Free mental health awareness poster: Know the signs

Support mental health at work with this free printable poster

Early awareness of mental health signs can make a significant difference in your workplace, helping you support colleagues before challenges escalate. By knowing what to look for, business leaders, HR managers and teams can create a safer, more supportive environment for everyone.

This poster is perfect for:

• Office walls and kitchen areas
• Break rooms and shared spaces
• Internal emails and Slack channels

Download the mental health awareness poster now. 

What is included in this mental health awareness poster

The mental health awareness poster is a mental health at work resource designed to help business owners, leaders and HR managers identify early indicators that a member of their team may be struggling. 

It outlines six key behavioural and emotional signs:

• Withdrawn and anti-social: A noticeable decrease in social interaction or engagement.
• Increased absenteeism: Frequent or unexplained absences from work.
• Mood swings or agitation: Sudden changes in mood, irritability or emotional outbursts.
• Struggling to keep up: Difficulty managing workload, prioritising tasks or feeling overwhelmed.
• Changes in appearance: Neglect of personal hygiene or noticeable alterations in appearance.
• Turning up late to work: Consistent lateness, which may indicate underlying issues.

Who is it for

The mental health awareness poster is for business owners, leaders, HR professionals and wellbeing champions who want to create an emotionally safe work environment. The aim is to encourage employees to receive help before challenges escalate. 

It enables business leaders and HR professionals to:

HR Leaders

• Identify early signs of mental health struggles across the organisation.
• Guide policy, process and training alignment with early intervention.
• Embed a culture of care across HR and leadership touchpoints.

Business Leaders

• Ensure wellbeing is embedded in organisational culture and leadership behaviours.
• Demonstrate visible commitment to mental health, encouraging openness across teams.
• Recognise signs of mental health challenges in senior leadership discussions, enabling whole-of-business support.
• Use as a discussion prompt in leadership meetings and town halls to foster transparency and trust.

Workplace Wellbeing Champions 

• Guide consistent observation of team wellbeing.
• Enable early escalation and intervention when concerns are noticed.
• Support a psychologically safe workplace with peer-led care.

How to use this resource in your workplace

If you’re looking to introduce a mental health awareness poster in your workplace, here’s exactly how you can do it. 

Display visibly 

It’s recommended that you display your mental health awareness poster somewhere visible for your entire team, so everyone has access to it. Some good places to pin it up include:

• Kitchen/breakout areas
• Bathroom doors
• Near time clocks or sign-in stations
• Remote working channels (pin in Slack, MS Teams or intranet)

Putting the poster up in any of these places makes it easy to access and provides a gentle prompt without the need for your team to actively seek it out. 

Share in team and leadership channels

In today’s world, a lot of communication happens online, business leaders and HR managers can use this to their advantage when looking to circulate a wellbeing policy. 

Some ways you can do this include: 

• Attach in Slack, MS Teams or email with a note on why it is important.
• Add into onboarding packs for managers and wellbeing champions.
• Share in team meetings or stand-ups as a conversation starter.
  

Incorporate into manager and leader training

For any wellbeing policy to be successful, it needs to become part of your culture. And this needs to come from the top down. Help leaders and managers to embrace a focus on wellbeing by:

• Adding the mental health awareness poster to manager toolkits for performance, wellbeing and 1:1 conversations.
• Use as a case discussion prompt in leadership training on psychological safety.
• Integrate into Mental Health First Aider refreshers or wellbeing champion workshops.

Use as a Conversation Prompt

The mental health awareness poster can be a good way of opening up a conversation. As a business owner or HR manager, encourage line managers to check in if they notice any of the signs of emotional distress. The poster can also be used to help frame wellbeing check-ins as.

Embed in policies and wellbeing calendar

To ensure consistent action and visibility, embed this resource in your policies and workplace wellbeing rhythm.

• Reference in mental health policies, WHS guidelines and HR handbooks to standardise expectations around early intervention.
• Schedule a monthly reminder for teams to review the signs during a stand-up or wellbeing moment.
• Tie in with World Mental Health Day or your internal wellbeing calendar activities to maintain momentum and relevance.

Improve employee wellbeing with Employment Hero

Supporting mental health at work isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s essential for building a team (and a business) that thrives. By being proactive about employee wellbeing, such as using our Know the Signs, you can foster a culture where your team feels safe, supported and empowered to seek help when they need it. 

But Employment Hero is designed to do much more than assist business owners and HR managers with employee wellbeing. Employment Hero’s Employment Operating System takes the traditional isolated aspects of employment and integrates them into a seamless, human and AI-powered solution that empowers employers, employees and job seekers alike. 

Get started with the mental health awareness poster.

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