A recent survey conducted by Peninsula Group, a global Employment Law, Employment Relations, Health & Safety advisory, and consultancy firm, has found that a quarter of employers have noticed an increase in sick leave due to mental health. However, despite this, 90% of businesses do not offer mental health days to employees.
The survey, which covered 79,000 businesses across four countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the UK), revealed that while 94% of employers are available to help staff who are struggling with mental health concerns, the support being offered by employers doesn’t always match up with what their employees need and want. Only 12% of employees have confided in their managers, and one in seven of those who did speak to their managers said that nothing was done.
The survey also found that two-thirds of employers said they are confident their employees would talk to them and disclose mental health concerns, but less than 10% of bosses said that they are comfortable discussing their own personal mental health. Employers in Canada and Australia are more likely to take time off work due to mental health compared to those in the UK or Ireland, and Canadian employers are more likely to offer mental health days in addition to personal leave entitlement than any other country surveyed.
Employers in the UK and Ireland are lagging behind, with 85% and 81% respectively not offering mental health days or planning to introduce them in the next 12 months. Ireland is also seeing an increase in the number of people taking time off work to care for family members with mental health issues; it was the only one of the four countries surveyed where this ranked in the top three answers.
The Employsure CEO, David Price, emphasized that mental health is an area that employers need to take seriously. “A total of 3.2 days per employee is lost each year due to work-related stress, and compensation claims directly related to workplace stress have doubled in recent years, costing the Australian economy over $10 billion a year,” he said. “Healthy employees make for a healthy workplace, so it’s encouraging that many employers are comfortable with having conversations around their own and their employees’ mental health. We’ve all seen the drastic impact that recent world events have had with many struggling to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and business owners; especially SME’s, are no different.”
Price added that while it is encouraging that people are speaking more openly about their mental health and prioritizing their work-life balance, employers should also remember that the service is there to support everyone, regardless of seniority within any organization. He also noted that more than half of Irish employers reported seeing no increase in the number of people experiencing mental health issues in their workplace.
Overall, the survey shows that the stigma around mental health in the workplace appears to be lifting, with 43% of employers stating that they have witnessed employees freely talking about their mental health in the last 12 months. However, there is still significant work to be done in this area, and employers need to do more to support their employees’ mental health.
Written by: William Trevan
