A week before the one-year anniversary of lockdown, damning research by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) reveals many employees have yet to receive any form of wellbeing support from their employer.
Timed to coincide with MHFA’s ‘My Whole Self Day’, today's research has found that since the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic started, a quarter of staff have still had no wellbeing check-ins, while nearly a third (29%) have yet to have any mental health discussions with their line managers.
According to the charity, the results should be a wake-up call to employers to “take steps to increase support for their people.”
MHFA England CEO Simon Blake said: “COVID-19 has increased the need for employers to support the mental health and wellbeing of their staff. But as these figures show, support now needs serious attention as we start to rebuild.”
Particularly worrying, said Blake, was the finding that the impact of lack of help was creating serious gender inequalities.
The research found that more than double the number of women than men (68% vs 31%), said their workplace confidence had dipped as a result of the pandemic, while many more women (64%) reported feelings of loneliness and isolation than men (36%).
“As these statistics show,” said Blake “the pandemic has laid bare pre-existing inequalities – gender, race and economic – and in turn it has exacerbated them.”
Overall, the research revealed 41% of employees said they had less frequent wellbeing check-ins, or none at all, during the pandemic, while 43% of those polled said their workplace mental health and wellbeing support had either stayed the same, or got worse, during the pandemic.
More encouraging however, was the finding that 38% of employees said they found it easier to bring their ‘whole self’ to work, and be more open with colleagues while working from home. This was double the number of those who found it more difficult to do so (19%).
MHFA is specifically calling for staff to be able to do this more, with My Whole Self Day aimed at creating cultural change within organisations.
Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) said: “Now more than ever it's imperative staff feel able to bring their whole self to the office. The pandemic has showed the need for more empathetic leadership.”
My Whole Self Day is backed by mental health leaders in organisations ranging from The Samaritans, Nestle, Bupa UK, UBS and LinkedIn.