Mental Health in Construction: What Companies Get Wrong

There is a construction company somewhere with a mental health policy on its shared drive, a poster in the canteen, an employee assistance programme mentioned during induction and a few people who have completed awareness training. On paper, it may look as though most of the right areas are covered.

But if somebody on one of its sites admitted today that they were struggling, would they know who to speak to and trust what happens next? Would they be given time and privacy, or would they worry that they have damaged their reputation by making themselves vulnerable?

That gap between what a company offers and what its people actually experience is where many well-intended approaches begin to fall apart.

This is not an argument that construction companies do not care. I have met plenty of leaders who care deeply about their people while dealing with demanding programmes, tight margins, difficult clients and workforces spread across multiple projects. The problem is often not the intention. It is that mental health becomes a collection of activities rather than part of how the company works.

A talk is booked, a helpline shared and people encouraged to speak up. Each action may help, but nobody looks closely enough at what happens before somebody struggles, what makes it safe to speak and what the organisation will do afterwards.

I have worked as an electrician, managed people, run my own business and spoken openly about my mental health. What I have learnt is that there is rarely one grand solution. Useful progress comes when companies look beyond appearances, listen without becoming defensive and continue the quieter work after the awareness day has finished.

Getting Mental Health in Construction Right Is Not About Looking Perfect

The title is deliberately direct, but the point is not to shame companies. Construction can provide purpose, pride, friendship and the satisfaction of seeing what you have helped to build. At its best, it creates teams that look after one another with a loyalty that is difficult to manufacture.

It also has pressures that need to be taken seriously: early starts, long journeys, changing projects, uncertain work, physical tiredness, client demands and programmes with little room for delay. Some mental health difficulties have little to do with work; others may be made worse by it. Often, work and life become tangled together.

An employer cannot control everything happening in somebody’s life, diagnose a mental health condition or promise that nobody in the business will ever struggle. What it can do is reduce avoidable work-related risks, respond properly when concerns are raised and create clear routes towards appropriate support.

The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on work-related stress is helpful here because it moves the conversation beyond wellbeing perks. It asks employers to consider six areas of work design: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. That gives companies something more useful to examine than whether they held a mental health event this year.

Mistake One: Starting With an Activity Before Understanding the Problem

One of the easiest mistakes is beginning with the answer. A company decides it needs a speaker, workshop or wellbeing week before asking what its people are experiencing.

Imagine a project team that appears disengaged and irritable. The immediate conclusion might be that people need resilience training, when the real issue is changing instructions, an aggressive client or an unrealistic programme. Personal coping strategies cannot correct a planning or management problem.

The first step should be curiosity. Are the same concerns appearing in absence, near misses, staff surveys or conversations with supervisors? Are employees, agency workers and subcontractors having different experiences? Most importantly, do people believe anything will happen if they are honest?

Listening does not mean granting every request. It means understanding the problem before choosing the response. A focused construction mental health workshop can explore a particular subject, while a lived-experience keynote speaker may create connection and start a wider conversation. Both can be valuable when the organisation knows what it wants the session to do.

Mistake Two: Treating Every Problem as an Individual Resilience Issue

Helping people look after themselves matters, and professional support may be useful at different times. The problem begins when every difficult situation is handed back to the individual.

If somebody is exhausted because responsibility has increased but time and resources have not, the answer cannot only be better breathing or a lunchtime walk. If a site manager receives hostile calls from a client every evening, resilience training leaves the cause untouched. If a worker is humiliated in front of the team, offering an app without addressing the behaviour avoids the harder issue.

Sometimes the support belongs with the person. Sometimes the change belongs with the work. Often, both are needed.

HSE says employers have a legal duty to assess and act on work-related stress risks. That makes stress something to understand and manage, not simply a private weakness for each worker to solve. A good approach asks what may help the person today and whether anything about the work needs to change.

That may mean clearer roles, more realistic priorities, support during a difficult project or a proper conversation about hours and workload. Commercial reality cannot be ignored, but difficulty is not a reason to avoid the question.

Mistake Three: Telling People to Speak Up Without Building Trust

“It’s okay to talk” is a familiar workplace message. I believe in it, but saying it is the easy part. The harder part is giving people a reason to believe it.

Workers notice what happens to the first person who speaks. If the concern becomes gossip, they are treated differently or nothing happens, the rest of the team learns from it. Trust is built less by a poster and more by ordinary responses over time.

Privacy matters too. A conversation in a canteen, site office or van where others can hear is not the same as a suitable space. Managers must be honest about confidentiality and when information may need to be shared. Acas guidance on talking about mental health at work supports private conversations and makes clear that workers decide how much to share. The Information Commissioner’s Office guidance for employers explains how workers’ health information should be handled.

Not everybody will speak to their direct manager. Other routes may include HR, occupational health, an employee assistance programme, a trade union representative or an external provider. Workers need to know what each route offers and what happens next.

Mistake Four: Giving Managers Responsibility Without Enough Support

Companies often tell managers to notice signs, check in and encourage people to talk. That sounds reasonable until a supervisor sits opposite somebody in distress and realises they do not know what to say or where their role ends.

Managers do not need to become counsellors. Their role is to notice changes, make space for a conversation, listen without diagnosing, understand any immediate safety concern, explain the available routes and follow the company’s procedure.

That requires more than one course and naming somebody as the mental health person for an entire project. Managers need a clear process, current contacts, time for conversations and somewhere to seek advice. They also need support with their own pressure; responsibility for a team does not make them less human.

If a supervisor is told to prioritise wellbeing but is judged entirely on output and never has time to speak privately, the company is sending two conflicting messages.

Mistake Five: Assuming One Message Will Work for Everybody

Construction is not one audience. A director, apprentice, self-employed tradesperson, site manager, estimator and worker living away from home may all hear the same message differently.

A lengthy presentation may suit a leadership team but not people waiting to start a shift. One of Onward Shift’s free mental health toolbox talks for construction companies may suit a site team, while a workshop gives managers time to explore a difficult issue.

Access matters too. Does everybody know the employee assistance programme exists? Can subcontractors use it? Can somebody find the details privately, in plain English, and outside normal office hours?

There is no single “construction personality” either. Some people connect with lived experience; others prefer practical information or a private conversation. A mentally healthier workplace does not require everybody to tell colleagues their most personal experiences. Nobody should be pressed to disclose a diagnosis, bereavement, addiction or suicidal thoughts in a group. Good workplace mental health presentations create room for reflection without demanding a confession. Onward Shift’s free construction mental health resources offer different starting points because one route will never suit everybody. Openness is an invitation, not an instruction.

Mistake Six: Relying on a One-Off Awareness Day

Awareness days can help companies pause and discuss subjects that might otherwise be avoided. The mistake is expecting one date to carry the whole approach.

If a speaker visits in May but the topic then disappears, the message is unlikely to become part of everyday work. The same applies when a policy is emailed once and forgotten. Acas recommends sharing and reviewing mental health policies regularly and using them in management training and induction.

Continuity does not require a major monthly event. It can mean short toolbox conversations, visible support routes, proper check-ins and people hearing what changed after they offered feedback. The aim is not to talk about mental health constantly, but to stop the conversation disappearing when the campaign ends.

Mistake Seven: Saying the Right Thing While Rewarding the Opposite

People notice what leaders tolerate and reward. A company may say nobody should suffer in silence, but what happens when somebody admits they are overloaded? Are priorities reviewed, or are they told everybody is busy? Is an aggressive manager still celebrated because the project performs?

Not every deadline can move, and construction will always involve demanding periods. There is a difference between temporary pressure that is acknowledged and managed, and permanent overload becoming normal.

Leaders build credibility when actions match the message. That may mean challenging humiliating behaviour from a valuable individual, involving workers in change and explaining difficult decisions honestly. Senior leaders do not need to perform vulnerability; they need to show that respect, support and honest feedback carry weight when decisions are made.

Mistake Eight: Waiting Until Somebody Reaches Crisis Point

Workplace mental health is sometimes discussed almost entirely through crisis and suicide. Those conversations matter, and employers need clear procedures for serious concerns. HSE provides specific workplace suicide-prevention guidance, including action employers can take to reduce the risk of work contributing to suicidal distress.

But support should not begin at crisis point. Somebody may have stopped sleeping, feel constantly angry, be grieving or have lost confidence. They do not have to wait until everything collapses before a conversation becomes valid.

Different needs require different routes. Counselling through Onward Shift offers confidential professional support for adults exploring difficult thoughts, feelings or experiences. Coaching may suit an adult working towards goals, confidence or practical change. Neither replaces emergency or clinical care, and companies should not present all support as interchangeable.

Support routes need to be visible before somebody needs them. If workers hear about the EAP only after going off sick, an earlier opportunity has been missed.

Mistake Nine: Measuring What Was Delivered Rather Than What Changed

It is easy to count attendance, training certificates, posters distributed and events held. Those numbers have value, but they do not tell a company whether people trust the support, whether managers feel better equipped or whether a known source of pressure has been addressed.

Evaluation can be simple. Did the session suit the audience? Do workers know where to go? Are managers clearer about their role? Did the organisation hear anything requiring action, and was that action communicated?

Confidentiality must be protected. The purpose is to learn whether the approach is useful, not turn private experiences into a dashboard.

An initiative that did not connect is not a failure if the company learns from it. The bigger problem is repeating it because it is easy to report while the experience of work remains unchanged.

What a More Useful Approach Can Look Like

A credible approach need not be flashy, and smaller firms should not feel they must copy a national contractor’s infrastructure. The scale differs, but the basic questions still apply.

Understand the workforce and its pressures. Involve people who do the work, because they often see problems and practical answers that a central office misses. Look separately at work-related risks, individual support and crisis procedures rather than asking one initiative to cover all three.

Give managers a realistic role and straightforward process. Tell workers what support exists, who can use it and how confidentiality works. Match talks, workshops and resources to the need, then follow up and explain what has or has not changed.

Reasonable adjustments may be part of the conversation. Under the Equality Act 2010, employers have duties in relation to disabled workers, and Acas provides guidance on mental health adjustments. Adjustments are individual; the starting point is a conversation about the barrier and what may reduce it.

None of this creates a perfect workplace. There will still be commercial pressure, difficult periods, mistakes and people whose mental health changes for reasons the company could never have prevented. A good employer is not one that promises to remove every struggle. It is one that takes preventable work-related harm seriously, responds consistently and helps people find the right support when life becomes difficult.

Mental Health Support Has to Be Felt, Not Just Offered

When companies ask me what they should do about mental health, there is often an understandable hope that I can point to one talk, course or service. Those things can absolutely help. A lived-experience story can reach somebody who has ignored every poster. A specialist workshop can give managers practical knowledge. A toolbox talk can create a conversation between people who would never attend a formal wellbeing session. One-to-one support can give somebody the space they cannot find at work.

But none of them can carry the whole responsibility.

The most important test is not how much a company can say it offers. It is what happens on an ordinary Tuesday morning when a worker says, “I’m not doing very well.” Are they listened to? Does the person hearing it know what to do? Is the concern handled carefully? Is there somewhere appropriate to go next? And if work is part of the problem, is the company prepared to look at that too?

That is where a mental health commitment becomes real.

Onward Shift supports construction organisations through specialist workshops and presentations, lived-experience speakers, practical toolbox talks and free resources. The aim is not to sell companies a perfect answer. It is to help them understand what their people need, choose support that fits and start conversations that can continue after the session ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do construction companies get wrong about mental health?

The most common problem is treating mental health as a set of separate activities rather than part of everyday working life. A policy, talk or helpline may all be useful, but they are less effective when workers do not trust the process, managers lack guidance or work-related causes of stress remain unaddressed.

Is mental health awareness training enough for a construction company?

No single session can meet every need. Awareness training may improve understanding and confidence, but it should sit alongside clear support routes, capable management, suitable policies, attention to work-related stress risks and follow-up action. The right approach will depend on the organisation and its workforce.

Are construction managers expected to deal with employees’ mental health problems?

Managers should be able to hold a supportive conversation, understand their company’s process, consider workplace support and signpost appropriately. They are not expected to diagnose conditions or act as therapists. They need clear boundaries, training and access to advice when a situation is beyond their role.

How can a construction company encourage people to speak up?

Trust grows when concerns are handled privately, consistently and without judgement. Companies should offer more than one route, explain confidentiality honestly, make support information easy to find and show through everyday decisions that asking for help will be taken seriously. Nobody should be pressured to share personal information publicly.

What is the best first step for improving mental health in construction?

Begin by listening. Understand the pressures affecting different parts of the workforce, review how work-related stress is being managed and check whether current support is known, accessible and trusted. Once the actual need is clearer, the company can choose training, workshops, talks, resources or professional support that fit it.