Mental wellbeing at work is no longer an afterthought. The evidence for the business case is overwhelming. Physical and mental health should go together. If a member of staff is being physically assaulted, would you tolerate it? Yet a lot of mental assault takes place in the workplace, with little or no provision for promoting employee mental wellbeing. By promoting mental health in the workplace, we are creating workplaces that manage individuals and systems to promote productivity. Processes and systems need to be put in place to prevent mental health issues. You will not wait to cut your fingers several times in a washing machine before installing a guard. In a post-COVID workplace, employers need to put guards between the job and the person. Mental health is the number one reason for work-related illnesses.
There is a business case for wellbeing programs. According to the CIPD Health & Wellbeing at Work Report 2018, organizations with a wellbeing initiative have 44% better employee morale and engagement, as well as a 31% lower sickness absence rate. Research by Price Waterhouse Cooper based on 55 companies showed:
- Reduced sickness/absence by 45%
- Reduced staff turnover by 18%
- Reduced accidents and injuries by 16%
- Increased employee satisfaction by 14%
- Reduced resource allocation by 9%
- Increased company profile by 8%
- Increased productivity by 8%
Wellbeing is strategic. Senior leadership and the board must be involved. And it goes beyond having mindfulness and wellbeing days at work. There must be metrics and data that inform decisions. Soft and hard metrics that measure wellbeing at work should be developed. Soft metrics would highlight behavioral and perceptual responses such as complaints, arguments, conflicts, quality of work, response time, and job satisfaction. Hard metrics provide information on stress-related sickness absences and turnovers, which will inform management why people are leaving or why they are getting sick. This information would drive relevant wellbeing training programs and EAP services.
This leads to an important question: Who should carry out this function? Would existing HR roles possess adequate knowledge of mental health issues and solutions? Organizations now need to have a director of mental wellbeing that works under the HR department or an external wellbeing consultant that provides the services on a retainership arrangement.
