STRONG MINDS, STRONGER BUSINESSES: BREAKING THE SILENCE ON MENTAL HEALTH
- Business Sense
- Jun 19
- 4 min read
Mental health continues to be a very important topic to me, and I have written several articles, done webinars and have counselled a number of people, both in the workplace and outside of the workplace.The reality of the impact of mental health in the workplace is staggering, and businesses must take action to avoid its major impact on their profitability. I run a programme for managers, including HR managers, which I believe will make a huge difference in dealing with the challenge of mental health in the workplace.
These are a few points from an article, by Dave Ulrich, a well known Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organisations and leaders deliver value.
According to Ulrich, “The world is increasingly chaotic with a host of unpredictable disruptions in technology (AI), political actions, social trends, environmental sustainability, and economic uncertainty. With this continuing chaos, we aren’t surprised that mental health has become a primary concern for society, organisations, leadership and individuals along many dimensions. These mental health concerns impact how people and organizations operate.” Ulrich further suggests the need to make progress on this problem, and to develop definite actions to deal with this. These suggestions apply to business managers and HR leaders as well as individuals struggling with mental health concerns.
One of my concerns is the ability or even the capacity of managers to manage the mental health of their employees, given the number of other business objectives they need to meet. My favourite headline, from a programme run by Heathrow in the United Kingdom, is for managers to “Catch employees before they fall” – a module in their training programme for their managers.
The illustration (Figure 1) Ulrich outlines ‘Mental Health Concerns’ that are vital for businesses to take note of.
Mental Health at Work
Previous articles written by me in Business Sense publications have also outlined information contained in Ulrich’s article on the impact of mental health at work. These articles emphasised the cost of depression and anxiety to the business. According to Ulrich:
■ Poor well-being lowers productivity and increases turnover, absenteeism, and medical costs, as well as costing organisations 15-20 percent of total payroll.
■ The cost of mental illness and related consequences is projected to rise to $6 trillion globally by 2030 (up from $2.5 trillion in 2010).
■ Loneliness affects 58 percent of the U.S. population. Adults are two to five times more likely to miss work, costing R154 billion annually.
Because mental health is an important topic to me, I have done some work on this area – in webinars, in face-to-face counselling and in telephonic counselling, and I am now doing niche training for managers and HR managers in business.
According to Ulrich, stress affects employees at all levels. Ninety-eight percent of leaders and senior managers find their jobs stressful in some way; 38 percent of frontline employees say they are stressed at work at least half of the time; and 41 percent feel emotionally drained from their work. He further explains that Gallup reports a ten year low in employee engagement, especially due to unmet expectations and inadequate caring and development.
Men’s Mental Health
Another challenge that is emerging is specifically that of men’s mental health and asking them to “man up” is not the answer. Research from around the world has found that males everywhere are reluctant to talk about their mental health and are more likely to die by suicide than females due to mental health issues. Situational stressors have been identified as playing a major role in suicide deaths among males, many of whom do not have a documented history. In 2022, the American Journal of Public Health Trusted Source, published a review of studies dealing with the societal stigma surrounding mental illness. The journal reported that men who internalised this stigma were less likely to get help for their psychological issues. Further research suggests that men who experience depression may self-medicate with alcohol and other substances. However, this can exacerbate their issues and put them at risk of other health conditions. This article and others have all just touched the tip of the iceberg of this problem for business, which impacts their employee wellbeing and their business profitability, and further stresses the importance of training our leaders in this topic.
Conclusion and Implications
According to Ulrich, mental health improvement requires both a set of actions and a focused state of mind. They have to embark on actions for affected employees in their care, but perhaps even more so for managers and HR professionals who are often the mental health caregivers or the “first responders” for others. All should invest in mental health by engaging in actions that enable us to overcome being overwhelmed.” The training programme presented by me will assist both HR practitioners and managers to improve their ability to manage mental health in the workplace.
Contact Jacquie to book:
C: +27 (0)83 386 8343
