“Organisations need to get down and dirty with what is going on.”Ī new poll of more than 2,500 US workers by recruitment consultants Robert Walters found that 60 per cent said they were suffering workplace stress, and nearly half said concerns about job stability were the biggest trigger. “If the problem is the workplace, then a mental health first responder is a joke,” Ryan warns. Work remains a significant source of stress and unhappiness for many people - and training programmes and mindfulness apps are not enough to help someone who is stressed because of a toxic manager or an unmanageable workload. But the more employers insert themselves into the whole area of supporting mental health, the more they open themselves up to claims that they are falling short. ![]() ![]() Given how much productive time has, historically, been lost to stress and other mental health issues, it is good news that employers are trying to make it easier to access treatment. However, that is where future problems could lie. “The employer is now expected to solve things that other institutions could not,” she adds. “Employees have this unprecedentedly high trust in their employers, but with that trust comes high expectations.” “People want the same things Gen Z and millennials are more vocal about it,” says Cydney Roach, global chair for employee experience at Edelman. But the Edelman survey found that the figures were only marginally higher for those aged 34 and under than they were for the general workforce. Some commentators have argued that the shifting attitudes are due to generational change, as young people who are used to sharing on social media begin to replace older employees who are more reticent. And nearly 8 in 10 people expected their company’s chief executive to set an example on healthy behaviour - for example, by respecting work/life boundaries - and to talk about the importance of mental health. In the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer Survey of 13 countries, 72 per cent of respondents said they trusted their employer to do what is right on health-related concerns. Indeed, the World Health Organization estimates that 12bn working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety - at a cost of $1tn to global productivity. Any organisation in the UK with 20 or more employees can take part. ![]() Help your employees get happier, healthier and more productive. “If people are coming to the workplace with mental health issues, a progressive organisation will recognise that it will affect performance, and there’s a self-interest to support them,” says John Ryan, chief executive of Healthy Place to Work, a data analytics company that focuses on workplace health. “The biggest driver of sustainable productivity is the health of your organisation.” ![]() The aim is to reframe the skills involved in managing such issues as positive attributes, thereby removing stigma. Other employers are also trying to get practical assistance to their employees - by designating workers as “mental health first responders” and encouraging people to attend workshops on “mental fitness”. Not only is this convenient, but the benefit is designed to signal to staff that the companies see psychological care as part and parcel of getting the most from their workers. Top law firms Hogan Lovells and Linklaters, and investment banks JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs even offer free therapy sessions - either online or on-site. These days, mindfulness apps and mental health workshops are par for the course in many workplaces. While most managers were generally supportive, you never knew when you would run into someone who still saw depression and anxiety as moral failings and would hold them against you. When I joined the workforce some 30 years ago, mental health issues were not something workers casually brought up in the office.
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