Services
	Management
	Health Issues
	Innovation
	Companies
	Media

Government health advisers have urged companies to pay closer attention to the levels of stress and anxiety in the workplace as the cost of work-related mental illness soars to £28bn a year.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said that was 25% of the UK’s total sickness bill when pay, lost productivity and replacing ill staff was taken into account.

Highlighting that bad managers were the single biggest cause of problem, NICE said some simple steps could help reduce the scale of the issues by a third.

These include giving feedback, allowing flexible working and giving extra days off as a reward as well as better training for managers and mentoring for staff to help career development.

Lancaster University psychology expert Professor Cary Cooper, who helped draw up the recommendations, said: "You cannot underestimate the importance of saying well done to staff, but so often it does not happen.

"Managers will tell you when you are doing something wrong, but not when you are doing it right."

NICE has devised a calculator to illustrate savings companies could make with an improved approach to staff. A typical sized firm with 1,000 workers could save £25,000, it said.

Professor Cooper said another problem was people still going to work when they were not fit to and not contributing while they were in the workplace.

However, the Confederation of British Industry said the mental health of staff was something firms had made a priority with a growing number of schemes set up to support workers.

 

Comments

There are no comments for this article, be the first to comment!

Post your comment

Only registred users can comment. Fill in your e-mail address for quick registraton.

Your email address:

Your comment will be checked by an hc2d moderator before it is published on the site.