Tick-box mental wellbeing programmes stand no chance of success

Mental health at work has never been higher profile, with government, think tanks, the Royal Family and employer bodies all committed to improving wellbeing. But Business in the Community’s 2018 Mental Health at Work report found that only 16 per cent of workers feel able to disclose a mental health condition to their manager. 

Why does there seem to have been so little progress on mental wellbeing at work, despite all the evidence and high-profile coverage?

REBA’s 2019 Employee Wellbeing Awards showed that there are employers who truly excel when it comes to supporting staff mental wellbeing – however it’s clear that many others still fall short of making deep changes to company culture that go beyond paying lip service to mental wellbeing.

Genuine commitment to positive mental wellbeing at work requires deeper understanding of a workforce’s needs, coupled with long-term action to create a culture that recognises and supports those needs. Without that commitment, workplace programmes risk being reduced to a tick-box exercise

Building an inclusive approach from entry- to board-level staff – is an important consideration. Pay grades and senior job titles do not act as a shield against poor mental wellbeing. Research from the Institute of Directors showed that 57 per cent of the 500 business leaders it polled had experienced mental health issues which were triggered or exacerbated by pressures at work.

Different parts of the workforce may also have different needs. Analysis from thinktank The Work Foundation has recommended that public health  (and by association workforce) messages around mental health need a re-think in order to better support men, particularly those in high-risk roles – suicide risks in the construction sector, for example, are three times higher than the national average.

Through the Thriving at Work report and research from other bodies such as BiTC and CMHA (supporting partners of the Employee Wellbeing Congress), there is now a growing body of best-practice guidelines and tools for employers to access. Closer collaboration between public health and businesses could also bring benefits to both. A trial in Birmingham  has seen the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) provide guidance and financial support to around 150 small and medium sized businesses in the region to help them create wellbeing programmes.  Around 40 per cent of sickness absence in the area is related to mental health issues, so there are clear benefits to be gained.

The effect of mental wellbeing on absence rates and productivity will inevitably impact businesses’ bottom line. It’s no surprise, then, that it is starting to attract more scrutiny from legislators, fund managers and investors. From next year, pension schemes will be expected to document how they assess risk in the companies they invest in – and that will shine a much closer light on the relationship between wellbeing and business performance. If wellbeing and workplace culture aren’t Board-level objectives in themselves,  they will most certainly underpin any business’s wider goals. 

However, according to research from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, only around 3 per cent of FTSE 100 businesses currently report on the mental wellbeing of their staff. That suggests there is still a long way to go if we are to raise standards of mental wellbeing across the board.  But investor scrutiny and tick-box exercises are hardly the best driver for creating a positive workplace culture.  Effective wellbeing programmes have the most impact when they are proactively driven by employers themselves and rooted in the needs of the workforce.