Companies that want to improve the state of mental health at work—especially for younger, diverse demographic groups—need to adjust their strategies, Harvard Business Review reports. One place to start is talking more about mental health.
Despite the fact that more than 200 million workdays are lost annually due to mental health conditions (costing some $16.8 billion in employee productivity), mental health remains a taboo subject in the workplace. In fact, almost 60% of employees have never spoken to anyone at work about their mental health status, according to a recent study conducted by Mind Share Partners, SAP and Qualtrics, which analyzed responses of 1,500 U.S. adults in the for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors.
Less than half of the respondents feel that mental health is prioritized at their company, and even fewer view their company leaders as advocates. But at the same time, 86% of respondents think that a company’s culture should support mental health—a percentage that was even higher for Millennials and Gen Zers, who have higher turnover rates and are the largest demographic in the workforce.
HR departments and employee assistance programs aren’t enough to drive change. Instead, the most commonly desired workplace resources for mental health are a more open and accepting culture, training and clearer information about where to go or who to ask for support. Read the full story.
