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People Managers: Building mentally healthy teams

People Managers: Building mentally healthy teams
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Duration:    3 hrs

Group size: 5-35

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 interactive training will help to improve people managers’ understanding of, and literacy in, mental health so that they can actively contribute to a psychologically safe work environment. The course will give them the skills to spot early warning signs of poor mental health and then confidently have an open and appropriate conversation about mental health with colleagues, while maintaining healthy boundaries.

Learning will be put into practice as our expert trainers will facilitate tailored case study discussions.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will:

  • Be familiar with common mental health conditions and 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
  • Consider how diversity in people – ethnicity, neurodivergent, early careers – 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 poor 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 internal support and resources, so they can signpost colleagues and access for themselves
  • Actively consider their own mental health and wellbeing, and how they can protect and nurture it
  • Understand how they can actively support and develop a mentally healthy workplace culture and their role as leaders in challenging stigma

Course content

This course covers:

1. Understanding mental health:

  • The business case for mental health, defining what we mean by mental health, the mental health spectrum
  • Understanding your stress signature and the stress container model
  • Impact on mental health on marginalised groups
  • Risk and protective factors - related to personal and workplace

2. Causes, signs and symptoms of mental ill health in the workplace:

  • Work-related stress, burnout and its contribution to mental ill health – the difference between acute and chronic stress
  • Line manager behaviours to prevent stress
  • Signs a direct report is feeling emotional strain or unwell

3. Supporting good mental health:

  • Stress container model – individual and team
  • Understanding your own mental health and wellbeing and how to nurture it
  • 5 ways to wellbeing and Wellness Action Plans
  • How to have a mental health conversation using our CMHA Framework
  • Active listening skills

4. Creating a culture of wellbeing:

  • Practice into action – multiple case study activities and listening exercises
  • Exploring role as leaders in setting the tone/challenging stigma
  • How to actively play a role in developing a mentally healthy workplace
  • Internal resources – where to access support and signpost to
  • Action planning - you, supporting colleagues
  • Developing the agenda at work

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