The survey by the pensions and insurance consultancy Barnett Waddingham found that while 79% of bosses said addressing mental health within their organisation is a priority, just 47% of those asked feel they deal effectively with the issue.
The survey is part of the company’s new Wellbeing Agenda, which reveals that mental health now forms a large part of the wellbeing conversation in the workplace.
The survey also reveals that of the companies with a wellbeing strategy in place, the vast majority (89%) include mental health as part of it.
And around half of employers said training line managers is their top resource in place to address mental health, while a third (33%) offer counselling services, 30% have mental health first aid for their employees and 22% have implemented interactive or online training in their workplace.
Earlier this month, SHP reported that more than a third of the UK’s top-performing employees worry about the impact work has on their mental well-being.
The Smart Talent Expects report by CoreHR claimed 42% of employees believe work negatively impacts their personal lives and 41% worry about the impact it is has having on their mental health.
Barnett Waddingham’s workplace wellbeing consultant Laura Matthews said despite the positive themes running through the survey, 22% of organisations still do not see mental health as a priority.
“For it to be taken more seriously, employers need to understand the impact it can have on a business – as well as the individual,” said Ms Matthews.
“Research from MIND suggests that one in four people will experience mental ill health in any one year, which could be 25% of any workforce. If we don’t start to take it seriously, this may well damage an organisations reputation, profitability or eventually bring a business to its knees,” she added.
“Employers need to understand their employees and this needs to be driven by insights and data. Alongside equipping line managers with the right training and knowledge, resources such as the HSE Stress Risk Assessment gives a clear frame work to address stress or mental health.”
For more information on this survey, click here.
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It’s all in the question “do you feel it important to address the last 28 years of 20% lost productivity and growing levels of presenteeism in DSE operators aught to be more effectively reduced?”
“To be or not to be” hung as a sheep or a lamb and pretty sure no boss is going to tick the “don’t know” box and equally pretty sure they are not going to do anything about it either and probably tick the same box in another five years having lost another 150 days productivity + £20k in wages and 30 weeks sick-leave due to repetitive stress injuries – Doh
Sub-optimal efficiency, productivity, wellbeing, performance and occupational health NO ACCIDENT yet, it seems doing something, anything about changing their mindset toward health and safety would be an accidental or sort of, unintended outcome of a momentary lapse denial that there is a problem in the first place like, you know, the Elephant in the board room, unless the stakeholder and shareholders start to kick-up a little fuss what what ?