Effectiveness of training workplace managers to understand and support the mental health needs of employees: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Managers are in an influential position to make decisions that can impact on the mental health and well-being of their employees. As a result, there is an increasing trend for organisations to provide managers with training in how to reduce work-based mental health risk factors for their employees. A systematic search of the literature was conducted to identify workplace interventions for managers with an emphasis on the mental health of employees reporting directing to them. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate pooled effect sizes using the random effects model for both manager and employee outcomes. Ten controlled trials were identified as relevant for this review. Outcomes evaluating managers' mental health knowledge (standardised mean difference (SMD)=0.73; 95% CI 0.43 to 1.03; p<0.001), non-stigmatising attitudes towards mental health (SMD=0.36; 95% CI 0.18 to 0.53; p<0.001) and improving behaviour in supporting employees experiencing mental health problems (SMD=0.59; 95% CI 0.14 to 1.03; p=0.01) were found to have significant pooled effect sizes favouring the intervention. A significant pooled effect was not found for the small number of studies evaluating psychological symptoms in employees (p=0.28). Our meta-analysis indicates that training managers in workplace mental health can improve their knowledge, attitudes and self-reported behaviour in supporting employees experiencing mental health problems. At present, any findings regarding the impact of manager training on levels of psychological distress among employees remain preliminary as only a very limited amount of research evaluating employee outcomes is available. Our review suggests that in order to understand the effectiveness of manager training on employees, an increase in collection of employee level data is required.

Long-Term Attitude Change After a Single-Day Manager Training Addressing Mental Health at the Workplace

“…Above that, considerations regarding the difference between the two instruments should be addressed. There are other scales measuring attitudes and social distance concerning people with mental health problems [33,54,55] that should help considering a possible difference between attitudes in terms of social distance and attitudes based on (a lack of) pre-knowledge.…”

“…As mentioned above, the supervisor in charge may play another important role. Extensive research has been performed on the influence of supervisor behavior and leadership style on employees' work performance and well-being [32][33][34]. Data show that both can be related to workers' mental health in a negative or positive way.…”

Social stigma is an underestimated contributing factor to unemployment in people with mental illness or mental health issues: position paper and future directions

“…While in some individual cases such assumptions may be true, it is problematic if employers see people with MI/MHI as a group that is characterized by these negative stereotypes, rather than as individuals. Employers have been found to hold negative attitudes not only towards people who currently have MI/MHI, but also towards people who have had MI/MHI in the past [19]. Hence, even when health problems have disappeared, the negative label (stigma) continues to exist.…”

“…Although there is some evidence that interventions improving public knowledge about mental illness can be effective in reducing stigma [31], much less is known about how to improve employers' knowledge and attitudes. Additionally, whereas some studies have shown that training managers in workplace mental health can improve their knowledge, attitudes and self-reported behavior in supporting employees experiencing MI/MHI [19,32], it is less clear what the exact content of such training should consist of [19].…”

A New Online Mental Health Training Program for Workplace Managers: Pre-Post Pilot Study Assessing Feasibility, Usability, and Possible Effectiveness (Preprint)

“…There is some evidence to suggest the value of specialised training delivered to managers to promote understanding of the mental health needs of their workers, and to help increase managers' confidence in discussing mental health matters with their staff [2,3,[22][23][24]. Further evidence supports such manager training to shift stigmatising attitudes regarding mental illness [24][25][26][27] and to promote the implementation of positive managerial behaviours to address mental health issues within their team [22,24,26], with an overall positive effect for manager training found across these outcomes [28]. Yet evaluations of a selection of workplace based mental health training programs have been unable to find beneficial effects upon managers' attitudes towards mental ill health [18] or managerial behaviours of mental health issues either reported by the managers themselves, or objectively by their direct reports [18,29,30].…”