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As you likely know only too well, the HR function isn’t an island.
It isn’t a separate entity, floating on the edge of a business encouraging people to change their actions or work a certain way, HR is deeply embedded in the roots of the business. That also goes for HR initiatives. It takes everyone within the organisation to buy into what HR does, and truly carry out what HR orchestrates. This is how 90% of HR’s remit succeeds.
This also means that the relationship between line managers and HR has to be incredibly strong. Line managers are HR’s ‘front line’, if you will. As the person the employee speaks to most, the line manager is well placed to be the one to live and breathe HR’s values, but also be aware when something isn’t right, and work with HR to rectify it.
Without this inviolable bond between HR and the line manager, the system breaks down. And it’s this issue that we’re getting into today, because by all accounts, it seems that in most organisations, it has broken down.
The unfit manager
Mental health and wellbeing issues aren’t unusual within the workplace. In fact, according to MentalHealth.org, around one in six workers are currently experiencing poor mental health. And it’s getting worse. Nearly half of employees say their mental wellbeing declined in 2022, and 28% said they are miserable in their workplace. 60% of employees also reported feeling emotionally detached at work.
Despite so many individuals feeling the burden of poor mental health, crucially, very few are willing to raise these issues with a line manager. YouGov data states that the volume of employees actually willing to talk to a manager about mental health is somewhere around 14%. That’s shocking low.
The Rise of Job Hopping: How to Adapt Your Retention Strategy
With job hopping on the rise, adapting your retention strategy is crucial for maintaining a productive and engaged workforce.
Millennials and Gen Z workers are leading the charge in this trend, with many prioritizing skill development, higher pay, and values alignment in their career choices. Employers who fail to engage and promote their talent risk facing high turnover costs and a disengaged workforce.
Explore how to strengthen your retention efforts by promoting internal mobility, addressing employee burnout, and aligning company values with the expectations of younger generations.
What You’ll Learn:
The reasons behind the job-hopping trend and how it affects employee retention.
Strategies to boost employee engagement and reduce burnout, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z.
How offering career development, internal promotions, and pay raises can help retain employees and reduce turnover costs.
What compounds the news is that, largely as a result of the pandemic, many workplaces have in fact increased awareness surrounding poor mental health. Spill data states that in the past few years, 81% of workplaces have increased their focus on employee mental health, whilst billions have been spent on increased budgets to offer support for staff.
And in all of this drive to improve mental health, the role of the manager seemingly hasn’t been duly considered.
“In recent years, huge steps have been taken to improve mental health awareness across society, including in the workplace,” Jaan Madan, Workplace Lead at Mental Health First Aid England, noted when reviewing the data.
“However, the research shows that more needs to be done to translate this awareness into action. Coping with stress in the workplace starts with being able to have a conversation with your manager, and in a mentally healthy organisation everyone should feel comfortable talking about stress.”
Putting the manager back into mental health support
Firstly, a conversation needs to happen about selecting line managers. The traditional system by which line managers are chosen comes down to aptitude at a job that they will now spend less time doing. Instead, line managers need to be picked for their ability to lead a team, inspire confidence and make connections.
Even in this case, realistically, the vast majority of this failure at management level comes down to training. No one would expect to simply dress a member of the public as a doctor and expect them to perform operations, so why do we simply expect to give line managers a new title and have them automatically know how to manage a team?
Without training in mental health management and wellbeing support, no manager will magically have the skills they need to do the job from the offing. “A good place to start is to support line managers with training and workshops on how to take care of themselves, but also spot signs of mental ill-health within their own teams,” notes Sarah Kirk, Global Diversity and Inclusion Director at Michael Page.
“Businesses need to create a culture of trust, openness, support and acceptance by providing clear support, advice and signposting,” she adds.
Key skills
As for what proficiencies make a manager an effective form of wellbeing support for teams, Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO and mental health specialist recently told LinkedIn that the keys include considering every employee as a complex human, and not just simply another worker. She states that the needs of every worker are different, and connecting with your direct reports based on how they choose to communicate is important.
Adapt your management style to each individual, understanding their preferences and needs,” she stated. “Be mindful of how your communication affects their emotions and ensure you’re not increasing anxiety.”
Finally, she states that regular check ins are vital. Employees need to know that their line manager is a constant presence in their working lives, and that they can speak to them on any issues that they have. This is only possible if a regular channel of communication is open. Simply leaving connecting to monthly 1-2-1s is not viable and if this approach is taken, it’s inevitable that employees will not feel comfortable sharing their insights at all.
