British Businesses Missing the Mark on Employee Mental Health

New research from Headspace Health, the provider of the world’s most accessible, comprehensive digital mental health platform, calls on leaders to double down on employee mental health support.

 

COVID-19 Related Stress

COVID-19 related stress among some workers has started to fall, however, employees are increasingly feeling stress from burnout and challenges with management and leadership.

83% of CEOs and 70% of employees report missing at least one day of work due to stress, burnout and mental health challenges. Only 28 percent of employees report feeling “very engaged” in their work. COVID-19 is still listed as one of top global stressors for employees along with burnout due to increased workload or lack of staff, poor work-life balance, and poor management and leadership.

 

Lack of Mental Health Support

Employers are pulling back on mental health programs at the exact moment employees need and want them most.

94% of CEOs think they do enough to support workforce mental health, while only 67% of employees feel the same way. In the U.S., this gap has persisted year over year. Despite 71% of workers saying their company increased focus on mental health following COVID-19, only 25% say they have kept that focus in the last year.

 

Mental Healthcare is an Expectation from Employers

An increasingly diverse, multi-generational workforce expects quality, accessible, and culturally competent mental healthcare from their employers.

76% of workers agree that it’s important that their company’s mental health benefits are based on methods that licensed behavioural health or medical professionals agree are effective.

However, there’s a big gap between CEO and employee perceptions regarding how easy it is to access mental health benefits. 87% of CEOs say it’s “very easy” or “easy” while only 66% of employees agree.

 

Companies Willing To Work Towards Better Mental Health

Organisational leaders are ready and willing to lead the charge towards better mental health, but they need support balancing both their own wellbeing as well as their team’s emotional and functional capacity.

More than 80% of employees believe that it is the employer’s responsibility to help with mental health, and 82% want their leaders to ask them how they are doing and actually care about the answer.

However, there is a discrepancy between the mental healthcare used by employers and the mental healthcare they provide; 60% CEOs use their company’s mental health benefits regularly compared with 37% of employees and 91% of leaders take advantage of mental health support at least occasionally.

 

Headspace Health

“Employee mental health is a business continuity issue that every leader needs to address, particularly as many employees return to the office and experience new day-to-day stressors,” said Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace Health. “To attract and retain talent, it’s critical that leaders destigmatise mental health from the top-down and meet the growing expectations of their employees for high-quality mental health benefits.”

Using evidence-based interventions and technology, Headspace Health supports millions of workers worldwide with accessible and affordable mental health services. More than 3,500 enterprise and health plan clients have partnered with Headspace Health to provide employees access to mindfulness and meditation tools through Headspace for Work and text-based coaching, therapy and psychiatry through Ginger.