Abstract
BackgroundMental health has become the leading cause of sickness absence in high-income countries. Managers can play an important role in establishing mentally healthy workplaces and coordinating their organization’s response to a mentally ill worker.ObjectiveThis pilot study aims to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and likely effectiveness of a newly developed online training program for managers called HeadCoach. HeadCoach aims to build managers’ confidence in supporting the mental health needs of staff and promote managerial behavior most likely to result in a more mentally healthy workplace.MethodsIn total, 66 managers from two organizations were invited to participate in this pre-post pilot study of HeadCoach, which was made available to managers to complete at their own pace over a 4-week period. Data were collected at baseline and post intervention via an online research platform. The difference in mean scores for each outcome between these two time points was calculated using paired samples t tests.ResultsOf all the invited managers, 59.1% (39/66) participated in the trial, with complete pre–post data available for 56.4% (22/39) of the participants. The majority of respondents reported positive engagement with the program. During the study period, managers’ knowledge regarding their role in managing mental health issues (P=.01) and their confidence in communicating with employees regarding mental illness (P<.001) significantly increased. In addition, a significant increase was observed from the baseline in managers’ self-reported actions to use strategies to prevent and decrease stress among their team members (P=.02).ConclusionsAlthough caution is needed due to the absence of a control group, preliminary results of this study suggest that HeadCoach could be a feasible, acceptable, and efficient method of training managers in best workplace practices to help support the mental health needs of their staff.
Highlights
In several high-income countries, mental health conditions have become the leading cause of long-term sickness absence and occupational incapacity [1,2,3,4]
The second existing face-to-face program, which was more preventative in its approach, aimed to improve psychosocial working conditions within an organization by changing the managers’ behavior to best promote a mentally healthy workplace [36]; the principles within this program were based on the management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work developed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK [37]
Among the 66 managers who were invited to participate in the HeadCoach pilot study, 59.1% (39/66) registered and completed the baseline assessment
Summary
In several high-income countries, mental health conditions have become the leading cause of long-term sickness absence and occupational incapacity [1,2,3,4]. Some psychosocial working conditions have been recognized as primary sources of work-related stress, which, if not managed effectively, can adversely affect workers’ well-being and productivity; these include conflicting and excessive work demands, a lack of job control, organizational failure to effectively communicate with staff, and poor collegial relationships and support [15,17] Many of these workplace risk factors can be modified through decisions and adjustments, which managers are often in a position to make [18]. Managers can react to mental ill health episodes in a way that could benefit the recovery process for workers [19] Such strategies include, but are not limited to, facilitating regular conversations with an employee, maintaining a focus on an employee’s well-being, and developing an appropriate return to work plan if a worker is on long-term sickness absence for a mental health issue, regardless of the underlying cause [20,21]. Managers can play an important role in establishing mentally healthy workplaces and coordinating their organization’s response to a mentally ill worker
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