Why Every Business Leader Should Be Trained in Mental Health First Aid

The Silent Crisis in Our Workplaces

If I asked you to count how many of your employees are suffering from burnout, anxiety, or depression right now, would you be able to give me an accurate number? Most leaders can’t. That’s the uncomfortable truth we’re facing in modern business. The statistics paint a sobering picture: 79% of UK employees report experiencing burnout at work, yet only 45% of managers have received any training in how to have mental health conversations with their teams.

I’ve built companies across technology and investment, and I’ve also dedicated considerable time to prison reform advocacy through Inside Out Justice. Both experiences have taught me something vital: people are suffering in silence, and the structures we’ve built—whether in boardrooms or prison systems—often aren’t equipped to recognise the signs, let alone respond appropriately.

The cost of this inaction is staggering. Poor mental health costs the UK economy approximately £56 billion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. For individual businesses, this translates into real people leaving organisations, reduced innovation, increased error rates, and a culture of fear rather than openness.

The Gap Between Need and Capability

Here’s what troubles me most: 51% of employees don’t believe their manager is equipped to handle mental health concerns. Think about that figure for a moment. More than half of your workforce doubts your ability to support them during their darkest moments. That’s not a personal failing—it’s a systemic one. Managers aren’t failing because they don’t care; they’re failing because they’ve never been trained.

We ask managers to lead teams, make strategic decisions, manage budgets, and navigate complex interpersonal dynamics. Yet we rarely provide them with basic training in mental health first aid. It’s like expecting a pilot to fly a plane without understanding the instrument panel. The assumption is that somehow, through osmosis or intuition, managers will develop the ability to recognise mental health crises and respond appropriately. They won’t.

I became a trained Samaritan because I wanted to understand mental health support from first principles. The training gave me a framework for listening without judgement, for asking the right questions, and for knowing when to escalate concerns to professional support. These skills aren’t innate—they’re learned. And if I can acquire them, so can every manager in your organisation.

What Mental Health First Aid Training Actually Involves

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training in the UK is provided through MHFA England, the body accredited to deliver this crucial skill development. The standard Adult MHFA course runs for two days, though condensed versions are increasingly available. During this training, participants learn to recognise signs of common mental health conditions—depression, anxiety, panic attacks, psychosis, and self-harm—and develop practical skills in providing initial support.

The MHFA approach teaches what’s called the ALGEE action plan. It stands for: Approach the person, Listen without judgement, Give reassurance and information, Encourage professional help, and Encourage self-help strategies. Simple as it sounds, this framework transforms how managers interact with struggling employees. You’re not being asked to diagnose or treat mental health conditions. You’re being asked to be the first responder—to stabilise, to listen, and to connect people with proper support.

What strikes me about MHFA training is how much of it mirrors good management practice generally. You’re learning to be curious about people, to listen actively rather than jumping to solutions, and to take concerns seriously. These aren’t specialist skills reserved for HR professionals; they’re foundational to good leadership.

Why Managers Are the Frontline of Mental Health Support

Your manager is often the first person an employee will talk to about personal struggles. Before they contact their GP, before they seek therapy, they might approach their boss. That moment—that conversation—can be the pivot point between someone getting help and someone spiralling further. If your manager responds with stigma, dismissal, or ignorance, you’ve lost an opportunity to intervene early.

The research is clear: employees who feel their manager cares about their wellbeing are more engaged, more loyal, and more productive. Conversely, employees who fear judgement or dismissal from their manager will hide their struggles, leading to presenteeism (being at work but not actually present), increased error rates, and eventual burnout-related exits.

When I was building Nexatech Ventures, I made a deliberate choice to invest heavily in manager training and mental health awareness. Not because it was trendy or because HR insisted on it, but because I’d seen firsthand—in failed startups, in talented people leaving companies, in my own struggles with Complex PTSD and Autism—how the wrong environment can destroy capable individuals.

The Organisational Benefits Are Real

Let’s be concrete about what MHFA training delivers for organisations. Companies that invest in mental health training for managers see measurable improvements in several areas. Employee turnover tends to decrease because people feel supported and valued. Sick leave due to mental health reasons decreases as people seek help earlier rather than collapsing entirely. Productivity increases because people aren’t exhausted from hiding their struggles. And perhaps most importantly, trust increases throughout the organisation.

There’s also a protective element for the organisation itself. Managers trained in mental health first aid are better equipped to recognise when an employee needs professional intervention, which means they can connect that person with occupational health, employee assistance programmes, or external support before a situation becomes critical. This doesn’t just help the individual; it protects the organisation from potential safeguarding issues and the associated liabilities.

I’ve seen this play out in venture capital investing too. The founders and teams I back who have access to mental health support and whose leaders understand burnout and psychological safety tend to build more resilient companies. They innovate better because people feel safe taking risks. They attract better talent because word spreads that it’s a humane workplace. They make better decisions because stressed, unsupported people make poor decisions.

Overcoming the Resistance

I know what you’re thinking: “This sounds good in theory, but my managers are already stretched. Where do I find time for two-day training courses?” Or perhaps: “Won’t this open us up to liability if people disclose mental health issues?” These are legitimate concerns, but they’re based on misconceptions.

First, the time investment is finite and manageable. Most organisations can deliver MHFA training within existing professional development budgets by spreading it across the year or even condensing it into one-day formats. The return on investment comes quickly—reduced turnover alone typically pays for the training cost within the first year for most organisations.

Second, regarding liability: understanding mental health actually reduces legal risk. You’re not asking managers to become therapists. You’re asking them to recognise problems and escalate appropriately. Having trained, aware managers is far safer legally than having untrained managers who might miss warning signs or respond inappropriately to disclosures.

There’s also a concern that mental health conversations will become intrusive or that people will feel pressured to disclose. Actually, the opposite happens. When managers are trained, they become better at respecting boundaries. They ask better questions, they listen more carefully, and employees feel they can disclose at their own pace without fear of judgement.

Creating a Culture of Openness

Mental health first aid training is rarely effective in isolation. It works best when embedded within a broader organisational commitment to wellbeing. This means your policies need to actually support mental health—flexible working arrangements, access to employee assistance programmes, mental health days, and anti-stigma messaging from leadership.

I talk openly about having Complex PTSD and Autism because I believe leaders have a responsibility to model vulnerability. If I, as a founder and investor, can speak publicly about my mental health challenges, it signals to my teams that these conversations are normal and welcome. It doesn’t mean we’re weak; it means we’re human.

When MHFA training is combined with organisational policies that actually support mental health, something shifts. Employees stop seeing mental health conversations as risky. They start seeing them as a sign that the organisation genuinely cares. They’re more likely to seek help early, less likely to hide their struggles, and more likely to remain loyal to an organisation that supports them through difficult periods.

The Practical Next Steps for Your Organisation

If you’re convinced of the need but unsure how to proceed, the path is straightforward. Contact MHFA England directly—they have a directory of accredited instructors across the country who can deliver training tailored to your sector and organisation size. For larger organisations, they can deliver train-the-trainer programmes so you develop internal capability. For smaller organisations, they can arrange group training with other businesses.

Start with your management team. Prioritise managers with direct reports, but don’t stop there. Consider rolling it out more broadly because mental health first aid isn’t just useful for managers; it helps all employees recognise when colleagues are struggling and respond appropriately.

Combine training with policy review. Ensure your flexible working policies, paternity/maternity leave, mental health support access, and communication from leadership all reinforce that mental health matters. A two-day training course in a workplace culture that stigmatises weakness will achieve almost nothing. But the same training in a supportive culture can be transformative.

Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers

When I worked on prison reform, I discovered something that shifted my perspective on all human systems: people respond to being seen and valued. Imprisoned individuals who felt respected by staff, who believed staff cared about their rehabilitation, showed better outcomes. The same principle applies in business.

Your employees aren’t just productive units. They’re people navigating complex lives, facing challenges you don’t see, sometimes fighting internal battles that make it hard to focus on work. When managers are trained to recognise this, when they’re equipped to respond with compassion rather than dismissal, you create an environment where people can be fully themselves. And people who can be fully themselves are people who’ll give their best to your organisation.

The £56 billion annual cost to the UK economy from poor mental health isn’t some abstract statistic. It’s real human suffering, translated into business terms. It’s the talented engineer who leaves because she couldn’t cope with her manager’s dismissiveness about her anxiety. It’s the potential innovation that never happens because the person who would have created it was too depressed to engage. It’s the team performance that suffers because everyone’s walking on eggshells around someone in crisis.

A Final Word

I’m writing this as someone who’s benefited from good mental health support and been harmed by its absence. As someone building technology companies, I’ve seen firsthand how proper support for mental health creates better organisations. And through Inside Out Justice, I’ve witnessed how the absence of proper mental health care in closed systems creates catastrophe.

Training your managers in mental health first aid isn’t a nice-to-have corporate wellness initiative. It’s a foundational investment in your organisation’s resilience, productivity, and culture. It’s a way of saying to your people: we see you, we value you, and we’re equipped to support you.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to train your managers in mental health first aid. The question is whether you can afford not to.