WELLBEING BRIDGET JELLEY
Moving past the fruit bowls Bridget Jelley shares how we can support leaders in identifying and managing psychological hazards in the workplace.
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has brought psychological health in the workplace into sharp focus. Wellbeing and mental health have perhaps been viewed in the past as a bit ‘fluffy’, ‘soft’ or ‘abstract’, and not relevant to organisational productivity or the bottom line. However, COVID-19 has provided a tangible example to many of us on how our people’s mental health and wellbeing are vitally important to business. Thanks to COVID-19’s magnification of the role of mental health in contributing to a healthy, happy workforce, now is the time to move beyond the fruit bowl and ad hoc approaches to wellbeing in the workplace. Leaders now need to take a more strategic approach to really understand what risks exist in the work environment and how to better manage them.
What’s the state of play in New Zealand?
In positive psychology, we look at wellbeing on a continuum. We can 20
HUMAN RESOURCES
WINTER 2021
be anywhere on that continuum, from flourishing to languishing. In New Zealand, how wellbeing has been traditionally measured is through mental health data. The following is a sample of the most recent findings from across a range of New Zealand surveys. • In the 2020 General Social Survey, nearly 20 per cent of New Zealanders were identified as having poor mental wellbeing. These data were collected postCOVID-19 alert level 4 and are consistent with findings from previous years. • These results are echoed in the 2019/20 New Zealand Health Survey, which shows that 20 per cent of the population suffer from a mood or anxiety disorder. This number has been steadily climbing since 2006 when it measured a more reserved 12.7 per cent. • Data from the 2015, 2016 and 2018 New Zealand Mental Health Monitor and the 2018 New Zealand Health and Lifestyles Survey show that almost 31 per cent of people have had a personal experience of mental distress. • Thirty-six per cent of people who were currently experiencing
high mental distress reported being discriminated against because of their mental distress, and that discrimination was most commonly encountered in the workplace. • A 2018 review of studies conducted in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the EU-15 showed the annual economic costs of work-related stress to range between US$221.13 million to US$187 billion. The costs were primarily due to productivityrelated losses, followed by healthcare and medical costs. • The Southern Cross Workplace Wellness report specifies the cost to the New Zealand economy, with NZ$1.79 billion due to absenteeism, which makes up an estimated third of the hidden cost of presenteeism (when workers are at the workplace but not mentally engaged with work). These findings demonstrate some important points. • Poor mental health remains an issue in New Zealand and its workplaces.
