Many organisations are investing more time and money into employee wellbeing than ever before. They offer wellbeing apps, Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), Mental Health First Aiders and resilience workshops, all with the intention of supporting their people.
These initiatives are valuable, but they often focus on helping employees after problems have already developed. Preventing mental health issues requires something different: identifying workplace risks before they lead to stress, burnout or sickness absence. That is where mental health risk assessment training plays an important role.
So how can you tell whether your organisation would benefit from this type of training? Here are five signs that suggest it may be time to take a more proactive approach.
1. Stress-Related Absence Is Becoming More Common
Every organisation experiences occasional sickness absence, but when stress, anxiety or burnout begin appearing more frequently, it is worth asking why. Too often, businesses treat each absence as an isolated issue rather than looking for patterns across teams or departments.
The trend is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 22.1 million working days lost in Great Britain during 2024/25, with each affected worker taking an average of 22.9 days off work.
Mental health problems at work rarely happen without contributing factors. Excessive workloads, unclear expectations, poor communication and a lack of support can all increase pressure over time. Unless these risks are recognised early, organisations are left reacting to problems instead of preventing them.
Mental health risk assessment training helps managers understand how to identify these underlying causes so that action can be taken before employees reach crisis point.
2. Managers Lack Confidence When Supporting Staff
Managers are often the first people to notice that something has changed, yet many admit they feel uncertain about how to respond. They may worry about saying the wrong thing, making the situation worse or stepping outside their role.
This uncertainty can mean important conversations are delayed or avoided altogether. Employees who are struggling may continue working without the support they need, allowing problems to become more serious.
The cost of getting this wrong is significant. Deloitte estimates that poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion every year, with the largest share coming from presenteeism, where employees are at work but unable to perform at their best because of poor mental health.
With mental health risk assessment training, managers gain practical knowledge about recognising workplace risks, understanding when concerns should be explored further and taking appropriate action. The aim is not to turn managers into mental health professionals, but to give them the confidence to respond responsibly and consistently.
3. Your Risk Assessments Focus Only on Physical Safety
Most organisations have robust processes for identifying physical hazards. They regularly assess risks such as slips, trips, manual handling and fire safety because these are familiar parts of workplace health and safety.
Mental health risks, however, are often overlooked. Factors such as unrealistic workloads, workplace conflict, poor job design and organisational change can have just as much impact on employee wellbeing as physical hazards have on physical health.
This matters because stress, depression and anxiety remain the leading cause of work-related ill health in Great Britain, highlighting that psychological risks deserve the same attention as physical ones.
If psychological risks are missing from your existing assessments, it may be a sign that your organisation needs mental health risk assessment training. Understanding how to assess these risks allows businesses to create safer working environments in a much broader sense.
4. Wellbeing Initiatives Are Not Improving Employee Experience
Many organisations introduce wellbeing programmes with the best of intentions, yet employee surveys continue to report high levels of stress. This can happen because support is focused on helping individuals cope rather than addressing the reasons employees are struggling in the first place.
Research suggests this is a common challenge. Deloitte found that 63% of UK employees experienced at least one characteristic of burnout, such as exhaustion, mental distance from their work or reduced professional effectiveness.
Offering mindfulness sessions or counselling is valuable, but these initiatives cannot remove excessive workloads, unclear expectations or poor management practices. Unless the workplace itself is examined, the same issues are likely to keep returning.
Mental health risk assessment training encourages organisations to identify and reduce the sources of workplace stress rather than relying solely on interventions once problems have developed.
5. You Want to Take a More Preventative Approach
There is increasing recognition that employers have a responsibility not only to respond when employees become unwell but also to reduce the likelihood of work affecting mental health in the first place.
A preventative culture is built on recognising potential risks, reviewing working practices and making reasonable adjustments before problems escalate. Organisations that take this approach are often better prepared to support their employees while reducing sickness absence and improving overall wellbeing.
Providing mental health risk assessment training demonstrates a commitment to prevention rather than reaction. It equips those responsible for health, safety and people management with the knowledge needed to identify risks early and make informed decisions.
Prevention Is Better Than Crisis Management
Supporting mental health at work is about much more than responding when someone needs help. It also means understanding what within the workplace could be affecting people’s wellbeing and taking practical steps to reduce those risks.
If your organisation recognises any of these five signs, now may be the right time to consider mental health risk assessment training. By building confidence in recognising, assessing and managing workplace risks, organisations can create healthier environments where employees are more likely to thrive, and where problems are addressed before they become crises.
Don’t Stop at Identifying the Problem
Knowing your organisation needs mental health risk assessment training is an important first step, but lasting change comes from putting that knowledge into practice.
Our Health & Safety Hub has been designed to support organisations wherever they are on that journey. From a free 30-minute webinar that introduces the fundamentals, to practical implementation courses, accountability coaching and tailored consultancy packages, you’ll find the expertise needed to confidently assess and manage workplace mental health risks.
Whether you’re responsible for health and safety, HR or organisational wellbeing, the Hub gives you access to practical tools and expert support that help turn good intentions into meaningful action.
Explore the Health & Safety Hub and find the level of support that’s right for your organisation.