Sleeping for productivity

Dealing with cases of chronic insomnia would save the UK economy £34 billion a year, according to a study carried out by RAND Europe for Swiss pharmaceutical business Idorsia.

Research has shown that 80% of people suffering from insomnia — including lying awake at night, waking up several times at night and finding it difficult to get to sleep — reported that insomnia had impacted on their performance at work, including their concentration and ability to deal with stress. Employees said they would be willing to trade up to 14% of their annual household income for a regular good night’s sleep.

Wide-awake and unproductive

Calculations from the study point to insomnia leading to 11 to 18 days’ absence per staff member; 39 to 45 days of working while ‘sick’; and 44 to 54 days to lost productivity — meaning 1.31% lost productivity for the UK overall.

Marco Hafner, RAND Europe Research Advisor said: “Our findings point to the need for more timely diagnosis and management of insomnia to improve outcomes for patients and deliver better economic outcomes for the UK. This could include incorporating insomnia screening within routine clinic visits and enabling access to evidence-based, affordable, and cost-effective treatments for chronic insomnia.”

Culture alarm

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Sleep is fundamental to wellbeing — and to psychological health in particular, the times when the mind works on restoring its balance. Disturbed sleep is typically one symptom of stress and anxiety, of an uneasy mind, and is a consequence of a complex bundle of causes.

“To provide genuine support for employees around healthy sleeping, organisations need to be thinking about the bigger picture: the workplace culture and working routines and how they might be having an impact on states of mind. Issues like feelings of uncertainty and a lack of control around workloads and meeting targets.

“In this context, EAPs are of particular value in terms of helping people better understand and deal with underlying issues at home and work, take back more control and feel able to switch off when they need to.”

Mental Health Awareness Week 2018

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week next week which makes it the perfect opportunity to review workplace health and wellbeing and think about what more employers could be doing to create, and promote, a culture of acceptance around mental health.

While the majority of work-related stress is attributed to workload, around 1 in 7 people say it is due to a lack of support despite EAPs being the most popular wellbeing initiative provided by employers in the UK. So why the disparity? “While awareness is growing, there’s still a significant disconnect between the EAP services already being provided by organisation to support workplace stress and wellbeing and awareness among employees,” explains EAPA UK chair, Neil Mountford. “There are a number of issues at play that are focused around a lack of understanding of what an EAP is and how it can help but also employee concerns about the confidentiality of these types of services. If employers are serious about creating mentally healthy workplaces, a good first step is dispelling the myths and improving the knowledge that exists around EAPs within their organisation.”

This starts with educating managers about the EAP and its services so that they can better communicate this to their teams and signpost more effectively when needed. Organisations could also think about hosting regular EAP awareness and mental health education sessions. By improving knowledge around EAPs, employers can help increase usage of the service and help mitigate mental health issues from escalating to the level of requiring clinical intervention and time away from work.

“We would encourage employers to talk to their EAP providers about working together to develop tailored communications and education sessions to increase knowledge and awareness around the wide range of services provided by EAPs. Organisations that do this will see the long term benefits of a successful EAP and the positive impact of employees wellbeing on the organisation through improved productivity and fewer days lost to mental ill health,” said Neil.

So if take-up of your EAP is low, Mental Health Awareness Week could be the perfect opportunity to start educating employees about what an EAP is and the different ways it can help.

EAPs can help support mental health among middle managers

Last week, the CIPD launched the UK Working Lives survey, the first comprehensive measure of job quality in the UK. Combining previous research on the factors that affect job quality with a 6,000 sample survey, representative of the whole UK workforce, the results show that while overall headline satisfaction with work and jobs is reasonable, there are significant numbers who feel differently, and importantly some major systemic issues with overwork, stress and a lack of training and development.

It reports that while two-thirds of workers (64%) are satisfied with their job overall, one in four workers (25%) feel their job negatively affects their mental health, while nearly a third (30%) say their workload is too much. In particular, the survey highlights a concerning trend among workers in middle management, indicating that they have too much on their plate, a factor which is having a detrimental effect on their wellbeing. Among its recommendations, the CIPD advises employers address cultures of presenteeism, place a greater focus on wellbeing and encourage more flexible working.

“While many organisations already have an EAP in place to support the wellbeing of their employees, there appears to be a lack of awareness around the coaching and guidance element of many EAP programmes which are there to support line managers specifically,” said Neil Mountford, chair of the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association. “We urge employers to talk to their EAP provider about these services and to work together to more actively promote the training and coaching services available to line managers which can help them manage their day-to-day pressures more effectively.”

You can ready the CIPD’s UK Working Lives Survey here.