in others. They'll gain tools for having open, appropriate conversations about mental health, while maintaining professional boundaries that protect both manager and team.

The course also explores how to approach sensitive wellbeing issues within the context of performance management and what reasonable adjustments may be helpful in different scenarios. It includes guidance on how to confidently support an employee’s return to work following a mental health-related absence.

To embed the learning, our expert facilitators lead tailored case study discussions. These sessions ensure your managers can apply their skills in real-world situations that balance wellbeing with performance outcomes.

The Essentials course is 3 hours and consists of 3 distinct modules, which can be split into multiple sessions – 2 x 1.5 hours or 3 x 1 hour.

The Advanced course follows the same structure, but allows more time for deeper dives into the most important aspects of the learning and gives more opportunities for discussion and practice.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will:

• Be familiar with common mental health conditions and be able to spot signs and symptoms of poor mental health
• Recognise the most common causes of work-related stress and its contribution to mental ill health
• Understand the line manager behaviours that can help prevent workplace stress and burnout
• Consider how diversity can be intersectional with mental health
• Gain practical skills in how to have a supportive and appropriate conversation about mental health with direct reports, whilst maintaining healthy boundaries
• Understand how to navigate difficult conversations about wellbeing within the context of performance management
• Learn about what reasonable adjustments might be appropriate to offer in different circumstances
• Be familiar with how to support an employee's return to work after a period of absence due to mental health difficulties
• Know about the internal support and resources available to them
• Actively consider their own wellbeing, and how they can protect and nurture it
• Understand how they can actively support and develop a healthy workplace culture
• Their role as leaders in challenging stigma

Course content

This course covers:

Module I: the role of managers in team wellbeing

• What is mental health and why we should be prioritizing it in our teams – the human and business case
• Your impact as a people manager – how you can make a difference
• Understanding stress - what you can do as a manager to help prevent burnout in your team
• The importance of self-care and tools to support your wellbeing
• When and how to seek help, and the potential barriers to doing so
• Action plan, part 1: how are you going to embed this learning into the way you look after your own wellbeing?

Module II: the building blocks for healthy teams

• Understand the concept of psychological safety and key characteristics of psychologically safe teams
• Address biases and foster Emotional Intelligence (EQ) for a supportive environment
• Practical strategies to build an inclusive team culture
• De-escalating and resolving conflict in your teams
• Maintaining healthy boundaries
• Action plan, part 2: how you are going to embed this learning into the way you interact and manage your team?

Module III: supporting someone who is struggling with their mental health

• Recognising the signs and symptoms of mental ill health
• The TALK Framework for carrying out supportive and appropriate conversations about mental health
• Active listening skills
• Confidentiality
• Reasonable adjustments
• Returning to work after a mental health-related absence – best practice
• Navigating difficult conversations about wellbeing within the context of performance management
• Action plan, part 3: how you are going to embed this learning into the way you support team members who might be struggling?

Contact us to book and for more details about the course.

Find out more about  how we approach training and learning , and about our  expert training associates .