Mental Health in the Workplace - Help your staff to get back to work, and overcome any anxiety that may arise as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Corporate Mental Health & Wellbeing Service
As all businesses know, the HSE recommendation is 1 trained first aider for every 50 employees. This ensures protection of our staff’s physical health and wellbeing, but what about mental health?
1 in 6.8 people in the UK experience mental health problems in the workplace*
More than 1 in 5 people (21%) confessed to calling in sick due to workplace stress
14% of people left a job due to workplace stress with a further 42% of people considering leaving because of stress
30% of staff felt they couldn’t talk openly with their line manager if they were feeling stressed **
Is it worth the investment?
The statistics above speak volumes about the state of the UK’s working population and their poor mental health. As a business owner, you want to take care of your employees but also need to justify any costs associated. What is the bottom line when it comes to mental health? According to Sainsbury’s Centre for Mental Health, UK businesses spend:
£8.4 billion a year in sickness absence. The average employee takes 7 days off sick each year of which 40% are for mental health problems. This adds up to 70 million lost working days a year, including 1 in 7 directly caused by a person’s work or working conditions
£15.1 billion a year in reduced productivity at work. ‘Presenteeism’ accounts for 1.5x as much working time lost as absenteeism and costs more to employers because it is more common among higher-paid staff
£2.4 billion a year in replacing staff who leave their jobs because of mental ill health +
Businesses investing in mental health
Many businesses with a largely millennial workforce have been the first to take action in the mental health movement as this generation expects more from their employer and are harder to retain. They are also typically more aware and comfortable discussing mental health issues than the older generations. Corporate giants have paved the way in the mental health area and the rest of us are quickly following suit.
Apple
Steve Jobs was considered a pioneer of “mind technology” when he shared his personal love of meditation and mindfulness with his staff. He set up his employees with a meditation room, 30-minute daily meditation breaks, and on-site yoga classes. Jobs recognised the benefits of mediation through personal practice and used it to reduce his own stress, gain more clarity, and enhance his creativity.
The “search inside yourself’ initiative was set up at Google in 2007 by one of the original software developers. This saw the introduction of on-site meditation space and courses. Google has a strong belief, and revenue to prove, that meditation can help improve not only employee mental health and well-being, but the company’s bottom line as well.
P&G
CEO A.G. Lafley introduced a meditation instruction program and installed meditation spaces in offices. He found these practices personally helpful and rolled it out to his staff saying “you cannot out-work a problem, you have to out-meditation it.”
Innocent Drinks
The UK based drinks company is true to its values of health and happiness internally and externally. As well as flexible hours, free lunch and gym membership, Innocent provides a free yoga club and access to a confidential 24 hour a day employee assistance programme to offer staff a safe place to talk.
Sweaty Betty
The well known women’s activewear retailer introduced the “reclaim your lunch break” initiative where employees are encouraged to take part in lunchtime yoga classes and running clubs organised by the business. All employees are also provided with free counselling and support and access to education modules on the key causes of stress such as financial well being and work life balance.
What we can do to help
Business culture is everything and making sure yours is positive and supportive is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. We should all be focusing on offering our employees the support and services they need to live a healthy and well rounded lifestyle.
To support you in creating this culture for your employees, we will tailor our approach to your business and make sure you see an effective and measurable improvement. We offer 1-1 sessions, classes, workshops, online support and consultancy. Workshops can be tailored to combat any pre-existing negative attitudes towards mental health and make a significant impact on the culture of the business.
We can offer classes on a variety of topics, including mindfulness and meditation to teach employees how to destress, focus and ultimately be more productive. Benefits of meditation and mindfulness include:
A reduction in the stress hormone cortisol known for causing fatigue, acne, weight gain, irritability and difficulty concentrating
Improved productivity and creativity
Improved communication skills
Reduction in stress
Heightened attention span
Improved memory and cognitive function
To find out more about how we can help your business, call the Hampshire Hypnotherapy & Counselling Centre today and we’ll create a customised strategy for you and your employees.
*Source - Mental Health foundation
**Source - Mind.org
+Source - Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. (2009). Briefing 40: Removing Barriers. The facts about mental health and employment. Retrieved from ohrn.nhs.uk/resource/policy/TheFactsaboutMentalHealth.pd
