In 2017/18 in the UK over 15.4 million working days were missed due to stress, anxiety or depression – whereas migraines and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for only 6.6 million missed working days – costing businesses up to £1,035 per employee.
Despite increased awareness of mental ill health and the topic being more talked about than ever before, this Mental Health Awareness Week Claudia Cooney, lead director at RightTrack Learning, argues that the UK still faces a significant challenge in changing the perception and management of mental health at work.
Claudia explains: “It’s counterintuitive to talk about mental health separately to physical health – when both are integral to our wellbeing. Over the last year 61% of employees have experienced mental ill health where work was a related factor, and one in six of these workers were prescribed anti-depressants.
“If you ask a colleague how they are, you are far more likely to hear ‘Ok but my back’s playing up’ or ‘I’ve got a splitting headache’, than ‘I’m feeling so overwhelmed I sat in the car at lunch and cried’ or ‘much better since I started taking anti-depressants’.”
Despite the efforts of a series of hard-working mental health charities and advocacy from government, celebrities and the royal family, the statistics around the impact of poor mental health are still damning:
- Suicide remains the leading cause of death among young people aged 20-34 years in the UK
- UK has the highest self-harm rate of any European country
- Just 13% of employees would be comfortable talking about mental ill health at work
- Up to 300,000 people with mental ill health lose their jobs each year
- Last year, mental ill health cost the UK economy £94 billion
In order to help companies across the UK become more inclusive and deal with mental health at work proactively, RightTrack Learning recommends three key areas where businesses should take action:
Take it from the top
Businesses are commercial entities and time and money are precious resources that need to be allocated carefully. But there are enough stats to build a business case to present to the board and, without much digging, you can find further evidence of the importance of taking action. This includes case studies from Transport for London and the University of Surrey which demonstrate the impact a real commitment and focus can have on reducing absence and increasing employee engagement and productivity.
In order to shift perception, change cultures and make a real difference that impacts individuals as well as businesses, improving mental health and employee wellbeing needs to be part of the central business strategy. If it helps, wrap it up in ‘Equality, Diversity & Inclusion’, but you need buy-in from the top, a clear plan and champions to drive it forward.
Invest and integrate
There is a clear call across all literature for businesses to implement training. First and foremost, managers need to know how to spot the signs of someone struggling and know what to do. But it needs to go beyond Mental Health First Aiders and understanding legislation:
- Make policies and procedures practical, accessible and understood by all, and ensure everyone understands what reasonable adjustments can be provided to remove the barriers faced by staff with mental health issues
- Make training such as Mental Health Awareness, Resilience, Stress Management, Time Management, Inclusive Leadership, Having Difficult Conversations and Mindfulness ‘need to haves’ not just ‘nice to haves’
- Thread Mental Health and Wellbeing through all training, particularly Management & Leadership programmes and Diversity & Inclusion initiatives
- Equip managers with toolkits of conversation starters and awareness sessions to use with their teams to keep wellbeing on the agenda and help normalise conversations about mental health
- Focus on practical ways to change the culture of and eliminate, for example, people eating at their desks and not taking breaks, or working during annual leave and picking up emails at any time of the day or night
- Include mental health and wellbeing objectives in the performance management process. How can you support and reward staff or teams for excelling in their roles and smashing targets, whilst maintaining a good work-life balance?
1. It’s Not Enough to Guess
Unfortunately, rolling out a token e-learning course, putting Table Football in a recreational space and giving everyone their birthday off doesn’t necessarily mean you have employee wellbeing sorted and mental health on a level playing field with physical health.
Any organisation, no matter what size, can and should gather intel on how their employees feel; levels of engagement and happiness, anonymous feedback on what works and what doesn’t and elements of the company culture that don’t support wellbeing. It should be straightforward to gather both quantitative and qualitative data on absence and retention. Understanding where you are as a business – where you really are – enables you to plan and prioritise actionable objectives.
What Next?
Some are calling for the government to put pressure on businesses to increase transparency and accountability; to mandate organisations into taking this more seriously, as we have with the gender pay gap. However, it shouldn’t need coercion to get businesses to step up. Spending just £1 on training to get £10 return by reducing the cost of absence, presenteeism and temporary staff should be encouragement enough, and that’s without acknowledging the moral obligation we have as employers to look after our people. You can make a change.
Find out more about what you can do to improve employee wellbeing by contacting RightTrack Learning today to register for your organisation’s free Wellbeing Health Check.
