The FINANCIAL — A national mental health at work survey, commissioned by Business in the Community in partnership with Mercer, has found that employees are struggling to deal with the demands and insecurities of the workplace and that financial insecurity is contributing to the national burden of poor mental health.
The survey of over 4,000 people, conducted by YouGov and run for the third consecutive year, exposes the relationship between personal finances and mental health, with two thirds of respondents saying their mental health and wellbeing is affected by job security (66%) the state of the economy, (65%) and the cost of living (77%).
Financial concerns caused three-fifths of respondents to say they had experienced negative mental health symptoms such as loss of sleep, stress, lack of concentration, and fatigue, with younger workers in their 20s bearing the brunt of job insecurity and low wages; 90% reported their mental health was affected by the cost of living.
Fewer than half of employees (46%) are satisfied with their current financial situation, and 56% of employees are reluctant to talk about money issues at work.
Employees were more likely to talk to their manager about general mental health issues (24%) than financial issues (14%) when given a direct choice. However, half still say they wouldn’t like to talk about either, and only 17% of employees believed that their employer supports those with financial difficulties.
Although most employees feel unable to talk about financial wellbeing and mental health at work, 85% of people managers saw employee wellbeing as being their responsibility. Meanwhile 68% of managers believed that there were barriers to providing support for staff mental wellbeing, with training a key concern; 67% of line managers said they had not had any training on mental health.
Business in the Community is calling on organisations to do more to support conversations between staff and their line managers about all aspects of wellbeing, including financial.
The report asks employers to take action to support financial wellbeing. They should:
Integrate financial wellbeing into organisational health and wellbeing policies and be explicit about what’s available or acceptable within the organisation to people with financial issues. For example, pay advances, hardship loans, time off to sort financial issues, travel loans, access to EAP, money counselling or other support services.
Offer financial education to improve employee financial understanding increase the use of existing benefits; making available salary deducted savings, in order to create a financial buffer; or offering salary-deducted lower cost loans to help employees who are in debt or have unexpected expenditure but no savings. Include awareness of financial issues in line manager employee wellbeing training and equip them with information about what solutions are available as part of the overall employee benefits package.
Alongside the recommendations on financial wellbeing, The Mental Health at Work report asks employers to:
Talk – Break the culture of silence that surrounds mental health by taking the Time to Change Employers Pledge.
Train – Invest in basic mental health literacy for all employees and first aid training in mental health to support line manager capability.
Take action – Implement the practical guidance found in Business in the Community and Public Health England’s Mental Health toolkit for employers.
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