Leadership for Workplace Wellbeing Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Line Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-209

Before you join: Participants should have experience leading people, supervising work, managing projects or advising managers on people matters.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Leaders influence wellbeing through the work they design, the priorities they set, the conversations they hold and the conduct they tolerate. Poorly managed workload, unclear roles, constant change, conflict, isolation and weak speaking-up arrangements can create psychosocial risks long before absence or formal complaints appear. Leaders need practical ways to spot these conditions, address them fairly and involve the right specialists without attempting to become clinicians.

This course equips managers and leaders to build healthier working conditions and lead a credible culture of wellbeing. Participants assess psychosocial risks using the HSE Management Standards and ISO 45003 principles; apply the Job Demands-Resources model to workload and job design; conduct supportive wellbeing conversations; manage confidentiality and escalation; and create team norms that support recovery, inclusion and psychological safety. The course also addresses wellbeing during organisational change, remote and hybrid work, return-to-work planning, and the responsible use of workforce data.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings, realistic cases, facilitated group analysis, conversation simulations and structured planning. Cases reflect situations such as sustained overtime in a bank operations team, conflict following public-sector restructuring, burnout risk in a project delivery unit and isolation among remote technical staff. Participants leave with a practical 90-day wellbeing leadership action plan, a psychosocial risk-register template, team charter prompts and measures for tracking progress. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course is suited to operational, people and project leaders who are accountable for team performance and working conditions, and who need to translate organisational wellbeing commitments into day-to-day management practice.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose psychosocial hazards using HSE Management Standards domains and a risk-register format
  • Redesign workload, role clarity, control and team routines using the Job Demands-Resources model
  • Conduct supportive wellbeing conversations while maintaining confidentiality and appropriate escalation boundaries
  • Apply psychological safety behaviours to improve speaking up, challenge and constructive conflict
  • Plan wellbeing protections during organisational change, restructuring and remote or hybrid working
  • Measure wellbeing interventions through leading indicators, pulse data and balanced scorecards
  • Create a team wellbeing charter with behavioural norms, ownership and review arrangements
  • Produce a 90-day wellbeing leadership action plan with milestones, measures and governance

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence addressing workload strain before it becomes absence or conflict
  • A repeatable structure for sensitive wellbeing and return-to-work conversations
  • Clearer judgement on confidentiality, documentation, referral and escalation decisions
  • Practical methods for protecting personal recovery while leading demanding teams
  • A credible 90-day plan for improving conditions within the participant's area of control

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification and control of psychosocial risks affecting performance and retention
  • More consistent manager responses to stress, absence, adjustments and employee concerns
  • Better workload prioritisation, role clarity and recovery practices in high-pressure teams
  • Stronger speaking-up culture and earlier resolution of conflict or harmful conduct
  • Usable wellbeing measures linked to people, operational, safety and customer outcomes

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain their leadership responsibilities for wellbeing and distinguish work-related risks from individual health needs.

  • Distinguishing wellbeing, mental health, psychosocial safety and organisational culture
  • Leader accountabilities under duty-of-care, health-and-safety and employment obligations
  • Business impacts measured through absence, turnover, presenteeism, incidents and performance
  • Job Demands-Resources model linking work design to strain and engagement
  • PERMA model used to distinguish flourishing from short-term morale
  • Separating individual support needs from preventable system-level work factors
  • Confidentiality boundaries when discussing employee health information and personal circumstances

Participants can identify, assess and prioritise psychosocial risks using structured evidence and documented controls.

  • HSE Management Standards domains: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change
  • ISO 45003 principles for psychosocial risk management within occupational health systems
  • Risk-register entries specifying hazard, exposed groups, controls, owner and review date
  • Combining workforce data, listening methods and operational observations without false precision
  • Segmenting risks by role, location, workload cycle and protected characteristics
  • Leading indicators: overtime, workload volatility, conflict reports and control gaps
  • Escalation thresholds for serious concerns, safeguarding issues and urgent clinical referral

Participants can improve job design, workload controls and team routines to reduce avoidable strain.

  • Workload mapping identifies peak demand, handoffs, bottlenecks and unrecoverable overtime
  • Role-clarity conversations define priorities, decision rights, interfaces and success measures
  • SMARTER objectives prevent conflicting priorities and hidden after-hours expectations
  • RACI matrices clarify accountability during change, incidents and cross-functional delivery
  • Control redesign increases discretion over pacing, methods, sequencing and breaks
  • Meeting audits remove low-value commitments and protect focused recovery periods
  • Boundary agreements cover availability, response times, leave and remote-work norms

Participants can create conditions for candid discussion, respectful challenge and early resolution of concerns.

  • Psychological safety distinguishes candid challenge from lowered performance standards
  • Edmondson's framing, invitation and response behaviours structure inclusive team dialogue
  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, open questions, summarising and accurate silence
  • Supportive check-ins separate observation, impact, inquiry, agreement and follow-up
  • Nonviolent Communication distinguishes observations, feelings, needs and requests during tension
  • Microaggression responses address impact, boundaries, repair and documented escalation
  • Trauma-informed principles: safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration and cultural humility

Participants can respond appropriately to emerging wellbeing concerns, agree adjustments and refer cases safely.

  • Recognising changes in behaviour, attendance, quality, conflict and withdrawal
  • Structured supportive conversations connect, acknowledge, respond and agree next steps
  • Fact-based notes distinguish observed work impacts from clinical interpretation
  • Reasonable-adjustment discussions identify barriers, options, review points and confidentiality limits
  • Signposting routes include occupational health, EAP, HR, unions and emergency services
  • Suicide-concern response follows direct questioning, immediate safety actions and escalation
  • Return-to-work plans sequence workload, adjustments, check-ins and review evidence

Participants can protect wellbeing during change by reducing uncertainty, involving teams and managing transition demands.

  • Change-impact assessments identify uncertainty, workload shifts, losses and affected groups
  • ADKAR stages inform communication, capability building, reinforcement and resistance responses
  • Consultation plans specify what is fixed, influenceable, confidential and undecided
  • Fair-process principles explain decisions, give voice and show respectful treatment
  • Manager cascades translate strategic change into local priorities and protections
  • Recovery capacity planned through transition milestones, staffing buffers and decision pauses
  • Remote and hybrid protocols prevent isolation, proximity bias and digital overload

Participants can manage their own wellbeing risks and model sustainable leadership behaviours for their teams.

  • Stress-contagion mechanisms connect leader behaviour, emotional climate and team norms
  • Personal warning-sign inventory tracks sleep, irritability, attention, workload and recovery
  • Energy-management plan protects breaks, focus time, relationships and physical activity
  • Implementation intentions convert wellbeing commitments into cue-based actions
  • Peer-support agreements establish challenge, confidentiality, escalation and accountability
  • Role-modelling of boundaries makes leave, recovery and help-seeking visible
  • Ethical self-disclosure balances authenticity, authority and employees' psychological safety

Participants can embed wellbeing into team norms, recognition, speaking-up arrangements and leadership routines.

  • Culture diagnosis compares stated values, incentives, rituals and everyday leader choices
  • Team charter sets behavioural norms for workload, meetings, conflict and inclusion
  • Recognition practices reinforce effort, learning, contribution and fair workload distribution
  • Speak-up channels protect anonymity, non-retaliation, response standards and feedback loops
  • Wellbeing champions complement rather than replace management accountability and specialist care
  • Supplier and contractor interfaces address psychosocial risks in extended workforces
  • Equity review tests whether wellbeing practices reach shift, remote and contingent workers

Participants can select proportionate measures, interpret wellbeing data and review intervention effectiveness.

  • Logic models link interventions, outputs, outcomes and intended business benefits
  • Balanced scorecards combine wellbeing, people, operational, safety and customer measures
  • Baseline measures establish comparison periods, population segments and data-quality checks
  • Pulse survey design uses concise items, anonymity thresholds and response protocols
  • Absence and turnover analysis separates signals from normal variation and confounders
  • Data governance defines access, retention, aggregation and reporting safeguards
  • Review cycles test intervention effects, unintended consequences and control effectiveness

Participants can produce an owned, measured and time-bound plan for improving workplace wellbeing.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies sponsors, affected groups, specialists and decision-makers
  • Prioritisation matrix weighs risk severity, reach, feasibility, cost and ownership
  • 90-day action plan assigns actions, milestones, measures, resources and dependencies
  • Communication plan tailors messages for executives, managers, employees and representatives
  • Manager commitments specify observable behaviours, routines and escalation responsibilities
  • Governance cadence reviews risk data, progress barriers and adjustment decisions
  • Personal application plan translates course methods into first-week leadership actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Psychosocial risk-register template
  2. Wellbeing conversation guide
  3. Team wellbeing charter template
  4. Workload and recovery review checklist
  5. Wellbeing balanced scorecard model
  6. 90-day wellbeing leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — accountable for performance, culture and operational risk across multiple teams
  • Line Managers — responsible for workload, team climate and early support conversations
  • HR Business Partners — advising leaders on people risk, adjustments and wellbeing interventions
  • Project and Programme Managers — managing sustained delivery pressure, change and cross-functional demands
  • Health, Safety and Wellbeing Managers — integrating psychosocial risk controls with leadership practice
  • Operational Team Leaders — setting daily priorities, staffing patterns and team working norms

Skills and tools covered

Psychosocial risk assessmentSupportive leadership conversationsWorkload designPsychological safetyWellbeing measurementCulture change planning

Tools and standards

HSE Management Standards, ISO 45003, Job Demands-Resources model, PERMA model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce frameworks, standards and leadership methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises and facilitated discussion. Participants assess realistic psychosocial risk scenarios, practise supportive conversations, review workload and team-culture evidence, and make decisions on escalation and adjustments. Simulations focus on manager judgement rather than clinical intervention. Each participant builds and tests elements of a workplace wellbeing action plan, receiving peer and instructor feedback before finalising priorities, measures and review arrangements.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience leading people, supervising work, managing projects or advising managers on people matters. They should be familiar with their organisation's basic HR, health and safety, absence-management or employee-assistance arrangements. No clinical mental health qualification, counselling training, occupational health expertise or prior knowledge of ISO 45003 is required. Participants do not need to disclose personal health information or bring confidential employee cases. The course focuses on leadership responsibilities, work design, early support and appropriate referral rather than diagnosis or treatment.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have experience managing people, projects, operations or people-related advice. Clinical mental health training and prior knowledge of occupational health standards are not required.

Bring a non-confidential example of a team wellbeing, workload, change or culture issue you want to address. Participants should not bring identifiable health records, medical details or sensitive employee case files.

It is designed for line managers, senior managers, HR business partners, project leaders and health, safety or wellbeing professionals. It is particularly relevant to leaders managing sustained workload pressure, organisational change or dispersed teams.

Mental health awareness courses commonly focus on recognising possible distress and signposting support. This course concentrates on leadership conduct, psychosocial risk controls, workload design, team culture and the management systems that shape wellbeing.

Participants use course methods to assess a live work-related issue, such as excessive overtime, unclear priorities or low speaking-up confidence. They leave with practical templates and a 90-day action plan for their own team or function.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The five days cover ten modules through instructor input, cases, group work, simulations and structured application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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