Mental health absence - the case for mediation

Last Friday, we hosted a webinar to discuss mental health in the workplace and how we can make workplaces more inclusive and mentally healthy places.  We discussed the impact of the pandemic on mental health, and provided a number of practical suggestions for employers and individuals to take to reduce the impact of mental health issues in the workplace.  But, unfortunately, despite all the positive steps being made to improve workplace mental health there are circumstances where individuals have to take sick leave because of their mental health. We, together with David Evans, have developed a new approach to managing mental health absence.  I asked David to explain what it entails:

David, you see a need to take a different approach to mental health absence - can you tell me more about why you see such a need?

Mental health in the workplace is a growing concern. Conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression are increasing, leading to long-term staff absence. The current situation is unsustainable. Employees are being removed from their job rather than supported to return (300,000 employees lose their job each year due to mental health conditions). Employers are haemorrhaging talent and paying a high price to replace their workers.

The statistics round the impact of mental health absence in the workplace are staggering - 1 in 6  workers experience stress, anxiety and depression at any one time, the CMHA figure for annual cost of poor mental health to UK business each year is £45 billion.  So our contention is that the current approach is extremely costly for business and is not sustainable.

The new form of flexible mediation for mental health absence cases is IPOS’s contribution to encourage employers to retain employees in work and reduce this very high number of employees being exited from organisations.

What employment challenges does the mental health mediation approach specifically address?

For the employer and its HR function we are providing a flexible tool to address employee concerns before or at the point where the employee feels they need to go off sick due to mental health issues. It will be particularly helpful where employees feel their condition has been caused by their employer in the workplace.

Typically employee concerns, for example, about their line manager applying too much pressure, are addressed by HR advising the employee to invoke the Grievance procedure. This is primarily to enable HR to demonstrate they have taken a legally defensible approach to resolving the employee concern. However, a Grievance procedure inevitably results in the grievance claim being upheld or rejected, i.e. an ‘all or nothing’ outcome. If the employee’s grievance is not upheld the employment relationship can be damaged, and the likelihood of the employee then going off sick or involving an employment lawyer increases.

IPOS’ flexible mediation approach enables the employer to explore resolutions which can deliver a win-win for both employee and employer, and which facilitate a faster return to work.

What is different about your suggested approach?

IPOS’ flexible mediation involves the mediator engaging with the employee very flexibly, for example, for short periods of time, and in a format that is most conducive for the employee. This initial stage is all about making the employee’s interaction with their employer “safe”, given the employee may not be in a “fit state” to engage with their employer.

The mediator will establish a relationship with the employee and represent their view on the issues to the employer. So, while the employee is receiving medical treatment and starting their recovery period, the mediator can be working with the employer to explore resolutions to the issues raised.

Where do you see the value for businesses?

There are multiple benefits for the employer.

Where HR is tasked with resolving employee absence cases, it enables HR to directly participate in the process, overcoming the usual problem in other types of workplace mediation where HR are not in the room to hear the discussions, and often do not receive any communication about the outcome due to confidentiality.  It assists in breaking the cycle where an employee is stressed by contact with their employer, yet to improve the employee’s mental health contact needs to be maintained in order to resolve the workplace issues and facilitate a return to work.  The mediator can assist in being a neutral conduit of communication and, later facilitate the conversations required to enable a return to work.

For the employer it should result in cost savings due to reduced: periods of sickness absence; attrition of staff; recruitment of replacement staff; loss of productivity; termination costs; and legal costs. The employer will also benefit from improved retention of talent, and the associated knowledge, thus improving productivity.  A further major benefit for employers is the reduction in the distraction of management time on prolonged employment disputes and the associated reputational risk.  Most importantly mediation provides a legal umbrella of protection for the employer’s efforts to resolve the issues.

Where do you see the benefits for the employee?

Again there are multiple benefits. Using the flexible mediation approach will remove stress and emotion from the process, thereby enabling a faster recovery. It enables the employee to focus on their recovery, confident that their issues are being addressed during their absence. It enables the employee to explore resolutions to their concerns in a safe way.

Statistics show that if an individual is off work for more than 2 weeks with mental health issues it is very unlikely that a return to work will be successful.  This initiative seeks to address that challenge to the benefit of employees who return to their jobs and for employers who retain talented and experienced staff.

Please get in touch to find out more or download our guide here.