The theme for World Mental Health Day this year is increased investment in mental health. And sure enough, it’s time to acknowledge that employers’ investment in employee mental health must extend beyond a three-month free subscription to Headspace. We discuss two areas of focus employers need when considering their employee mental health investments.
2020 has been the year of firsts. We have a full-blown pandemic that is still raging with no vaccine in sight. It is the first time the collective workforce has transitioned to remote work. And most importantly, 2020 has set the benchmark for employee mental health issues, with experts warning that we’re in for a full-blown mental health pandemic soon. 2020 is also the first time the global workforce has collectively discussed the issue of mental health. And it is the first time companies have taken active measures to support their employees’ mental health globally.
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Watch: SAP’s video titled “You are not alone†to recognize World Mental Health Day 2020
How Are Employees Feeling About Mental Health These Days?
Different studies reveal how employees have been feeling about their mental health
(Sources in list below)
- 53% of workers feel that mental health benefits are essential post-COVID-19Opens a new window . (Headspace for Work)
- 80% of respondents would consider quitting their current positionOpens a new window for a job that focused more on employees’ mental health. (TELUS International)
- 6 out of 10 said their employer had expressed genuine concernOpens a new window around employees’ health during this time. (TELUS International)
- Before COVID-19, 62% of employees reported positive mental health, but that has dropped toOpens a new window only 28%. Job satisfaction has fallen from 57% to 32%, and job motivation has fallen from 57% to 36%. (Martec Group)
- 40% of employees said their company hasn’t provided adequate policies/procedures to address health and well-being during the pandemicOpens a new window . (Paychex)
- 68% of 12,000 employees worldwide want to speak with a robot instead of a manager about their stressors at work. (Oracle and Workplace Intelligence)
Employee Mental Health Investment Must Be a Permanent Investment
Here, it is important to highlight two key areas:
- Mental health support for employees needs to extend beyond a three-month subscription to a meditation app after disruption by a global pandemic
- Mental health support/investment does not just exist in the form of a subscription to a meditation app – it involves designing a workplace that supports positive employee mental health
An interesting example of both these points is Thomson Reuters’ most recent move to support employees’ mental health. The company has instituted a yearly mental health day off starting today, October 9, 2020.
This Mental Health Day Off will become a permanent company holiday, extending beyond 2020 and taking place on or around World Mental Health DayOpens a new window  each year. It is the beginning of a broader effort to embed wellbeing into our workplace culture, which you will see and experience in the months and years to come.
– Steve Hasker, president and CEO of Thomson Reuters, in a messageOpens a new window to global employees on September 17, 2020
Mental health support comes from supporting employees to manage the stressors contributing to their mental health concerns. For instance, reducing their workload, allowing schedule flexibility, and listening when they ask for help with their work are ways to keep them in better mental health.
A recent example of a potential return on investment in employee mental health is from Zendesk. When Zendesk partneredOpens a new window with Modern Health to support its remote employees’ mental health, 90% of employees who engaged with these benefits opted for mental health care, and 50% matched with a certified coach. Zendesk reports that this led to an increase in employee engagement across the organization. While we don’t know if this is a permanent benefit, it indicates how a permanent investment in employee mental health can benefit an organization.
Learn More: Employee Mental Health Decline and COVID-19: How Employers Are Helping Their Employees
Employee Mental Health Investments Must Be Tailored to the Workforce of One
In 2015, Accenture wrote a report on how the future of work would be designed for a workforce of oneOpens a new window . This means each employee’s (or employee group’s) experience would be personalized through tailored policies. With investments in technology and advanced data collection and analytics, this is possible.
The number of studies identifying the pandemic’s mental health impact on different employee groups indicates that we are long overdue for the hyper-personalization of mental health benefits.
- SiblyOpens a new window , an app that partners with to help employees by offering someone to talk to 24/7 to navigate life’s challenges, has seen an astounding 200% increase in members from traditionally male-dominated industries such as construction and delivery, reports Moe Alkadi, founder of Sibly.
- Working moms have also reported a rise in stress levels, reports The Mom Project.
- A JAMA studyOpens a new window published in September 2020 reported that depression symptoms in (U.S.) individuals were three times higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than before. These symptoms were more prominent in individuals with lower incomes and lower savings. Individuals in this bracket have higher stressors. For instance, they are more likely to have lost their source of income with the onset of COVID-19. Or they are not in a position to go remote like a lot of the workforce has, exposing them to the virus and stressing them out further.
- The same study reports how 50.4% of healthcare workers exposed to patients with COVID-19 reported experiencing depression symptoms.
- This CNBC articleOpens a new window reports how the need for mental health care will outlast the pandemic for grocery workers.
“HR leaders need to think outside the traditional one-size-fits-all box and provide malleable compensation and benefits packages to address their unique needs. This means broadening our understanding of wellness to include offerings like Employee Resource Groups and Employee Assistance Programs. It means giving employees flexibility to create the right balance of wellness benefits depending on their needs. In doing so, we can help them feel empowered and reduce stress, which we know can be a big distraction and hurt productivity,†said Donna Kimmel, EVP and chief people officer, Citrix, in an interview with Toolbox HR.
This especially applies to employees of color, essential employees, and other underrepresented employees. These employee groups are not necessarily exclusive of each other, and that makes hyper-personalized mental health benefits organizations provide all the more necessary for individual employees.
Learn More: How to Design an Employee Wellness Program Amid COVID-19: 4 Steps to a Sustainable Program
The Future of Work Depends on Employee Mental Health Investments Today
A Willis Towers Watson survey of APAC employers found that two-fifths of employers intend to revisit their 2021 healthcare strategy focusing on mental health.
Source: 2020 Restoring Stability survey, Willis Towers WatsonOpens a new window (APAC employers), July 2020
This is a step in the right direction and concurs with our view that mental health needs to be prioritized and made a permanent benefit. As social enterprises, employers can provide access to affordable mental health.
This year has been hard on every individual and corporation. The effects of a pandemic on mental health may not be equally distributed, but this may be one of the few times that the pandemic has affected the entire workforce mentally. Now that we’ve had some time to settle into a new way of life, companies must plan out their employee well-being strategy such that each employee can be delivered a hyper-personalized experience. There will be challenges, but if we’ve come as far as using artificial intelligence to monitor employee behavior, the same technology can be used to design a mental well-being program that suits each individual uniquely.
How is your organization addressing World Mental Health Day this year? Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window .