Alert: mental wellness in the workplace is crucial
Mental health isn’t something employees can just leave at home when they pop into the office or head to the worksite. Stress, fatigue, anxiety, personal pressures and workplace conditions can all affect how people feel and perform during the working day.
These days it’s incredibly prevalent and therefore unignorable even in a work environment. “43% of the Australian population aged 16–85 (8.5 million people) are estimated to have experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life…”
Because it can have a direct impact on productivity, absenteeism, staff retention, workplace safety and ultimately, the bottom line, mental wellness in the workplace is so much more than a wellbeing initiative.
For senior leaders, looking after mental wellness is about looking after your people, but it’s also about building a safer, stronger and more sustainable organisation.
Mental wellness is a business issue
It’s tempting to think of mental health as something to default to HR to manage. In reality, leaders and managers across any organisation influence employee mental wellness every day.
Workloads, staffing levels, working hours, communication, management styles, workplace relationships and expectations all play a part to risks to mental health at work.
When these aren’t managed well, the organisational impacts can include:
- increased absenteeism
- presenteeism, where employees are at work but unable to perform at their usual capacity
- lower productivity
- higher employee turnover
- workplace conflict
- increased workers’ compensation claims
- errors and incidents
- additional pressure on managers and other team members.
Looking at mental wellness through a business lens doesn’t diminish the human impact. In fact, it gives organisations another compelling reason to act early.
Here is a closer look at how it affects the workplace.
Increased absenteeism
Poor mental health can mean more time away from work, particularly when conditions such as anxiety, depression or work-related stress become difficult to manage. A major review of 38 studies found clear evidence linking poor mental health with increased absenteeism and lost workplace productivity.
For Australian organisations, the length of these absences can be substantial. Safe Work Australia reports that serious mental health workers’ compensation claims resulted in a median 37 working weeks lost, more than five times the median across all serious claims.
Increased presenteeism
Someone doesn’t necessarily need to be absent for their mental health to affect their work. Presenteeism occurs when an employee is at work, but a health issue reduces their ability to perform at their usual capacity. Presenteeism can cost $34 billion in lost productivity to Australian workplaces.
Research consistently links poor mental health, particularly depression and anxiety, with increased presenteeism and reduced performance while at work.
Lower productivity
Poor mental health can affect concentration, motivation and a person’s capacity to perform their role effectively. A critical review of workplace research found that 36 of the 38 studies examined identified an association between poor mental health and productivity loss through absenteeism and/or presenteeism.
World Health Organization estimates “Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity.”
Higher employee turnover
When workplace conditions consistently undermine mental wellness, organisations can also struggle to retain their people. Excessive workloads, job insecurity, bullying, discrimination and poor support are all recognised by the World Health Organization as risks to mental health at work.
Good people can be difficult and expensive to replace, particularly in industries already experiencing workforce and skills shortages. When experienced employees leave, an organisation doesn’t just lose a person. It can lose years of knowledge, experience, relationships and specialist skills.
More workplace conflict
Mental wellness doesn’t exist separately from workplace culture. Poor relationships and conflict can contribute to psychological harm, while stress and fatigue within teams can contribute to tension and harmful workplace behaviours.
Safe Work Australia specifically recognises conflict and poor workplace relationships and interactions as psychosocial hazards that employers need to identify and manage.
Poor mental health can be costly
Mental health conditions can result in considerably longer periods away from work than many physical workplace injuries.
“The median time lost from work in these cases is more than 5 times that recorded across all injuries/diseases.”
According to Safe Work Australia, the median compensation paid for serious mental health condition claims in 2022–23 was $65,400, compared with $14,500 across all serious claims.
Mental health conditions accounted for 11% of all serious workers’ compensation claims in Australia.
And compensation is only one part of the cost.
When an employee is away for an extended period, organisations may need to pay overtime, hire temporary workers, redistribute workloads or recruit replacements. Productivity can suffer and additional pressure may be placed on the rest of the team.
Mental wellness helps protect your people resources
Prevention can make financial sense too. Research commissioned by the Australian Government’s National Mental Health Commission found that Australian businesses can receive an average return of $2.30 for every $1 invested in effective workplace mental health initiatives.
Investing in mental wellness in the workplace can help organisations retain experienced employees, reduce unplanned absences and maintain workforce capacity.
This is particularly important for sectors such as healthcare, construction, mining, transport and aviation, where skilled and experienced workers can be difficult to replace quickly.
Make mental wellness part of your safety strategy
Mental wellness shouldn’t operate separately from the rest of your workplace health and safety strategy.
Depending on your organisation, a comprehensive approach could bring together:
- psychosocial risk management
- employee mental health support
- fatigue management
- employee assistance programs
- implementing wellbeing improvements
- alcohol and other drug education
- manager training
- clear drug and alcohol policies
- workplace drug and alcohol testing where appropriate.
Each addresses a different part of the picture.