Jessica O'ConnorOn World Mental Health Day, Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing has urged UK employers to adopt a more proactive approach to employee mental health, as workplace absence reaches its highest level in over 15 years.
Recent figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed that UK employees now take an average of 9.4 sick days a year.
Mental health was identified as the leading cause of long-term sickness absence and the second biggest cause of short-term absence.
According to Deloitte, poor mental health has costed UK employers an estimated £51bn annually through lost productivity, absence and staff turnover.
Emma Capper, UK wellbeing leader at Howden, said: “World Mental Health Day is a key moment to reflect, but mental health must be a year-round priority.
“The benefits of a proactive approach are too great to ignore. Too often, employers only step in once someone is already off sick due to their mental health.
“By that point, it is not just the individual who is struggling, the team is stretched, workloads are impacted, and costs are rising. Prevention is the most effective way to reduce absence, protect employees, and build long-term resilience.”
To help organisations strengthen wellbeing and reduce absence, Howden has developed a four-stage mental health support pathway.
The approach encourages employers to focus on maintaining everyday wellbeing, taking early action, providing accessible support when needed, and offering structured recovery and return-to-work plans.
The framework includes measures such as resilience and stress management training, regular wellbeing check-ins, improved visibility of support resources, and better use of existing benefits such as Employee Assistance Programmes, counselling and occupational health services.
It also highlights the importance of line manager training and flexible working arrangements to support early intervention and long-term recovery.
Capper added: “Many of these services already exist within insurance and wellbeing policies but often go underused because employees and managers don’t know where to look.
“By reviewing existing resources, spotting gaps, and providing clear, practical tools, like wellbeing guides, employers can help people identify what support they need, access it earlier, and empower managers to have more confident, supportive conversations.”
She said that early, structured mental health support could help to reduce sickness absence, ease pressure on the NHS and lower private medical insurance claims, while building more resilient and productive workforces.
Capper concluded: “This not only reduces sickness absence, relieves pressure on the NHS, and cuts unnecessary PMI claims, but also helps build stronger, more resilient workforces, often at minimal additional cost.”
