Are you offering your staff the mental health support they need?
Mental health issues have been an ongoing problem for workers long before the current pandemic. Research conducted prior to COVID-19 found that one in five working adults report that they’ve taken time off due to feeling stressed, anxious, depressed or mentally unhealthy in the past 12 months[i].
When you add into the mix extra challenges like working from home, being socially distanced from support networks, the physical health threat, job insecurity and home-schooling, it's no surprise that people are feeling more stressed and anxious than before. New research on the mental health impacts of COVID-19 backs this up, with preliminary results out of Monash University suggesting that majority of participants surveyed registered mild levels of anxiety and depression and about 30% showed moderate to high levels.
Whilst businesses are aware that mental illness is a worldwide problem, many fail to understand the impact it is having on their employees and the way they show up to work. This disconnect results in mental health and wellbeing programs that ‘tick a box’ rather than those which provide meaningful change.
This is evidenced by the fact that 81% of organisational leaders say that their business has mental health supports available but 35% of employees don’t know these exist or they don’t have access to them.[ii] On top of this, researchers have noted that there is a trend for businesses to provide a stripped back version of employee assistance programs which are not very effective, with under 2% of staff using the service. [iii]
These approaches may have been almost adequate in the past, but as we approach an impending mental health crisis due to the impacts of COVID-19, recognising and supporting the mental health of the workplace will be key to business success. A good question to start asking now is whether your organisation will flourish or flounder as move into the next working phase.
Now more than ever there is a strong case to invest in meaningful wellbeing programs that go beyond the surface level and ‘tick a box’ programs. Absenteeism and presenteeism (being at work but performing at less than usual capacity due to illness) cost businesses billions each year. In Australia alone absenteeism costs 4.7 billion each year and presenteeism costs 6.1 billion. [iv]
Where businesses do invest in mental health and wellbeing programs properly, they reap the rewards. One study that implemented a wellbeing program found that for every 1 point increase in wellbeing there was a 3.6% decrease in presenteeism and a 3.5% decrease in absenteeism. On top of this, every one point increase in wellbeing led to a 5.2% increase in job performance. [v] So not only does improving wellbeing lead to more present workers, they also find it easier to do their job well. This is likely why for every dollar spent on employee mental health and wellbeing programs, research has shown that employers can expect to see a return on investment of $2.30. [vi]
It is completely normal for employees to be experiencing increased stress and anxiety in the current time. However, it is an opportunity to invest in mental health the right way and to emerge from the current crisis stronger, with flourishing individuals and flourishing communities.
[i] TNS & Beyondblue (2014). State of Workplace Mental Health in Australia
[ii] TNS & Beyondblue (2014). State of Workplace Mental Health in Australia
[iii] Attridge, M. (2019). A global perspective on promoting workplace mental health and the role of employee assistance programs.
[iv] PricewaterhouseCoopers (2014) Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace; Return on Investment Analysis
[v] Hamar, B., Coberley, C., Pope, J. E., & Rula, E. Y. (2015). Well-being improvement in a midsize employer: Changes in well-being, productivity, health risk, and perceived employer support after implementation of a well-being improvement strategy. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(4), 367–373. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000433
[vi] PricewaterhouseCoopers (2014) Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace; Return on Investment Analysis