The cost of poor mental health is equivalent to around 5 percent of the UK’s GDP, and the cost to UK businesses alone is circa £56m. These figures are startling and are one of the reasons why organisations are spending more time and money on supporting the mental health of their workforce.
For organisations that invest in supporting their people’s mental health, the return on investment is anything between £5 and £11 for every £1 spent. According to a survey, these figures come from a combination of increased productivity, performance, and collaboration, and reduced presenteeism, absenteeism, and staff turnover.
Those who reduce their investment in workplace mental health support may be paying for it in other ways, however, this may not be immediately obvious as most organisations have no way of tracking or reporting on this.
Any company choosing to make mental health at work a priority within their organisation and looking to implement initiatives to promote good mental health, can first measure what is intended to be improved. Appointing a specialist mental healthcare company to carry out an audit of your current provision can help you to understand what is working well and where the gaps are. It can also help you to plan for future workforce changes.
Utilising data and insights for measurement allows you to mitigate risk and optimise working conditions, as well as identify anomalies and trends. It can also influence positive corporate cultural and organisational change and address key issues and driving up performance.
As a business, perhaps consider the following questions as you explore what support you could provide your employees:
- How could your team’s mental health be impacting your company performance?
- As a business are you championing mental health in the workplace?
- Would all employees know what to do if a mental health crisis incident occurred?
- How can you go beyond a staff survey to really understand the impact of investing in the mental health of your people?
When we ensure we are effectively measuring the positive impact of mental health, organisations are in a much stronger position to direct initiatives appropriately to optimise that return on investment. We also see that by effectively measuring and monitoring progress, we can increase that return further.
Measurement also encourages early intervention to aid recovery. Taking steps to prevent poor mental health from developing is more effective than waiting until people become ill. In troubling times where an employee needs additional support, employers equipped with the right skills to recognise the early warning signs are very important, as is having the confidence to encourage professional help where necessary.
By becoming more informed and aware, employees and managers can spot the signs sooner rather than later. This reduces the likelihood of mild symptoms becoming more severe and can make recovery easier.
Data and insights can feed into every part of your mental health strategy and policy. Whether that is line manager training, diagnosis and treatment of employees, or the appointment of various support services, such as employee assistance programmes and occupational health.
Employees now cite mental health and wellbeing strategy, and a positive people proposition as a top priority when choosing an organisation to work for. Prospective employees value organisations that have a cohesive programme for mental health training and place the health and wellbeing at the centre of their organisation. There’s no time like the present to put an effective and tailored mental health strategy and measurement process in place to help protect the mental health of your workforce.
