Member Article

Mental Health - businesses can’t afford to stay silent

Mental health in the workplace; why businesses can’t afford to stay silent

Wellbeing in the workplace is high on the agenda at both a governmental and corporate level. Both public and private sector have realised the importance of investing in mental health programmes in order to keep a growing and healthy workforce.

Despite this, the lack of mental health reporting is a growing problem in the workplace that top businesses are finding it difficult to address. A recent survey by Lockton revealed 88% of FTSE100 companies do not report their mental health statistics in the workplace. Only four FTSE100 companies (GlaxoSmithKline, Reed Elsevier, Royal Mail and WPP) met the criteria for all of the aspects covered in the Lockton analysis, which ranged from having employee wellbeing programmes in place through to acknowledging mental health issues in their workforce and specifically reporting mental health stats.

Mental health is a long term issue, and although projects like ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’ are admirable at raising its profile, the messages taught must fully embed themselves into the fabric of companies.

According to MIND, the leading mental health charity, 1 in 5 employees take a day off due to stress; resulting in 70 million working days lost each year, with the subsequent loss of employee productivity costing £70-100 billion annually[1]. Stress leading to long term absence has more than doubled since the 90’s, showing these figures are interconnected and no mere coincidence. If labour markets are to function well, it is therefore important that policy makers address the interplay between mental health and work.

Line managers are central in securing this change on the ground. They need to be up-to-date with the latest thinking and skills in order to identify and mitigate mental health risk within the business. The Government’s ‘Fit for Work’ guidance and on-going amendments to the Mental Health Act have helped offer direction to employers on how best to monitor for mental health issues.

Corporates can also look externally and learn from other large institutions, such as confectionary giant Mars. The company has run coaching courses and classroom sessions to help early identification and prevention of mental health issues among its workers with encouraging results. Taking a proactive approach resulted in absentee levels due to mental health issues falling to almost zero. [2]

At Lockton we find that an initial ‘deep dive’ data gathering exercise, coupled with additional external insight and benchmarking enables an organisation to deal with this highly complex and sensitive area with greater confidence and focus.

Our goal is to help people get better. There is no magic fix to mental health issues, only vigilance and support. Risk managers must be clear about where the responsibility for mental health risk lies and be able to make evidence based decisions to ensure a clearer judgement is formed. Only by following governmental guidelines and working with the employee can companies bridge the divide between mental health and work to create a healthier, happier work environment.

[1] (Mind.org.uk, 2015) http://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-your-staff/

[2] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/27fd8458-4555-11e4-ab86-00144feabdc0.html

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lockton - Employee Benefits .