An independent review of mental health in the workplace has found that employers are losing billions of pounds because employees are less productive, less effective or off sick due to poor mental health.
Thriving at Work by Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer found that poor mental health costs employers between £33 billion and £42 billion a year, with the annual cost to the economy of between £74 billion and £99 billion.
There is also a significant human cost to poor mental health. The report revealed that around 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem lose their job each year, while 15% of people at work have symptoms of an existing condition.
‘At a time when there is a national focus on productivity the inescapable conclusion is that it is massively in the interest of both employers and government to prioritise and invest far more in improving mental health,’ stated the report. ‘The UK can ill-afford the productivity cost of this poor mental health.’
The report sets out how employers can better support staff to help them thrive at work by quantifying how investing in mental health is good for business and productivity. It also makes a series of recommendations for employers to put in place, including a set of six ‘core standards’ for organisations to introduce.
‘We need to move to a society where all of us become more aware of our own mental health, other people’s mental health and how to cope with our own and other people’s mental health when it fluctuates. It is all our responsibilities to make this change. However in line with the brief we have been given by the Prime Minister, employers are perhaps able to have the greatest impact and scope to make an impact,’ the report found.