Mental health statistics we should all be aware of

Gaining a deeper understanding of the workplace mental health landscape can help guide you as to which next steps are best for your organisation to take to ensure the continued mental health of your employees. Since the global pandemic, trends like the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting dominate screen time across social media channels. What these ‘trends’ have done is expose the link between mental health and the workplace.

Along with our new Wellness platform partner, Champion Health, we’ve looked at the mental health statistics we should all be aware of to understand the importance of workplace mental health for employee performance and continued health in the workplace and beyond.

In today’s incredibly fast moving world of change, it is vitally important we are looking after our personal mental health. We need to start looking at mental health in the same way we look at physical health. In the same way, we know to exercise our bodies, feed them nutrients and sleep for physical health, we need to start treating our mental health with the same attitude and respect. That goes for understanding that our colleagues, friends and family should do the same!

While many of us wouldn’t think twice about taking time off to recover from a physical illness or injury, it may come as a surprise that more people will take more time off to recover from mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and stress, than any other physical illness or injury [1]. Employees typically take 18 days a year off to deal with these mental illnesses. While those suffering from physical injuries take 10 days, physical illness takes 17 days, and musculoskeletal disorders take 15 days off yearly [1].

The Mental Health Foundation also found that 61% of UK employees who left a job in the last year or are planning to leave their current role in the next 12 months cited poor mental health as a factor for the move. In fact, the cost of staff turnover due to poor mental health has increased by over 150% in the last three years to around £22.4 billion in 2021 [1].

Due to continued stigma, mental health issues are generally ignored, leading employers to underestimate the effects poor mental health has on employees. In fact, Mind.org states that 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year, with 1 in 6 experiencing a common mental health problem like anxiety or depression in any given week [2]. My Possible Self found that 89% of employees with mental health issues found it impacts their working life, with more than half of them considering resigning as it negatively impacted their mental wellbeing [3]. It continues to find that around 300,000 people with mental health issues lose their jobs yearly, a figure significantly higher than those who lose their jobs due to physical health ailments [3].

Many of the same techniques we use for physical health, like exercise, good sleep habits and a good diet are equally as good for positive mental health. Adding in techniques like mindfulness and breath work which you can do for as little as 5-10 minutes a day can be very beneficial. It is also vitally important that we start to talk about mental health openly at home and in the workplace, ensuring that if things are getting too difficult, that you get help from a trained professional to help in the early stages and before things become overwhelming.

When investigating figures by industry, the tech industry has the most demanding hours and 54% of employees based in the UK work more on weekends and evenings than before the pandemic, a trend which negatively impacts their ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance [4]. 86% of organisations in the finance industry saw an increase in demand for mental health support in 2021, among the highest sectors surveyed by Koa Health in their Mental Health in the UK Finance Industry Fact Sheet [5]. Negative stigma around mental health is most prevalent in the construction and engineering industries, with 45% of workers needing to take time off due to poor mental wellbeing and 30% of employees reporting to take annual leave to avoid questions and embarrassment around this [6]. Deloitte’s UK mental health report 2022, Mental Health and Employers: The case for investment - pandemic and beyond, showed that between 2020 and 2021, the Private sector incurred an estimated £43 - 46 billion in expenses due to poor workplace mental health, while the Public sector’s costs amounted to approximately £10 billion [7].

Based on the findings above it’s clear that there is room for employers to provide additional support to improve the mental wellbeing of their employees. Deloitte’s mental health report found that 52% of employees didn’t feel that they received enough mental wellbeing support from their employees, and that post pandemic 47% were more interested in using digital tools to support their mental health [7].

Wellness platforms have revolutionised the management of mental and physical wellbeing, Champion Health is the preferred platform for Healix members as it covers all areas of wellbeing and supports employees through a customised wellbeing action plan to ensure employees make marked improvements in the areas they need inside and outside of work. 

Champion Health's approach to mental wellbeing is simple:

It should be personalised and about the whole person. For some, poor mental health can be something they have been living with for quite some time. For others, this can be quite acute and in the moment due to workplace stress or perhaps something difficult outside of work like a bereavement. The Champion approach is to ensure that we understand the individual and then create a personalised based on these needs. Perhaps someone needs financial support, for others, it might be pain or injury management. Both of these issues can affect mental health and that is why our platform and app supports all areas of wellbeing in one place. For companies looking to manage employee wellbeing better, as well as this personalised experience for their people, the company gets to understand what is really going on in their business with our data analytics leadership hub.

To find out more about what makes a Healix Healthcare Trust perfect for the needs of all employees and organisations, https://healix.com/healthcare/....

Works Cited:

Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health at work: Statistics, https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/mental-health-work-statistics

Mind.org, Mental health facts and statistics, https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/

My Possible Self, Mental health in the workplace: The UK crisis in eight statistics, https://www.mypossibleself.com/blog/mental-health-workplace-uk-crisis-eight-statistics/

Charliehr.com, The State of Mental Health in a year of COVID remote working, https://www.charliehr.com/blog/mental-health-at-work-covid/

PBC Today, 40% of construction worker absence due to poor mental health, https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/health-safety-news/construction-poor-mental-health/83794/

Deloitte UK, Mental Health Report 2022, Mental health and employers: The case for investment - pandemic and beyond, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/consultancy/deloitte-uk-mental-health-report-2022.pdf