If you’ve been tasked with organising mental health training for managers and you’re wondering whether to run a pilot session first, this blog post is for you.
Mental health in the workplace is a growing priority, but delivering the right training starts with clarity. Let’s explore when a pilot is valuable and why a training needs analysis might be your best first move.
Do You Always Need to Pilot Mental Health Training?
When planning training for a group of up to 30 managers, my personal view is: You don’t need a pilot session.
What you do need?
A well-thought-out training needs analysis.
Why a Training Needs Analysis Matters
You don’t need anything complicated, a short survey of 6 to 10 thoughtful questions is enough to:
- Uncover your managers’ current knowledge, gaps, and expectations
- Identify specific areas they struggle with (e.g., burnout, listening, boundaries)
- Explore what would make the training a worthwhile investment of their time
- Understand their fears about “getting it wrong” when addressing mental health
- Discover what other training (e.g., coaching or EQ skills) they’ve found helpful
When you understand your managers’ real-world concerns, you’re far more likely to get the content, delivery, and tone right and gain meaningful engagement from the outset.
When Does It Make Sense to Run a Pilot?
Once you’re planning to train more than 30 managers, especially in the hundreds, a pilot session can be a powerful strategic step.
A Pilot Session Helps You:
- Deliver the training to a small cohort (usually 10–20 managers)
- Gather honest feedback on what landed and what didn’t
- Refine and adapt content based on real user experience
- Build advocates who champion the training across the wider team
Real-Life Example: Quorum Software
When we worked with Quorum Software, a global tech company, we ran a pilot training for 20 senior business leaders. The results?
- They loved the training
- They used the tools immediately
- They became vocal supporters inside the company
This buy-in made it easy to roll out the training to over 100 managers, with momentum already built.
The Benefits of Running a Pilot First
- Buy-in from internal champions
- Refinement before large-scale rollout
- Stronger alignment with real-life team needs
- Faster adoption and deeper cultural change
Conclusion: Clarity Leads to Impact
The return on manager mental health training is significant, but only when it’s designed with intention.
Start with a training needs analysis.
Consider a pilot if your manager population is large.
And remember, when managers feel confident, skilled, and supported, they create workplaces where people feel safe, seen, and able to thrive.
Ready to Equip Your Managers with What They Actually Need?
If you’re planning mental health training for managers, we’d love to help you get it right.
Start by downloading our free guide to designing your mental health training for managers.
What’s in it
- The cost lines to pull from your last twelve months of data, so you can put a number on what poor mental health is already costing you before you ask for budget
- Thirteen questions to work through, from whether your organisation is actually ready for this to what happens if you don’t do it
- The one question I ask every client, which is the one most people have never been asked
- Why to get the C-suite involved from the start
- How to measure the impact properly, beyond the evaluation form nobody reads
- An example outline of what a programme can look like
We’ve already done the thinking for you. Download it, work through it, and you’ll have a clear outline for a training programme that actually moves the needle for your managers and your organisation.
No fluff. No 47-step frameworks. Just sharp, practical clarity.
