March On Stress

Study highlights importance of effective line manager training on presenteeism

Added on the 30th October 2024

A paper published by the British Psychological Society looks in detail at organisations offering line manager training in mental health and presenteeism.

Using UK data, the study found organisations offering line manager training were less likely to experience presenteeism relative to organisations that did not provide it.

Key points highlighted by the study were:

• Organisations that invest in line manager training in mental health are less likely to experience presenteeism, that is employees attending work despite feeling ill.
• Organisations that invest in line manager training in mental health are more likely to take actions to address presenteeism through workplace activities and strategies.

Professor Neil Greenberg, March on Stress Managing Director, said: “This is excellent research. It shows the importance of undertaking mental health at work training, and furthermore that organisations need to be sure that they embed the training and ensure it is used and leads to actionable outcomes, rather than use the training simply to gain more knowledge.”

Georgina Godden, March on Stress Business Development Director, said: “‘At March on Stress we have always shouted about the impact of leadership and team cohesion on good mental health and, in fact, specifically developed REACTMH® training to ensure that organisations could provide – in very little time and at low cost - all their supervisors with the tools they need to be able to have psychologically informed conversations with team members.”

Read the paper in full here.

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