How to Implement Mental Health Days in Your Workplace

Mental health continues to be a significant challenge in the workplace. The 2024 AXA Mind Health Study found that nearly 10% of UK adults took time off for mental health reasons in the previous 12 months, with almost 45% of these absences lasting a month or longer.

The problem isn’t going away. MHFA England found that signs of burnout are becoming more common, with 63% of UK employees now showing symptoms like exhaustion and disengagement, up from 51% two years ago.

So, what can employers do about it?

While mental health in the workplace is a complex issue that needs a careful and empathetic approach from many different angles, one option is to improve the benefits package you offer to support your employees’ mental health.

Employees are increasingly looking for non-monetary benefits as part of the overall job proposition. A staggering 52% of employees feel more engaged and productive when their organisation offers mental health resources, such as access to counselling (for example, through benefits such as Employee Assistance Programmes) or wellness initiatives, so including mental health support in your total reward package could improve your retention rate.

One option that’s growing in popularity among staff, particularly younger employees, is mental health days – time off work to look after your mental wellbeing and prevent burnout.

But how do you implement them effectively? We’ll explain everything you need to know about them in this guide.

What do we mean by mental health?

Mental health refers to the way we think, feel and behave. Just as we can experience good or poor physical health, the same is true for our mental health – and it can fluctuate over time.

Common mental health conditions include anxiety and depression, which affect 8 in 100 people in the UK. Stress and burnout themselves are not mental health conditions (rather they’re classed as symptoms instead of conditons), which means if left to get worse, they can turn into one. These conditions and symptoms may affect concentration, motivation, confidence, decision-making and how we interact with others, especially in a work environment.

Poor mental health at work might show up as:

• Withdrawal from colleagues
• Noticeable drops in performance
• Increased absenteeism
• Emotional outbursts

It’s important to remember that mental health struggles aren’t always visible, and anyone can be affected regardless of their role or seniority. Plus, under the Equality Act 2010, some mental health conditions may be classed as a disability. This means employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to support affected staff. So, recognising the importance of mental health is not just the right thing to do – it’s also a legal responsibility.

What is a mental health day?

A mental health day, sometimes called a ‘duvet day’ or ‘personal day’, is when you take time off work to protect your mental health. The idea is that you use the time to focus on relieving stress and preventing burnout, which might involve relaxing, spending time with family and friends, or engaging in your hobbies.

Popular in the US, mental health days are starting to appear in benefits packages in UK workplaces.

Employees have no legal right to mental health days in the UK, which means they’re generally not dealt with as part of an employer’s sickness absence policy, and they don’t impact statutory sick pay (SSP).

However, employees can take sick days in line with your sickness absence policy, in which case SSP would come into effect in the usual way, after three consecutive days of absence.

While one or two mental health days won’t solve an employee’s poor mental health, offering them as part of your wellbeing strategy can be part of a holistic approach to improving mental wellbeing. Paired with measures like counselling, an occupational health assessment or flexible working requests, a mental health day could be the start of your employee’s recovery – or it could prevent stress or burnout from getting worse.

Benefits of mental health days for employees

Mental health days have many benefits for employees:

• Reduce stress and prevent burnout: Taking a day to clear your mind and relax can help you reset, potentially stopping burnout in its tracks.
• Improve sleep quality: Being able to take it easy for a day and have a lie-in can reduce stress – as long as it’s occasional.
• Helps you process emotions: Spending time doing things you enjoy, rather than thinking about work commitments, can help you understand how you’re feeling and help you make a plan for improving your mental health.
• Promotes relaxation: It can be hard to relax when work is busy and stressful. Taking a mental health day can help you reset and start making time for relaxing activities again after work.

Benefits of mental health days for employers

While there are clear benefits of mental health days for employees, there are plenty of benefits for employers, too:

• Reduced absence: Just one mental health day could be enough for your employee to rest and recharge, reducing long-term sickness absence.
• Improved productivity: While it’ll cost money to have an employee off for one day, Deloitte research shows that for every £1 spent on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce, employers get an average of £4.70 back in increased productivity.
• Increased retention: If you pair mental health days with open communication and mental health awareness within your workplace, you could see a 20% increase in employee retention rates.
• Better morale: Demonstrating that you care about your employees’ mental health by offering mental health days and other wellbeing measures is often enough to improve morale among most employees, even if they don’t take advantage of them.

Although it may seem counterintuitive to allow employees to take days off, it can actually have a positive impact on your business.

Deloitte research also found that poor mental wellbeing costs employers in the UK an estimated £42 – £45 billion annually through presenteeism, sickness absence and staff turnover. So, if investing in this area could save you money in the long term.

So, how do you implement them effectively at your organisation?

How to implement mental health days in the workplace

To ensure that mental health days are used correctly and for the right purpose, it’s important to have a clear strategy for implementing them in your workplace. Here are our top tips for adding mental health days to your business’ total reward package:

Develop a clear policy

Having a clear mental health leave policy (either as part as, or separate to, an employee wellbeing policy / health and wellbeing policy) is crucial to ensure that all employees understand what the days should be used for, how they work and what impact they can have. Your policy should include:

• The purpose of mental health days
• Whether they are paid or unpaid
• Eligibility – are all employees eligible from day one, or do they have to complete a minimum length of service?
• How many days an employee can take
• How the allowance works – is it per year, or on a rolling 12-month basis?
• How requests should be made – does it reflect your sickness absence procedure, or must they be approved like annual leave? What happens if two team members want the same day off?
• How requests will be recorded and measured
• How they affect KPIs and bonuses, if at all
• Any circumstances in which a request can be turned down – be aware that refusing leave for mental health reasons while allowing time off for physical illnesses could breach equality laws
• How mental health days interplay with annual leave or sick leave
• The process after an employee returns from a mental health day – will they have a return-to-work meeting to check in with their line manager?
• Procedural matters – for example, explaining that they’re a discretionary benefit that can be withdrawn, and the parameters of confidentiality that sit around them.

Communicate the new policy

Mental health days are a relatively new concept in the UK, so it’s important that you communicate your policy clearly to your team.

It’s worth holding a brief meeting to explain what mental health days are and how your employees can use them fairly. It’s also the perfect time to demonstrate that your company takes mental health seriously and that you offer a supportive, non-judgemental working environment.

You could remind your team of the other wellbeing measures you have available, such as an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), gym membership, health insurance, or flexible working arrangements.

Train your managers

You can’t implement mental health days and expect them to be enough to support your employees’ mental health. It’s important to train your managers and other staff to spot signs of poor mental health early and to deal with mental health issues without judgement.

It can be beneficial to train staff across different departments to serve as Mental Health First Aiders. MHFAiders are trained to recognise the signs of poor mental health and practise active listening and empathy. Some employees may struggle to come forward to a manager, so having MHFAiders who are peers can help to ensure all members of staff have someone they feel they can talk to.

Lead by example

Ensure that your senior leaders model healthy behaviours, such as taking all their annual leave allowance, leaving work on time, and prioritising their wellbeing outside of work. They should be seen to take mental health days off themselves, where eligible, to show that it’s ok to use this type of leave.

Ask for feedback

Involve your team in the process of establishing and refining your mental health day policy. You could add a question or two to your employee engagement survey to gauge how the policy is working.

Don’t worry if you get some negative feedback or a slow uptake initially – it might take you a while to get it right, but involving your team in the process will help ensure that you introduce a wellbeing measure that is genuinely useful for your employees.

It’s also worth noting that mental health days should be one small part of your wellbeing offering for employees. Without a good EAP that offers access to counselling, or without a strong company culture that promotes openness and empathy, mental health days won’t have as positive an impact as they could.

How employees can help themselves: the art of practising self-care

When it comes to mental health in the workplace, organisations need to take a two-pronged approach. Offering mental health days supports your employees’ wellbeing, but employers can also help educate employees to take responsibility for their own mental health. A great way to do this is to promote self-care.

Self-care is the practice of prioritising and looking after your own wellbeing. You can encourage your team to practice self-care both at work and at home by discussing it in staff meetings or newsletters and incorporating it into regular work conversations.

Some examples of self-care practices that employees can do at work and at home include:

• Always taking lunch breaks
• Connecting with colleagues, friends and family
• Learning a new skill
• Walking or doing other exercise
• Mindfulness and meditation
• Spending time alone
• Reducing screen time
• Getting enough sleep

Promoting self-care among employees, particularly when they take mental health days, will help them make the most of these days and return to work refreshed.

Introducing mental health days into your workplace can be a powerful step towards supporting employee wellbeing and creating a healthier, more productive environment. When backed by a clear policy, open communication and a culture that values mental health, these days can help reduce burnout, boost morale and even improve retention.

While they’re not a cure-all, mental health days can form a meaningful part of a broader wellbeing strategy that includes EAPs, flexible working and other wellness initiatives. By leading from the top, involving your team and promoting self-care, you can ensure mental health days are more than just time off – they become a valuable tool in your organisation’s commitment to long-term staff wellbeing.

FAQs about mental health days

Should mental health days be paid?

In the UK, there’s no legal requirement for mental health days to be paid. However, for them to be a true benefit to employees, it’s advisable for them to be paid. If they’re unpaid, some employees may see this as a barrier to using them, as they may feel they can’t afford to take the time off work.

How many mental health days can employees take?

Your policy determines the number of mental health days an employee can take. Most employers tend to offer two to three days per year. However, remember that employees can take time off sick for mental health, and can self-certify their absence for the first seven days – after that, they will need a fit note from their doctor.

Do employers have to offer mental health days in the UK?

There’s no legal right to mental health days in the UK, so you don’t have to offer them. However, more and more employers are offering them as a benefit to improve their total reward package and help support their employees’ mental health.

What’s the difference between a mental health day and a sick day?

The primary difference between a mental health day and a sick day is that a mental health day is a discretionary benefit that can be withdrawn at any time, and employees have no legal entitlement to it. They’re a more proactive way of dealing with issues like stress or burnout before they become too serious. Mental health days are typically addressed separately from the sickness absence policy.

However, a sick day is when an employee states that they’re too unwell to come into work, and this triggers the organisation’s absence procedure.

In reality, there often isn’t much of a difference between mental health days and sick days, as both scenarios involve an employee taking time off work. Essentially, mental health days are intended to be used as a way to prevent more serious mental health problems and longer-term sick leave.

Do employees have to provide a fit note if they’re taking a mental health day?

Employees don’t have to provide a fit note if they’re taking a mental health day, as it is usually just one day of leave. Plus, they’re usually dealt with separately from your sickness absence policy. Employees only need to provide a fit note if they’re off work for longer than seven consecutive days.

Should I refer my employee to Occupational Health if they’ve taken a mental health day?

You won’t always need to refer an employee to occupational health if they’ve taken a mental health day. But if your employee has had to take a few mental health days in quick succession, they’ve had sick leave for mental health reasons, or you have other concerns about their mental health, it can be a good idea.

An occupational health specialist will assess your employee’s health and offer recommendations for supporting them, which may include reasonable adjustments such as flexible working hours or working from home. If you refer your employee to occupational health early, you can prevent their mental health from getting worse by giving them access to support.

How we can help

Our team of specialists are here to help you with mental health days and other aspects of employee wellbeing, including:

• Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)
• Workplace assessments and risk assessments
• Medical assessments and screenings
• Policy development
• Line management training
• Occupational health referrals
• Ill health case management