A workshop to talk about mental health at work in an HR setting

To address workplace tensions, choose a workshop that opens up discussion without confusing it with a diagnosis or a prevention plan. Psychosocial risks also affect how businesses operate, including absenteeism, staff turnover and the working atmosphere, according to the INRS, France’s National Research and Safety Institute for the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases. The challenge is to connect the team’s discussions with practical action on the work itself.

My answer in a nutshell

The most useful choice is an awareness-raising workshop that helps your team structure its thinking and then discuss possible next steps. Human Déclic presents a workshop to talk about mental health at work in three stages, from exploring the topic to considering solutions suited to the organisation, using 40 concept cards to support discussion on the workshop page. To make the discussion useful, define in advance what you want to clarify and plan how to connect the findings with prevention measures.

What is a workshop to talk about mental health at work, and how does it work in an HR setting?

A workshop to talk about mental health at work is an awareness-raising session that brings a topic into discussion and helps people think collectively about possible approaches suited to their organisation.

To choose what is right for your team, start with the question you want to address: do you want to open up a collective conversation, or offer a space for reflection specifically for managers? Human Déclic presents a version of the workshop designed for managers on its overview page. Choosing the intended audience helps frame the session without expecting it to solve all the organisation’s difficulties on its own.

This format is worth considering if your first goal is to organise a discussion and bring out possible approaches, rather than get a ready-made answer. To keep the purpose clear, frame an opening question related to work, then distinguish the team’s observations from the decisions that need to be made afterwards.

Which signs of excessive stress can the workshop help a team notice?

A workshop can help people talk about signs of distress, but it should not be used to diagnose excessive stress.

Ameli, the French national health insurance website, lists fatigue, sleep disorders, irritability and memory problems among the signs of psychological distress associated with a suicidal crisis on its page about suicidal crises. These signs can guide a thoughtful conversation, but they do not enable a team to make a diagnosis. Keep the workshop focused on awareness-raising, and avoid interpreting what someone says in place of a professional.

In practice, ask open-ended questions about work situations and let everyone choose whether to share personal details. If someone mentions a sign of distress, do not try to address it collectively through the workshop: direct the person to an appropriate professional.

When in a team’s or project’s life is the workshop most useful?

The most relevant time is when a team is preparing for a new work situation or a significant organisational change. The INRS says that psychosocial risk prevention can be undertaken at these stages in its prevention recommendations.

In this context, the workshop can open up reflection on difficulties to anticipate and solutions to explore. To keep it useful, connect the discussion to the work situation in question: identify what is changing in the organisation, then the questions the team wants to raise. The recommendation is to make it part of a prevention approach, rather than present it as a sufficient response to change.

You can also choose this format when a team needs space to organise its thinking before deciding on next steps. Keep a clear distinction between awareness-raising and action: if the discussion brings a work-related problem to light, the follow-up should address that problem, not just how employees respond to it.

How can you adapt the workshop’s duration and format to the constraints of SMEs and subsidiaries?

Adapt the format to your objective and the time your organisation can devote to the process, without assuming that one duration will suit every team.

For small and medium-sized businesses, mid-sized companies and large businesses, Human Déclic presents its tailored HR services as suited to each organisation’s needs and context on its HR services page. The page also describes a flexible, customisable outsourced HR service in its overview of services. To choose a format, start with your needs: raising awareness with a group, focusing on managers or exploring a discussion that is already under way in greater depth.

If you want to go beyond awareness-raising, Human Déclic offers an optional half-day follow-up module on the workshop page. This format may be suitable when the need is for more in-depth work on solutions. It is best to define the intended outcome first, then choose a session length that fits that objective.

How does an in-person workshop compare with a digital tool or webinar?

Choose the format according to the kind of discussion you want to organise, without assuming that one delivery method is necessarily more effective than another.

A Cochrane review found two studies comparing computer-based and in-person stress management programmes involving 159 workers. Their results were contradictory and did not show which format was better at reducing stress according to the published Cochrane review. This comparison concerns stress management programmes: it is not enough to establish that in-person or digital delivery is generally better for your workshop.

If your priority is to get participants talking together, choose the format that makes that discussion possible for your team. If you are unsure, compare the options against simple criteria: the intended audience, the time set aside for discussion and how you want the work to continue after the session. The right choice is the one that meets your objective, not the one promising the most spectacular result.

In what situations is a workshop not enough, and what should you do instead?

A workshop is not enough when someone is experiencing a suicidal crisis or when the situation is already having a confirmed impact on their health: appropriate care must then take priority.

Ameli says that a suicidal crisis requires urgent care from health professionals in its information about suicidal crises. In this situation, do not expect the workshop to respond to an emergency. Direct the person to health professionals.

For very serious situations with a confirmed impact on employees’ health, the INRS recommends care in coordination with the occupational health and prevention service in its prevention recommendations. The INRS also says that stress management training can be useful in some cases, but it does not replace prevention that adapts work to people as part of the same approach. If the difficulty concerns work organisation, prioritise action on working conditions rather than placing the whole burden of the response on individuals.

How can you measure a workshop’s impact on workplace climate and productivity?

To evaluate an initiative, track the actions taken and adjust them if needed. Do not present a change in productivity as proof, on its own, of a workshop’s effect.

The INRS says that psychosocial risks affect how businesses operate, including absenteeism, staff turnover and the working atmosphere in its article on mental health at work. To monitor the effectiveness of prevention measures, the INRS recommends evaluating and adjusting them if needed as part of its prevention approach.

To make this monitoring useful, link each indicator to the action taken and the question you are trying to clarify. Distinguish changes in how the business operates from the evaluation of the workshop itself: this helps avoid automatically attributing a change to a single initiative. Choose a monitoring method that is clear to the relevant managers and use the results to decide what to do next, rather than to showcase an isolated result.

Which complementary tools can strengthen action after the workshop?

After awareness-raising, the priority is a prevention approach that turns findings into actions focused on work.

The INRS describes an approach to assessing psychosocial risks that is integrated into the single risk assessment document and linked to prevention measures in its overview of the RPS-DU approach. The INRS also says that an action plan should follow from the analysis and focus on actions centred on work in its recommendations. This is the decisive criterion: a useful action addresses what has been analysed rather than stopping at general awareness-raising.

To structure the follow-up, Human Déclic says its HR support starts with an audit of existing practices, followed by a tailored action plan and recommendations to set priorities and a timetable on its services overview page. The page also says that the company develops tailored HR management processes and tools in its description of the service. This support may be relevant if you need to connect the team’s discussion with HR priorities and actions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the workshop technique?

The technique uses a shared resource to structure discussion and bring out possible approaches. In the workshop offered by Human Déclic, the discussion is supported by 40 concept cards and takes place in three stages as described on its overview page.

Fatigue, sleep disorders, irritability and memory problems are among the signs of psychological distress associated with a suicidal crisis cited by Ameli. These signs are not a diagnosis for a team to make.

What is the principle behind the workshop?

The principle is to open up collective reflection on a topic, then bring out possible approaches suited to the organisation. To make the follow-up useful, connect this reflection to actions focused on work.

What I take away

To address workplace tensions, choose an awareness-raising workshop if your goal is to open up discussion, then connect the findings with a prevention approach focused on work. If an employee’s health is affected, prioritise appropriate referral and care. The strongest approach combines a format that suits your team with practical next steps that reflect what the discussion brought to light.