How companies can improve mental health in the workplace
Companies need to tackle systemic issues — such as high workloads, operational inefficiencies, and workplace culture — that cause mental health distress and burnout, rather than offering well-being programs that treat individual employees as the source of mental health concerns, say Harvard Business Review bloggers.
“We argue — based on a systematic review of recent research in this area — that the lack of impact of [corporate] well-being programs is explained in part by a focus on the individual employee rather than the systems that affect them,” mental health researchers Jazz Croft, Acacia Parks and Ashley Whillans write in a recent blog published in Harvard Business Review.
“To tackle the challenges employees face, we argue that there must be a shift from individual-level interventions (‘I-frame’), like well-being [and meditation] apps, AI chatbots, and employee stress management training, to broader systemic interventions (‘S-frame’), such as workload management and mental health development training for leaders.”
In Canadian Underwriter’s 2024 Mental Health Survey, made possible with the assistance of Allstate Canada and Friends of the Industry Healing Together (FIHT), about 61% of 836 property and casualty insurance industry professionals identified heavy workloads as the principle driver of high stress levels.
Thirty-eight per cent reported their stress levels as between 6 to 8 on a scale of 10 (where 10 means ‘unable to cope’). Asked to explain the reasons for their stress levels in open-ended answers to the survey, many industry professionals cited systemic factors like heavy workloads.
“Workload is a huge issue,” one Canadian P&C professional reports in the survey, “and if not addressed when you come back [from a mental health leave], the stress is likely to come back.”
CU’s mental health survey was conducted just after four major natural catastrophes happened in the span of a month, costing Canadian P&C insurers a record-setting $7.6 billion, while taxing industry resources already mired in a well-documented labour shortage.
The HBR blog authors suggest organizations align their structures according to recommendations from the World Health Organization and ISO 45003, the first global standard for managing psychological health and safety at work.
The authors note regulations around ESG (Environment Social and Governance) considerations are increasingly calling for businesses to address mental health in the workplace. As part of this, the authors call for organizations to align with these expectations — and attract investor interest — by adhering to standards like ISO 45003.
This ISO standard, “helps companies systematically assess and implement measures across organizational policies, work environments, and support systems to eliminate or manage psychosocial risks,” the authors write.
“Adopting such frameworks not only prepares organizations for potential legislative changes but also ensures they provide effective support for both individual and systemic changes.”
Also, business executives and managers need more training on mental health to better identify issues as they arise, and to align business processes in ways that foster better mental health environments in the workplace.
“C-suite leaders are now playing a key role in proactive, organization-wide measures rather than reactive, individual-level interventions,” the blog authors write. “Most notably, some companies have invested in hiring senior executives such as chief wellness officers and chief happiness officers — including major names in business such as Deloitte, Google, Rakuten, Salesforce, TikTok, and Siemens.”
Some in the U.S. business community have even suggested linking executives’ compensation packages to improving metrics for measuring mental health in the workplace.
Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/Hiraman
