Why do employees feel like mental health support has been disappearing through Covid-19?

FutureLearn research found that the great majority of employers didn’t offer any mental health support in the workplace (68%). Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis this figure has increased — but only to 58%. One in five of the 1,000 UK businesses surveyed said they were looking to re-evaluate their mental health policies.

Meanwhile, a study from Mercer Marsh Benefits among 332 UK HR and reward professionals and 162 staff has suggested that only around half of employees felt they received the support they needed during the pandemic. This is despite spending on benefits having increased considerably over the past two years. 78% didn’t think benefits had changed while in reality most had introduced new wellbeing offerings.

Second and third waves

Ongoing awareness of practical, everyday mental health support is becoming more rather than less important because of the dangers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The NHS expects there to be 230,000 new cases of PTSD as a result of the pandemic.

“It is vital that anyone exposed to traumatic events is properly supported at work and home. Early and effective support can reduce the likelihood of PTSD,” says Professor Neil Green Greenberg, Royal College of Psychiatrists.

“Students of previous pandemics will also know that the mental health burden often lags several years behind infectious disease because getting back to normal is challenging for many people. This is the second, silent pandemic.”

Needing more

“Perceptions of mental health support at work have changed,” said EAPA UK chair [https://www.eapa.org.uk/] Eugene Farrell. “What might have looked and felt like a solid example of services, signposting to advice resources and digital content, has become a disappointment.

“People are expecting more. Especially in a context where they’re being told their employer is investing more than ever into health and wellbeing, and in many cases the fall-out from the pandemic is only just starting to have a real impact. So that means making sure that the full range of EAP services are in place, and that communications and awareness of what that means, how services can and should be used, are everywhere and a priority through all channels.”

Why do employees feel like mental health support has been disappearing through Covid-19? EAPA UK

EAPA UK partners with Make A Difference Media and Evening Standard on new workplace wellbeing event ‘The Watercooler’

Next February, Olympia London will stage ‘The Watercooler’—an interactive, free-to-attend, two-day event bringing together leading minds from across the business and mental health industries to champion workplace wellbeing. In a world that all too often prioritises profit over people, The Watercooler seeks to address this imbalance, offering inspiration and actionable insight to employers and employees from around the country.

Bringing together the brightest, most innovative minds, the event will see over 5000 workplace wellbeing professionals in attendance, with over 100 speakers—including Professor Dame Carol Black, Professor Sir Cary Cooper, and Leena Nair—across a vast schedule of workshops and conferences, as well as 20 roundtable discussions hosted by industry experts. The programme is curated into three areas of wellbeing—Mental & Physical, Social & Inclusive, and Financial & Environmental—with content and interactive opportunities covering topics from ‘Addressing the New Type of Burnout’ to ‘Understanding and Supporting the Individual Needs of Neurodiverse Colleagues’.

Professor Dame Carol Black, Chair of the British Library and Centre for Ageing Better and speaker, commented: “The workplace post-COVID needs to be different. It must meet the mental, physical, financial, social, and environmental needs of the workers, as well as the purposes of the organisation. The Watercooler is where you can gather, make connections, learn from colleagues’ experiences, and find the right solutions for your organisation—whatever its size or shape.”

Claire Farrow, Partner & Global Director of Content of Make A Difference Events, said: “Our ambition is to create the largest, expert-led celebration of workplace wellbeing in the UK — bringing more and more employers to the workplace wellbeing conversation.”

Eugene Farrell, EAPA UK chair, added: “We are delighted to be supporting this new event and value the opportunity to be a part of a movement that continues to broaden the conversation on employee wellbeing.”

What will it take for men to start opening up on health?

Almost half of men say their mental health has declined during the pandemic, claims research carried out for Men’s Health Awareness Month.

Worse — 60% say they wouldn’t talk about mental health issues because of fears around what it would mean for their career.

Men’s health in general continues be a picture of challenges, many of which could be addressed by earlier and more honest conversations about health. One in five men die before they reach 65: suicide remains the biggest cause of death for men under 45; 67% of men are overweight or obese. Testicular and prostate cancer continue to be common threats despite being treatable conditions that need to be caught early.

Breaking barriers

This year’s International Men’s Day has focused on the importance of relationships between men and women, how bridging the gaps between the sexes will help with attitudes and perceptions towards men. Research by social scientists has shown how children with supportive fathers grow up happier and more secure.

What can employers do without pushing advice onto a male workforce that can already be flippant or sceptical when it comes to health campaigns?

Flexi-men

“In times of stress and crisis, a man still wants to see themselves as the rock, strong and dependable,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“They think they can’t show weakness in case that affects their prospects at work and how people think of them at home. Nothing is ever that simple, and so real problems around health that might start out minor, get ignored or denied.

“It’s all about helping men be more flexible and adaptable. Not so much a rigid rock of strength, but able to stretch and change when needed. Employers can help by simply making sure all staff get breaks and lunchtimes, are given the space and time outside of everyday pressures to keep in touch with how they’re feeling and to do something about it.

“Until the male cultural identity evolves further, the anonymity of the EAP and its direct link to professional advice continues to be important for men in particular.”

Will banning out-of-hours contact stop the rise of burnout?

New laws in Portugal mean employers can’t email, phone or message their workers outside of their contracted hours.

The sudden rise in the numbers of Portuguese working remotely has led to a re-think over conditions and the impact on employee health. The legislation also means employers can’t monitor staff activity at home, and they must provide the necessary equipment and pay a star of electricity and Internet bills.

Burnout begins

The move comes at a time as more governments become more aware of the new combinations of pressures facing employees.

New studies suggest that employers are only just beginning to see the consequences of the months of stress, overworking and disruption caused by the pandemic. A Glassdoor analysis of reviews suggests a 128% increase in people talking in terms of ‘burnout’ since April 2021 — most of all in the technology, business and finance sectors. According to Jill Cotton, careers advice expert at Glassdoor: “Many employees have been able to ‘grin and bear’ the impact of Covid-19 through 2020, but the one-year anniversary has proven to be a tipping point. They’re thinking again about their home and work lives, and we’re seeing UK job vacancies reach a record high due to the ‘Great Resignation’.”

Workplace culture specialist O.C. Tanner Europe found the pandemic had contributed to a 15% global rise in burnout, a figure which jumps to 81% among lower-performing company cultures. Its 2020 Global Culture Report claims that even mild burnout causes a 220% decrease in the probability of employees being highly engaged.

Signs of flames

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Employers need to recognise that in many ways, a year on from the new emergency and peak in problems, the crisis in employee mental health is only just starting. There has to be agreement at top levels over what to do about employee burnout, the need to ensure there’s a sense of collective responsibility, bosses and staff looking out for each other.

“The EAP is an essential in terms of making sure everyone has access to practical support and advice, that no-one has to feel like there’s nowhere to go without having awkward conversations with a line manager.

“But there’s also a need for HR and management attention to workplace cultures: do employees have a sense of control over their workload and practices; are they encouraged to take leave for rest and re-charging; do people feel able to just take a short break away from their screens, have a walk at lunchtimes and get proper breaks?”

Will banning out-of-hours contact stop the rise of burnout? EAPA UK

Why staff keep bullying and discrimination to themselves

A survey by law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp among 2,000 UK workers has suggested that just half think their employer will take their complaints of bullying, discrimination or harassment seriously.

Staff worry about how managers and HR will respond to their complaints, and what the implications will be for how they are perceived and their careers. Meanwhile, when problems are left unaddressed, the strains increase, relationships break down, and there are ripples of effects across teams and workplaces.

The study found that 59% of employees felt it was too expensive to turn to a professional law firm; 52% that there were too many barriers to getting legal support. Only 41% were comfortable with approaching a law firm at all.

The discrimination map

Data from last year points to widespread potential problems. A Key Law study found that more than a third of employees had either seen or experienced bullying themselves in the past three years.

A nationwide study by YouGov for Indeed in 2021 has claimed that London is they city where staff are most likely to be subject to discrimination (up to 30%). Then comes Northern Ireland (29%) and the Midlands (28%). The national average is 23%. The problems are far greater for people with minority ethnic backgrounds (where the figure relating to those likely to experience discrimination rises to 49%); people who are LGBT+ (47%) and those people with a disability (33%).

Always listening

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Listening to an employee’s concerns is a central part of the employer’s duty of care. Bottling up problems, whether it’s the result of issues at home or at work, is never helpful for either side. That’s why there have to be open channels for people to talk and access the advice they need.

“Just to have the option of opening up to a line manager on one hand, or going straight to a lawyer on the other, is no way to encourage a healthy workplace culture. Impartiality and independence is the critical thing. EAPs are always there to provide that early support, a bridge to defusing the most difficult situations.”

Has HR forgotten about the importance of ‘belonging’?

“To feel left out is a deeply human problem,” say authors of a new US study published in the Harvard Business Review, “which is why its consequences carry such heft and why its causes are so hard to root out of even the healthiest workplaces.”

The research into workplace exclusion by BetterUp, involving more than 2,000 participants, led to insights into how high levels of “belonging” meant increases in performance, retention and reduced absence.

Alien nation

The work has been backed up by another study in the UK by Connectr. In fact, the picture is worse. Its report (Belonging – HR’s Growing Crisis) among 2,000 office workers and 250 HR professionals suggests that only 34% felt like they belonged within their workplace community. 72% said they were looking for another job.

At the same time, 93% of HR respondents believed employees in their business had a feeling of belonging. The pandemic hasn’t helped: 89% saying the idea of belonging has become less of a focus. Around 30% also said they only started building real relationships with new staff after six months.

MD at Connectr, William Akerman, said: “Belonging isn’t simply a nice to have. And it isn’t a tick box exercise. The research demonstrates that it is vital for employers that want to be productive with an engaged, motivated and loyal workforce – critical for avoiding the predicted ‘great resignation’….it is clear the importance of employee belonging is a blind spot for HR.”

Belong again

Recommendations for how to make sure employees feel re-connected to the workplace include wider and more regular use of mentoring schemes, particularly among WFH staff. Make sure managers have the skills to act as a “fair-minded ally”, treating everyone equally and supporting those who might be subject to bullying.; and provide advice to people on how they can “navigate tricky workplace dynamics” through examples from past situations.

“Conversations are all-important for workplace belonging an building that sense of community, “ says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “Whether that’s among teams or with managers, open conversations are what help create and keep on reinforcing a sense of psychological security so people can be themselves. The hard reality, however, is that many employees don’t feel able to talk openly about their worries, and least of all to those people who they think will be judging them — which is why the independent, impartial listening, advice and support of EAP professionals is so important.”

EAPA member Spectrum.Life launches Europe’s first “Total Mental Health” solution

EAPA member, Spectrum.Life, a leading provider of mental health and wellbeing support for employers and insurers, has announced the launch of Total Mental Health.

Total Mental Health, the first service of its kind in Europe, will provide users with continuous mental health and wellbeing support, including unlimited on-demand access to a personal mental health coach and open-ended therapy, all at the touch of a button.

With the rise of hybrid and remote working, Spectrum.Life has seen an increase in employees struggling with mental health issues due to isolation and anxiety. Research shows that only 1 in 4 people who need mental health support are currently engaging with the care they need. There is still a perceived stigma around accessing support. Many people don’t know where to turn for help and are hit with long waiting times when they finally do.

“As we see from current waiting lists, the public health system isn’t coping with current levels of demand. We’re bridging that gap,” says Dr. Sarah O’Neill, Spectrum.Life’s Chief Clinical Officer. “Different people have different mental health needs at different times. Total Mental Health overcomes the barriers to seeking support and makes it easy for them to access the correct supports for their situation – whether that’s self-directed care, Mental Health Coaching, Therapy or more specialist care.”

Stephen Costello, CEO of Spectrum.Life, highlights that there is currently an unmet need for enhanced mental health support: “This is something that both employers and insurers have been asking for. While there’s still room for a traditional Employee Assistance Program (EAP), many of our customers have expressed a need for something greater, which enables them to care for the mental health and wellbeing of their employees and members, no matter what challenges they may be facing.”

Alison Platt who recently joined Spectrum.Life as a Non-Executive Director and also holds a number of Non-Executive Director positions in the UK, including Tesco plc added: “As employers navigate the new working world, one of the major topics of discussion in boardrooms across the UK is combating employee burnout and supporting the mental health of their staff who may be working partly or fully remote. Total Mental Health is the perfect solution to this challenge, providing tailored support to enable businesses to connect their employees with the services they need.”

On launch, Total Mental Health will provide a complete range of mental health and wellbeing support, including:

• Unlimited access to live and on-demand mental health coaches
• Open-ended therapy, as required
• Unlimited access to mental fitness tools, exercises and personalised paths
• Advanced mental health concierge team to support referral and guidance to specialist care, where required
• Unlimited 24/7 access to a qualified mental health team

Total Mental Health supports the entire spectrum of mental health and wellbeing and will benefit every single employee in an organisation.

For more information: www.spectrum.life

Why is technostress suddenly starting to pinch?

Data from HIVE360 suggests there has been a 155% increase in the number of employees making use of confidential mental health support services.

Why? The suspicion is that the return to more normal routines, or at least a more normal context for working, has also meant the return of normal expectations. Businesses are looking to make up lost ground, re-assert themselves, and that is dependent on the energy and productivity of employees.

The pandemic, for some, meant a loosening of demands. Only so much could be expected from people dealing will such serious threats of illness, with caring responsibilities and the disruption of what tasks were even possible in practice. But expectations are believed to have snapped back.

Feeling technostress

Authors of the HIVE360 report point to ‘technostress’ as being a new major cause of problems with mental wellbeing at work: where the use of IT, either struggling to adapt to ever-changing technologies or being sucked into an over-use and over-reliance on digital devices, leads to anxiety and burnout.

Employees are being expected to maintain their productivity and efficiency and that means quicker, more complete engagement with IT tools. Ongoing WFH and greater dependence on digital methods of working and communications is only intensifying the issue.

This is triggering a number of worrying mental and emotional issues from the stress and negative psychological impact of so much online working and virtual meetings, which is still more than ever, despite the return to the office for many, and the trend for hybrid working,” said David McCormack, CEO of HIVE360.

Recommendations to help mitigate technostress include: raising awareness of the existence of ‘technostress’ and its causes and symptoms; tracking the use of IT outside of work hours to identify trends; actively encouraging digital switch-off times and a reduction in unnecessary digital messaging; and providing more mental health training for managers.

Human intervention

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Digital tools have delivered one revolution after another in terms of how we work, its speed and efficiency. They have also opened up new channels for stress and anxiety. Channels that are increasingly automated – and inhuman.

“That’s why human services such as those provided via EAPs are such an important offering for employees. It’s useful to help managers become more aware of issues relating to mental health, how they can identify problems and signpost support – but it’s too much to expect staff already anxious about their performance and workload pressures to want to go to their line manager, at least not until it’s already too late. They want a human being to speak to.”

How does your employer brand stack up in the renewed war for talent?

Post-pandemic and post-Brexit we have a very different recruitment landscape: job vacancies continue to increase; more people are looking to switch careers.

There were more than two million job vacancies advertised between the 4th and 10th of October according to a Recruitment & Employment Confederation report. The swell of demand is also being seen in almost every locality of the UK, and across every sector. The largest increases in vacancies have been those areas that have been re-opening since Covid-19: in sports and leisure, libraries and housekeeping. Anecdotally, employers and employer groups have been reporting unfamiliar problems in hiring.

Greener pastures

A 2021 survey by Kallidus has suggested that almost half the UK workforce will be planning to change their job in the coming year. The main reasons given were the desire to have more flexible work patterns, to find more ‘purpose’ in their role, as well as for the more traditional reason of career progress.

In other words, in the post-pandemic environment, more people are thinking about how work makes them feel. The disruption and increased time for reflection has led to a re-analysis of priorities, a new focus on what’s most important about daily lives. Wellbeing and work/life balance over a straightforward pursuit of financial rewards.

Good stuff

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Keeping hold of staff and attracting new talent is going to be the biggest challenge of the coming year for many HR teams. The shake-up of normality, that sense of new possibilities, has made every employee think about how their life might be different and better.

“People are more conscious of what makes a ‘good’ employer. Those that provide the right mix of empathy, support and flexibility – the mix that leads to more people-shaped careers, rather than expecting staff to cram themselves into a specific set of duties and responsibilities.

“So organisations need to do much more than pay lip service to wellbeing. People need to see and feel how wellbeing is fundamental to the workplace culture, not just on the list of benefits. Strongly-promoted EAPs are a critical part of a good culture, there to provide a range of practical forms of everyday support, with people to talk to and real understanding of how work and home lives spark off each other.”

How does your employer brand stack up in the renewed war for talent? – EAPA UK

Why don’t more men use the EAP?

More open conversations and awareness of mental health and changes to workplace culture haven’t yet been converted into more men using EAPs.

Evidence from EAP usage since August 2020 by Towergate Health and Protection suggests that men are only half as likely to look for support with psychological health as women. At the same time we have a situation where men are three times as likely to commit suicide.

The data also showed how the main reasons for reaching out for help from an EAP were dealing with ‘anxiety and low mood’. More women were contacting EAPs about dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts. 56% of all calls to the EAP were made by women and only 29.5% by men (14.5% were an unspecified gender).

Many sizes approach

Towergate is urging HR to take a more tailored approach in order to make sure men in different roles and situations feel comfortable in contacting the EAP. Its suggestions include:

• specifically targeting communications to men regarding mental health support;

• piggyback national awareness days relevant to men, eg Movember, Father’s Day, Men’s Health Week;

• creating a men’s forum and ask them what would encourage them to seek help;

• showing (anonymised) case-studies of men that have accessed help;

• having a male champion at work to encourage accessing help.

“This is a solvable issue,” says Brett Hill, Distribution Director at Towergate. “Many employers will already have the resources to offer support but those who do not should consider putting them in place. It is all about making access visible, easy, and stigma-free.”

Get pro-active

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Just because many more people are talking about mental health at work now, there are more open conversations, more resources and tools for support, doesn’t mean the root problems have been dealt with.

“There’s something superficial about the acceptance of mental health as an issue at work – it doesn’t mean that everyone (men or women) are able or willing to admit they are struggling or that they can’t cope with stress, depression and anxiety on their own. The evidence now backs this up.

“HR can’t afford to assume that because they have an EAP in place, and there are regular mental health comms, that services are going to be used when really needed. Using the EAP, for some, is still something that other people use, when there’s a crisis, it’s nothing to do with them.

“More pro-active effort is needed to create a culture when people, and men in particular, feel able to talk to someone early on. As a matter of course, and not just when they’ve reached a serious low.”

Why don’t more men use the EAP? EAPA UK