Mental Health at Work: Mind the Gap

It’s been a life-changing 22 months and we’re not done yet. To paraphrase Michael Corleone, “just when we thought we was out, they pull us back in”. And if that sounds Eeyorish, here’s balance for the boosterish: you’re right, many positive things have happened. It’s not all doom and gloom.  

But here’s another thing we’ve learned since March 2020: some things don’t benefit from balance. Mental health at work is one of these things. You’re either addressing it effectively or you’re not. This mountain will not come to Muhammed. 

The World Health Organisation estimates that 12 billion working days will be lost to mental illness each year to 2030. The cost to the global economy is $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. According to Working on wellbeing: Mental Health and wellness in the UK workplace, a 2021 report from Indeed, the world’s number one job site, most employees described their mental health as being poorer mid-2021 than it was in the first lockdown.  

Women and 18-24-year-olds have been hit hardest, with 60% of 18-24-year-old employees uncomfortable discussing their mental health with their manager. 

Every business should want to fix this because we are all institutions of human beings. It also makes financial sense. Stat attack* incoming.  

Wellbeing initiatives are proven to offset absenteeism and presenteeism. Among FTSE 100 firms, the ones that invested in employee engagement and wellbeing outperformed rival companies by 10%. Four out of five workers claim their wellbeing directly influences how productive they are. 60% of workers say they’d feel more motivated and likely to recommend their firm to a friend if their employer took steps to support mental health. Deloitte research shows a robust wellbeing programme decreases staff turnover. London School of Economics modelling says that a £40,000 wellbeing investment will repay £387,722 to your company in a single year – a return of more than 9-to-1. Not quite insider trading level returns, but not bad. 

Of course, mental health at work is more than a one-and-done investment, which is why we wanted to check on progress across businesses and industries. In the first two weeks of December 2021, GDS Summits asked 600 leaders from banking, data, energy, health, IT and security how they rated their organisation’s mental health support for employees. 72% said ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. And that is brilliant. Only a few years ago, we would not have been having this conversation and everything good starts somewhere.  

But a warning too… We also asked employees. And 63% of them said their organisation offered ‘little to no’ or ‘not much’ mental health support.  

More starkly: 42% of employees say their organisation offers ‘little to no’ mental health support. But only 4% of senior executives agree.  

On one side of the mental health at work divide is a mountain. On the other: Muhammed. And this story only ends one way. Whether you believe in the great resignation, more pragmatically in the great reshuffle, or think it’s all a great kerfuffle, mountains don’t move. In 2022, Muhammed must walk the walk. 

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We think mental health at work is vital. We’ll be talking with Indeed’s Mikaela Elliott about it in our podcast, Strategy for Breakfast and following this discussion across all GDS Summits in 2022. Please follow and/or subscribe for updates. 

*All stats from Working on wellbeing: Mental Health and wellness in the UK workplace, a 2021 report from Indeed. 

GRAPHICS 

How do you rate your organisation’s mental health support for its employees? 

Little to no support 

1. LinkedIn – 42%
2. D&A – 11%
3. Energy – 8%
4. Security – 5%
5. Health – 0%
6. Banking – 0%
7. CIO – 0% 

Doing something but not much 

1. Energy – 35%
2. Health – 34%
3. Security – 29%
4. Banking – 24%
5. LinkedIn – 21%
6. CIO – 18%
7. D&A – 6%

Good but could be better 

1. Security – 57%
2. CIO – 45%
3. D&A – 39%
4. Health – 38%
5. Banking – 29%
6. Energy – 25%
7. LinkedIn – 22%

Excellent 

1. Banking – 47%
2. D&A – 44%
3. CIO – 36%
4. Energy – 33%
5. Health – 28%
6. LinkedIn – 15%
7. Security – 10%