WHY PROMOTING MENTALLY HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS IN THE WORKPLACE IS IMPORTANT
In March 2017, the Mental Health Foundation, NatCen surveyed its panel members in England, Scotland, and Wales, to understand the prevalence of self-reported mental health problems and levels of positive and negative mental health in the population. Their survey revealed that:
Only a small minority of people (13%) were found to be living with high levels of positive mental health.
More than 4 in 10 people say they have experienced depression
Over a quarter of people say they have experienced panic attacks.
Nearly two-thirds of people (65%) say that they have experienced a mental health problem.
In their conclusion, they state that current levels of good mental health are disturbingly low and that our collective mental health is deteriorating.
Given that we spend a large proportion of our week working (on average 36.4 hours per week in the UK), it is not surprising to hear that a healthy environment in the workplace has been found to impact employees’ well-being significantly. It also improves their overall job satisfaction and retention, productivity and performance, morale, motivation, and engagement. Indeed, those workplaces that aren’t promoting a mentally healthy environment are found to have lower mental health and well-being, and higher stress levels.
In January 2020 Deloitte reported that the promotion of healthy environments in the workplace will help reduce the annual cost of £45 million to the UK economy caused by poor mental health due to absenteeism and presenteeism (employees staying at work whilst experiencing poor mental health).
It is easy to see that there is a very real importance in promoting mentally healthy environments in the workplace and that not only does the individual benefit but so too, the organisation. In fact, MIND states that for every £1 invested in workplace mental health, there is a potential £5.30 return.
