Mental Health & Resilience
Leadership Development
Physical Wellbeing
Workplace CultureManager mental health training: support the people who support your team
Managers are often the first to notice when a team member isn’t coping. They are frequently unsure about what to do next. They worry about saying the wrong thing, overstepping, or taking on a role they aren’t trained for. Manager Mental Health Training provides a clear, practical framework for responding early, appropriately, and with confidence.
This is the manager-specific companion to HSG’s Workplace Mental Health Training for all staff. The training is delivered onsite across Australia and virtually nationwide, as well as across Asia-Pacific. It is one of HSG’s most requested leadership programs and is directly relevant to psychosocial risk obligations under amended Australian WHS Regulations.
Tell us what your team needs
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No obligation. We respond to all enquiries within 12 hours.
The cost of leaving managers unprepared
When managers don’t know how to respond to early signs of mental ill-health, issues escalate further into the system and into more expensive outcomes. Mental health condition claims now account for 12% of all serious workers’ compensation claims in Australia, up from 6.5% a decade ago (Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2025).
Managers carry disproportionate weight in this. Research consistently identifies managers as the single largest workplace influence on employee mental health, and Gallup attributes 70% of the variance in team engagement to the manager (State of the Global Workplace 2024). Building the right manager capability is no longer a discretionary investment. It is part of how Australian organisations meet their psychosocial risk obligations.
Manager capability for early mental health response is now a documented psychosocial risk control under Australian WHS Regulations, not just a wellbeing nice-to-have.
See: psychosocial hazards and the role of managers in workplace safety
Who this is for
Manager Mental Health Training is for people leaders at every level, including new and emerging managers, experienced leaders seeking a structured approach to mental health conversations, senior leaders and executives accountable for psychosocial risk, and managers of remote, hybrid, or distributed teams. HR and People & Culture professionals who coach managers through sensitive cases will also find value.
Programs can be delivered to leadership cohorts, mixed manager groups, or as part of a leadership development pathway.
This is not clinical training. Managers are not expected to diagnose, treat, or counsel. The program is specifically designed to focus on the manager’s responsibilities: noticing, communicating promptly, and directing staff to appropriate support.
What the training covers
HSG delivers Manager Mental Health Training as a 60 to 90 minute interactive workshop, with extended half-day formats available. Sessions are tailored to your industry, leadership cohort, and organisational context before delivery. Core content includes:
- Recognising early signs of mental distress in a team member: behavioural, emotional, and performance indicators
- How to initiate a supportive conversation without overstepping into clinical territory
- Handling disclosure: what to say, what not to say, what stays confidential, and what doesn’t
- Connecting staff to the right internal and external resources: EAP, GP, specialist support
- Managing the manager’s own wellbeing and emotional load
- The manager’s role under amended Australian psychosocial risk regulations
Sessions can be combined with Psychological Safety for Leaders to build the cultural foundations that make mental health conversations possible, and with Difficult Conversations Training for the broader skill of leading sensitive conversations of all kinds.
What managers leave with
By the end of the session, participants will have a practical framework for:
- Recognising early signs that a team member may be struggling
- Starting a supportive conversation without trying to diagnose or counsel
- Knowing what to document, escalate, or refer
- Responding appropriately when someone discloses a mental health concern
- Supporting their own wellbeing while managing sensitive conversations
Outcomes
Direct measurable outcomes HSG reports after delivery:
- Attendance and completion rates
- Participant-reported confidence in recognising distress and initiating conversations
- Manager observations on subsequent practice
- Repeat bookings for follow-up cohorts
Business-aligned outcomes the training is designed to support:
- Earlier, more confident manager intervention before concerns escalate
- Stronger psychological safety in led teams
- Documented manager capability as part of your psychosocial risk framework
- Improved retention in teams led by trained managers
From organisations that have run the program
Lisa Ticehurst picked out Merv Neal, who was fantastic. In a room full of regional males, Merv had his work cut out for him — yet every single person was engaged throughout, and multiple employees approached him afterwards for further insight into mental health. The feedback was that this session was the highlight of the day, and it’s given employees the confidence to open up and talk about mental health.
Grant Fletcher
Vinidex
Why HSG
Holistic Services Group has delivered workplace wellbeing programs across Australia since 2003. Manager Mental Health Training is delivered by specialist facilitators with credentials in mental health, psychology, and adult education. These facilitators are not generalist trainers: sessions draw on evidence-based methodologies, including motivational interviewing, positive psychology, and neuroscience-informed leadership practice.
HSG has delivered programs to organisations including Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, KPMG, the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Defence, and more than 1,600 other organisations across Australia.
Manager Mental Health Training sits within HSG’s broader Leadership Development pillar and can form part of a documented psychosocial risk management framework. HSG responds to all enquiries within 12 hours.
Frequently asked questions
The standard format is a 60 to 90 minute interactive workshop. Extended half-day formats are available where deeper scenario practice or integration with your psychosocial risk framework is required. Sessions are delivered onsite across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, and regional areas nationally, and virtually nationwide and across Asia-Pacific. Virtual delivery is well-suited to distributed leadership cohorts.
Yes. HSG works with you before delivery to understand your industry, leadership cohort, the specific challenges your managers face, and any current organisational context. Scenarios used in the session reflect situations your managers actually encounter.
The median time off work for an accepted mental health workers’ compensation claim is 35.7 weeks, nearly five times the median for all serious claims of 7.4 weeks (Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2025). The cost and duration of these cases are among the strongest arguments for building manager capability to identify and respond to concerns early.
HSG reports back on attendance, participant confidence, capability ratings, and repeat enrolment. The training is designed to support earlier, more confident manager intervention, stronger psychological safety in led teams, and documented manager capability within your psychosocial risk framework. Our experience shows that outcomes are strongest when the training is delivered to whole manager cohorts and reinforced as part of an ongoing leadership development calendar.
Yes. EAPs and awareness sessions are reactive and general: support for those who have already reached out and education for the workforce at large. Manager training is proactive and role-specific. It builds the skill of noticing earlier, opening the conversation, and handling disclosure appropriately. Since April 2023, Australian employers have been required to manage psychosocial hazards using higher-order controls, including supervision and management practices (Safe Work Australia, Model Code of Practice). Awareness and EAPs alone do not meet that obligation. Most HSG clients run all three (manager training, all-staff awareness, and an EAP) as complementary layers.
Manager Mental Health Training is for any team leader, manager, or executive with direct people-management responsibility. Common cohorts include new and emerging managers, experienced people leaders, senior leaders accountable for psychosocial risk, and managers of hybrid or distributed teams. The program also suits HR and People & Culture professionals who coach line managers through sensitive cases.
Equip your managers to respond with confidence
Your managers do not need to become mental health experts. They need a clear framework, practical language, and the confidence to know what their role is and what it is not.
We respond to all enquiries within 12 hours.
Call us: 1300 889 073
Trusted by 1,600+ organisations across Australia and Asia-Pacific
Supporting corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors
HSG has supported more than 1,600 organisations across corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors, including Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, BHP, the Department of Defence, St Vincent’s, the University of Sydney, Deakin University, The Smith Family and headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation.
Start the conversation
More than 1,600 organisations have trusted HSG to deliver practical workplace wellbeing programs across Australia. Tell us what your team needs, and we’ll help you identify the right next step.
We respond to all enquiries within 12 hours.