How to identify and remove working practices that cause mental ill-health

At a glance:

• Stress, depression and anxiety cause over half of work-related ill health (HSE 2024/25).
• Prevention means treating mental health as a workplace risk and designing out harmful practices.
• Lasting change needs whole supply chains to act together.
• Start with five steps: check your data, assess risks, ask your people, make changes, and review (Mates in Mind Membership can support).

Trigger warning: this post mentions suicide.

As Mates in Mind approaches its tenth anniversary it is great to be able to look back on some of what we’ve achieved. In a nutshell, we have raised awareness of mental health, we’ve worked with policymakers, employers and third sector organisations to provide the evidence and interventions to take action to optimise workplace wellbeing, and we have been in the vanguard pushing for a proactive approach to workplace mental health.

So why are things not improving?

Is it because we, in business terms, are always looking to manage the margin for our shareholders (or outcomes for our stakeholders)? 

I’m not denying that is an important part of any senior leadership role. So, let’s acknowledge that:

We’re in business to make money.

Now let’s take a step back for a minute and consider this:

Is there another way? One where we keep our workers happy and in work whilst also satisfying the shareholders?

Simply, yes. 

There is another way.

Because evidence tells us that:

• Intervention is key, with mental health initiatives by employers returning £4.70 for every £1 spent through reduced absenteeism and higher productivity (Deloitte UK).
• Key outcomes of investing in employee wellbeing include higher employee engagement (reported by 39 per cent of organisations), less sickness absence (39 per cent) and enhanced employee performance (38 per cent) (CIPD).
• "31 per cent of HR leaders say mental health support is the single most effective measure for preventing long-term sickness absence lasting more than four weeks” (MetLife UK).
• 15 per cent of employees admitted that stress and fear of expressing their needs or asking for help has led to preventable mistakes (Mental Health First Aid England).
• In 2024/25, 964,000 workers experienced work-related stress, depression or anxiety, accounting for 52 per cent of all work-related ill health and 62 per cent of all working days lost due to work-related ill health (Health and Safety Executive).
• Government ill-health data shows that “replacing an employee lost to ill-health costs over £11,000, while every sickness absence day costs businesses around £120 in lost profit’. 
• In fact, a report found that the ‘cost of mental ill health in England in 2022 was estimated at £300 billion a year” (Centre for Mental Health).

Workplace mental wellbeing movement for change 

Following on from those statistics, an obvious follow-up question is:

Why aren’t we all doing it then?

That, I’m afraid, I do not have an answer to, but the tide is definitely turning with more high-profile organisations, sector bodies and indeed the government, pushing for a proactive approach.

Government

In July 2025, the government published a ‘10 Year Health Plan for England’. The plan includes shifting “from treating sickness to preventing illness from occurring in the first place”. Prevention, in this instance, would include taking “action on social determinants of widening health inequalities, such as investment in supporting physical activity and supporting good employment”.

Mental Health in Construction: Joint Code of Practice (JCOP)

The JCOP (a joint venture between the Construction Leadership Council, industry leaders, academics and Mates in Mind) focuses on prevention first and aims to create an environment that fosters better mental health for the people that work in the UK construction industry. The JCOP "identifies and addresses the primary root causes impacting the mental health of our construction workforce".

The introduction of the JCOP signals a clear shift: 

• Mental health is no longer just a wellbeing initiative.
• It is becoming a workplace risk that must be assessed and managed.

Organisations are now expected to understand their exposure across 5 key hazard clusters (working patterns, operational demands, people factors and environment, financial issues, and support factors).

In other words, it helps organisations to design out the working practices that can cause mental ill-health.

The good news is that if you are a Mates in Mind Member, you are already covered, but if you have yet to join our community, we have a programme that does the heavy lifting for you (please see below). 

BSI Suicide Prevention Standard

Mates in Mind was a key contributor in the development of the BSI’s new standard BS 30480 Suicide and the Workplace, which offers a framework for organisations to address suicide. This is the first standard globally seeking to address this issue.

Following the launch of the new standard, the BSI, in partnership with Mates in Mind, The B1M, CIOB, CITB, The Supply Chain Sustainability School, Mace and the City of London Corporation, created Looking out for each other: Practical guidance on suicide for people in construction. This is a guide written specifically for construction, targeting SMEs and micro businesses that are too small to resource adopting the full standard. 

The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales

The National Suicide Prevention Network, created by The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, “aims to deliver lasting change in how suicide is understood and prevented across the four nations. It will improve universal pathways for suicide prevention to ensure that they are evidence-based, effective and accessible to all.”

As one of the Network’s Innovation Partners, and working with the Baton of Hope, we have developed a digital first approach to mental health training, including suicide prevention, which is free for construction SMEs and sole traders. 

Why is progress still slow?

It is great to see the movement for change gathering pace and support. However, unless everyone is on board with the message and taking action together, nothing moves forward. If rowers all do their own thing, at best the boat moves forward slowly and haphazardly, and at worst it just turns in circles. It is not until all the rowers pull their blade through the water at the same time and speed that the boat moves forward, gathering pace as it goes. 

As an example, one of the JCOP’s hazard areas is finance – if we think of the different organisations in a supply chain, an SME could issue its invoices on a monthly basis but if the larger contractor has a 60-day payment term, then the SME will still struggle financially as they will already have paid out on labour and parts.

This means that whilst organisations can create change within their own operating environment, ultimately it is not until everyone makes the same adaptations that systemic change can be achieved. 

This is why we need to work together.

We need to push the issues upstream, to ensure every organisation in a network is pushing in the same direction. 

A recent report found that, “Many organisations now talk openly about mental health, but our data reveals a persistent gap between what employers say and what staff experience:

• 18 per cent of workers report that mental health is treated as a tick-box exercise.
• Only 27 per cent say mental health is genuinely prioritised and supported through action and resources. 
• Whilst 29 per cent note that their employer raises awareness about mental health, managers lack the time, training and resources to provide meaningful support.”

How to identify and remove harmful working practices

We know there is a movement for change and a willingness to improve, but where do you start? What does action look like? 

First, we need to agree to a common set of principles, shifting workplace mentality:

• From ‘response’ to ‘prevention’.
• From ‘initiatives’ to ‘systemic change’.
• From ‘activities’ to ‘evidence-informed interventions’.
• From ‘short term’ to ‘long term’.
• From ‘awareness’ to ‘action’.
• From the ‘individual organisation’ to a ‘united supply chain, community or economy’.

Secondly, we need to agree how we will make those shifts. Here’s a practical way to start. 

• Check your data – accidents, near misses, sickness, absence, overtime, turnover and exit interviews can all show where pressure is building. 
• Carry out a risk assessment – use the HSE Management Standards and, in construction, the JCOP hazard clusters above.
• Ask your people – the question could be: “What’s the one thing about your job that makes it harder than it needs to be?”
• Change one or two things – trial changes to the issues raised most often and give each a senior owner.
• Review and share learning – recheck your data after three to six months, and share what works with the organisations you work alongside.  

Many organisations don’t have the time or in-house expertise to do this alone. Mates in Mind Membership is designed to help.

Taking action – how Mates in Mind can help

As we have already seen, your organisation’s success depends on the wellbeing of your people. When your teams feel supported, informed, and safe to speak openly about mental health, they perform better, collaborate more effectively, and stay with you longer.

Becoming a Mates in Mind Member is your first step towards building a safer, healthier, more resilient workplace, one where mental health is understood, championed and meaningfully supported at every level.

Starting with an assessment, it helps identify hidden psychosocial risks, diagnose gaps, understand what it takes to meet internal and external expectations, and provide an action plan, with relevant training and resources to address them.

Empower your People. Strengthen your Organisation. Lead the Way

Case study: 

“At Mammoet one of our core values is ‘take care’, this particularly relates to taking care of our people as our most important asset. We recognise the impact that mental health issues can have on an individual’s ability to perform in their personal life and at work and are striving to ensure we provide adequate resource to support, improve and maintain good mental health.

“Mammoet started working in partnership with Mates in Mind in 2021. We started by undertaking an initial assessment which was designed to help determine the gaps preventing us from reaching our desired goals. The results of the assessment recognised our commitment to mental health and wellbeing but acknowledged that we were still in the early stages of developing a good practice approach. We received practical feedback on how to address the initial vulnerabilities identified.

“Having committed to the Mates in Mind framework, we were delighted to discover in our 2024 assessment that we have progressed in nine out of ten areas and that we have achieved a Sustainable (Gold) rating. This rating demonstrates that we now maintain a consistent approach to how the mental health of our employees is being managed. Through creating, implementing and communicating our mental health plan, we have made significant progress in supporting our people, something which we will continue to prioritise.” 

Mark Sadler, Managing Director, Mammoet

Support the mental health of your supply chain 

Our Champions Programme works with medium and large sized organisations to support the small organisations and sole traders within their supply chains, to achieve their legal duty of care to ensure the health (including mental health) and safety of their employees.

This programme is important because, as our SME and sole trader research found, almost all respondents had experienced some form of anxiety.

The Department for Work and Pensions found that, “Only 21 per cent of SMEs provide training for line managers on ways to improve employees’ health and wellbeing, compared to 76 per cent of large employers. While smaller businesses often have less capacity to offer this kind of training, with tighter budgets and fewer dedicated HR resources, the evidence is encouraging: among SMEs that have been able to provide such training, 79 per cent report it is effective in preventing employee ill health.”

The SME Wellbeing Index found that cost was a primary hurdle impacting 33 per cent of small and medium sized firms, whilst for 18 per cent a lack of internal resources and time was a more challenging barrier. And this is where the Champions come in – providing the resources, skills and time to engage with mental wellbeing interventions.

Be a Champion. Support your supply chain today

Case study:

Our Supply Chain. Our Responsibility – Seddon

“We recognised that, as a principal contractor, we could use our influence to help strengthen wellbeing capability across our supply chain. The ambition was to move beyond isolated initiatives and support businesses to embed wellbeing into leadership, planning, communication and everyday working practices.” Lewis Welsby, Contracts Manager, Seddon.

“We selected Mates in Mind as our project partner because they combine specialist workplace mental-health expertise with a strong understanding of construction. Their structured programme helps businesses move beyond awareness to assess, act and measure improvement.” Caroline Grainey, Seddon.

During our first year on the Champions Programme we supported 10 organisations, that’s almost 250 workers. As a result of the programme:

• 90 per cent saw an improvement in their wellbeing maturity and 50 per cent improved by over 20 points, demonstrating stronger leadership, psychological safety, earlier intervention, resilience and culture change.
• 100 per cent of participants said they had a better understanding of mental health.

In addition, the programme achieved an overall rating and recommendation rate of 5 out of 5.

When asked what had changed in their organisation we were told:

• “Wellbeing conversations are happening more regularly.”
• “Site and office teams are communicating more about wellbeing.”
• “Wellbeing is shaped not only by access to support, but by everyday communication, planning, behaviours and recognition.”

From Seddon’s perspective, the programme did not just develop our supply chain, it is also making us a better principal contractor.

“The Champions Programme shows what can be achieved when a principal contractor invests not only in its own people, but in the organisations that make up its supply chain.” Lewis Welsby.

As a result, we have now recruited a second cohort and signed up to the programme for another year.

Learn how to address mental ill-health 

We believe that one of the best ways to create long-lasting change within an organisation is through mental health and wellbeing training that educates and informs the workforce. Our training courses act as key pillars of our overall Membership programme by supporting organisations in transforming their workplace culture and raising vital awareness about mental ill-health. 

The following demonstrates why training is important:

• A study found that only 29 per cent of organisations train line managers to support mental health despite the fact that “73 per cent of employers who train managers agree that ‘managers are confident to have sensitive discussions and signpost staff to expert sources of help if needed’, compared with 57 per cent of those who don’t offer training” (CIPD).
• Our own survey found that:
  
  • Fewer than 10 per cent of respondents said that their “line managers know how to undertake stress risk assessments and understand when they may be necessary” (almost 70 per cent said they would not). 
  • Less than 13 per cent said they have provided all employees with general mental health awareness training in the last two years (61 per cent have not). 

However, it is important to note that training is only one part of a comprehensive and effective programme of preventative interventions.

Train your team today

Case study: 

This year, Jenny, one of our trainers, has been delivering our Start the Conversation training, to almost 180 construction sites of a main contractor. Here, Jenny reflects on her experience, what she learned and what she took away from it:

“The main purpose of this journey across sites was to reduce the stigma in construction around mental health, making sure people know where to get help if they need it, and most importantly, helping to normalise conversations about wellbeing on site.

Construction has always been and still is a challenging environment to work in, there are many factors that can affect peoples’ wellbeing - finances, pressures both in and outside of work, but what often shows up is the feeling that it can't be talked about, due to the stigma that still surrounds mental health. 

Male mental health and suicide rates within construction are significantly worse than in other sectors. This is why interventions like Start the Conversation are so important, they remind everyone that there are people who can help and sometimes just checking in and listening can make the world of difference.

Every group is different. Therefore, it’s not just about delivering a session. It’s about creating a space where people feel able to talk, listen and perhaps see things from a different perspective.

There have been some challenging conversations, plenty of humour, and moments that have really made people think.

We’ve spent time talking about the language we use when we talk about mental health and suicide — and how some outdated terminology, often used without thinking, can unintentionally create barriers.

The words we choose matter.

They can make someone feel judged, dismissed or uncomfortable enough to stay quiet. Or they can help create an environment where someone feels safe enough to say, “Actually, I’m not doing very well.”

And that is where a conversation can begin.

Underneath all these conversations, there's been something important: a genuine sense that people want things to change.

Changing the stigma around mental health on site doesn't happen overnight. It takes conversations, a willingness to challenge outdated attitudes, and an understanding that we all have a part to play.

It's easy to think that changing the culture is someone else's responsibility. It's not. It's in how we speak to each other, how we respond when someone isn't themselves, and whether we create an environment where people feel safe enough to say they're struggling.

Because creating a culture where people feel able to talk isn't just about delivering training.

It starts with the conversations we have every day — and the language we use when we have them.

It’s always encouraging to see organisations investing in developing their own people to continue these important conversations.

The sessions I love delivering most are those within organisations that genuinely care about the wellbeing of their people and want to make a difference, rather than simply ticking a box.

What I've taken away from these sessions is a glimmer of hope. People are listening, questioning, and beginning to recognise the role they play in making a difference.

And that matters.

Because behind every statistic is a person, a family, a colleague, or a mate.

We might not be able to change everything overnight, but every conversation is an opportunity to do things differently.

And sometimes, that's where change begins. 

Final thoughts

At Mates in Mind, we have been raising awareness of mental health and calling for organisations to adopt a proactive approach for nearly a decade. We’ve seen throughout this blog, raising awareness simply is not enough.

The time for ACTION is now.

Your PARTNER of choice is Mates in Mind.

Start your journey to better workplace mental health today.

Request a callback now