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An escalating crisis on mental health in the workplace Are these programs delivering the desired outcomes? The participants’ ratings of their programs (measured in terms of their satisfaction with the benefits derived from them) are among the lowest in the survey. Only 4% said they were fully satisfied with the benefits they are deriving from their programs. See Figure 8.3. 19% said they were unable to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs as they were managed by other functions (typically HR). 15% of the participants felt it was too early to tell if their programs are delivering the desired outcomes. We found widely distributed perspectives on how well-equipped leaders are to address mental health issues, with only 3-4 % rating them very well equipped (see below). There was little difference in their ratings for senior leaders, middle management and frontline leaders. See Figure 8.4.
Poorly equipped
In their own words
Deeply dissatisfied
Fully satisfied 30%
18% 19% 14%
1%
1%
3%
5%
5%
4% 1%
Figure 8.3: Participants’ estimate of extent to which established programs are delivering the desired outcomes on mental health
Very well equipped
Senior Leaders
Middle management
“I don’t think concerns about mental health have grown, but our willingness to address them as a company has.” “Working in an increasingly global environment and working across time zones is significantly impacting work-life balance. Employees are not feeling empowered to say ‘no‘. People are being expected to work too hard in an environment with competing priorities, with too many demands from too many people. We see increasing numbers of mental health issues being recorded. Mental health issues will be the number one cause of early retirement in our organization.” “The culture of doing more with less is reaching a breaking point” “I think maybe 50% of our people have struggled with mental health issues in the past six months.” “The world, and our workplace, is much more complex. People feel stressed and overwhelmed. We need to maintain our focus on people and helping them manage this change in this fast-paced environment we’re living in.” “We came to realize before and throughout Covid-19 that healthy minds lead to so many benefits. We need a more holistic approach to wellbeing for people to be at their best and this is getting discussed at Board level.” “Covid-19 was a triggering event.”
Frontline leaders
Figure 8.4: Participants’ estimate of extent to which their leaders are equipped to identify issues with mental health and provide appropriate support. ERM GLOBAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SURVEY: Towards Building a Thriving Workforce
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