HR Leader spoke with Wisdom Wellbeing associate director of operations Kayleigh Frost, who reflected on the importance of HR departments educating their line managers to become comfortable with the tougher conversations.

Frost found that workers are starting to feel more empowered to speak about their mental health challenges, relationship break-ups, and family conflict; however, she noted that line managers do not feel an equal level of confidence to respond.

“They might not be educated, they might think they’re going to say the wrong thing, and it’s almost as if they forget to have a human conversation,” Frost said.

“We need line managers to be educated, skilled and coached to be able to have supportive conversations, because that ultimately is going to result in their employees feeling supported and invested,” she said.

Down to the line managers

“HR are an oracle of knowledge, support and guidance. They need to be able to pass on that wealth of information, knowledge and skills set to the line managers,” Frost said.

Frost emphasised that HR must ensure that line managers are regularly educated about changes to the wellbeing and mental health landscape, including what they need to look out for and how to handle sensitive conversations.

Frost described HR as a “satellite position”, which relies on line management to do the day-to-day personal relationship building.

Along with daily engagement, line managers are responsible for executing compliance, HR processes, and ultimately making sure that there is engagement and investment from employees, Frost said.

“That can only come as part of the two-way street, [employees have] to be managed and led by [their] leader … Line management is the key, regardless of business size. It’s up to them,” she added.

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