Headspace reports more support needed for employee mental health

A global report by Headspace Health reveals nearly a third of employees feel work harms their mental health.

Four in ten Australian employees have missed a full week or more of work during the past twelve months due to stress or anxiety and half of Aussie CEOs report missing work due to mental health challenges.

The findings come from the Fourth Annual Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report, based on a global survey fielded between February and March 2022. The study analyses data from CEOs and full-time employees in Australia, Germany, the UK and US to examine workplace issues driving stress and burnout among CEOs and their employees.

Burnout is the new mental health challenge

While COVID-19 related stress among workers has been a concern, anxiety levels over the pandemic have begun to fall. However, employees are now increasingly feeling stress from burnout and challenges with management and leadership. Nine out of ten working Australians report experiencing moderate to extreme stress at least once a week. Shockingly, almost half experience stress most days.

88 per cent of Australian CEOs and 72 per cent of Australian of employees report missing at least one day of work due to stress, burnout and mental health challenges. Only 28 per cent of employees report feeling “very engaged” in their work.

Alarmingly 41 per cent of Australians have missed a full week of work during the past year due to stress, anxiety or other mental health challenges. What’s getting them stressed? Burnout due to increased workload or lack of staff, poor work-life balance, and poor management and leadership.

Women are feeling the pain more than men, with 40 per cent of women saying they feel burned out at work compared with 33 per cent of men or 34 per cent of non-binary employees. Although non-binary employees report a wider range of stressors at work than their male and female counterparts.

More support is needed for employees

Ninty-seven per cent of Australian CEOs think they do enough to support workforce mental health, while only two-thirds of Australian employees feel the same way. In Australia, this gap has persisted year over year.

In fact, employers are pulling back on support programs at the exact moment employees say they need and want them most.

There’s also a gap between business leaders and employee perceptions regarding how easy it is to access help. 93 pr cent of Australian CEOs say it’s “very easy” or “easy” while only 68 per cent of employees agree.

Technology assisting health outcomes

The use of digital health tools among Australian employees, such as remote-based therapy and meditation apps, has doubled since 2020. 79 per cent of workers agree that it’s important that their company’s mental health benefits are based on methods that licensed behavioural health or medical professionals agree are effective. Support for diversity and inclusion is also seen as essential to managing stress and anxiety, with 90 per cent of Australian employees saying that it’s important that they bring their “whole self” to work.

“Employee mental health is a business continuity issue that every leader needs to address, particularly as many employees return to the office and experience new day-to-day stressors,” said Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace Health.

“To attract and retain talent, it’s critical that leaders destigmatise mental health from the top-down and meet the growing expectations of their employees for high-quality mental health benefits,” Glass concluded.

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