Addressing workplace mental health: The long-term financial and behavioral implications

While there are many aspects to addressing mental health in today’s society, one area that must not be overlooked is mental health in the workplace.

There is a huge opportunity for employers to play a role in creating space for better mental health. (Photo: Shutterstock)

It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the midst of a behavioral and mental health crisis, which is being fueled in large part by the ongoing pandemic. As a result, we are seeing the White House hone in on addressing the crisis. President Biden has laid out a mental health strategy designed to “strengthen system capacity, connect more Americans to care, and create a continuum of support–transforming our health and social services infrastructure to address mental health holistically and equitably.”

While there are many key aspects to addressing mental health in today’s society, one area that must not be overlooked is mental health in the workplace. Savvy employers are starting to recognize that investing in employee mental health pays financial dividends. According to SilverCloud’s 2021 Employee Health and Mental Wellbeing Report, about 55% of employees are languishing on the mental health spectrum in a state of mild to moderate distress, and that has major repercussions: People with such levels of distress report over 3.25 of unproductive work hours per day (compared to two hours for non-distressed employees).

For severely distressed people, almost four hours each workday are unproductive. This lack of productivity translates to real dollars—it’s calculated that a company with 500 employees making an average of $50,000 per year, for example, is likely losing 268 productive hours every day and $1.7 million per year.

Related: The ‘wellness’ of your employee mental health benefits

Employees in the survey note that in general, they have coping mechanisms to manage feelings of stress, anxiety or depression. But their ability to deploy those coping strategies varies.

When they’re outside their work settings:

However, employees note that it’s considerably harder to find space to step back and recharge while they’re in the workplace: The coping mechanisms above often just aren’t available to them. About 18% of respondents said they don’t have any go-to coping mechanism to feel better when they’re at work. As such, there is a huge opportunity for employers to play a role in creating space for better mental health, and employees themselves offered suggestions for what they wished their employer would do to help them cope with negative feelings and other mental health needs while at work:

So, what tangible actions can employers do to make changes that have a measurable impact for 2022 to unlock the full potential of employees in the workplace and ultimately reduce turnover and boost outcomes? Some important considerations include the following:

There is some encouraging news. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), work can be good for your mental health in general as it helps us feel productive and validated, and it creates a time in which we are focused on a bigger objective.

The sooner we recognize that mental health is a state that we are both individually and collectively responsible for nurturing, the greater our capacity to optimize the performance of our teams and our companies. If taken seriously and done the right way, improving wellbeing across the board can create a positive work culture that builds employee satisfaction overall, not to mention the potentially huge economic windfall for companies as a direct consequence.

Jorge Palacios, MD, PhD, is senior digital health scientist at SilverCloud Health.

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