News and features

Mon, 10 Jan 2011

Managers 'need training to deal with health issues'

Managers need greater training on how to deal with health issues that are raised by their workers, it has been suggested.

Mike Petrook, head of communications for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), said more needs to be done to make bosses more approachable, after research by the organisation showed that as many as one in three staff were not disclosing illnesses to their line managers.

"There is clearly a need for training so that line managers know how to deal with these issues," he remarked, adding that there needs to be "a culture in organisations where discussing health concerns is not taboo".

"The reason for that is you have got to be able to help people through these problems, so that they are then latterly better able to perform," he stated.

Mr Petrook added that there needs to be a greater level of engagement among employees in order to make staff feel comfortable about speaking to human resources teams about health-related issues.

The CMI is not the only body to have conducted research showing workers are not comfortable with talking about their wellbeing at work.

A survey by mental health charity Rethink published earlier this month revealed that 59 per cent of British workers would not want to talk to their line manager about issues such as depression or anxiety.

Over a quarter (26 per cent) of those, cited fear of losing their job as a reason for not wanting to disclose any trouble they may be having, while 19 per cent would about their colleagues finding out.

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