Wellbeing at Work - (Mental Health)

Stevenson & Farmer’s ‘Thriving at Work’, 84 page report makes for sober reading. The report commissioned by the PM herself highlights some of the uncomfortable truths aptly summarised in the following statement - “ .... the UK is facing a mental health challenge at work that is much larger than we had thought. Not only is there a human cost of poor mental health at work, there are also knock on impacts for society, the economy and the Government. Employers are losing billions of pounds because employees are less productive, less effective or off sick.”

In numbers this message translates to around 15% of those at work having symptoms of a mental health problem and 300,000 people leaving work each year. Poor mental health costs employers between £33-42 billion a year and the government about another £24-27billion. With other costs added the total financial impact of poor mental health on the UK is between £74-£99billion per year.

They go on to set out a robust set of recommendations for addressing the challenges as they see them and emphasise the importance of collective focus on delivering good mental health at work.

Another key positive from the report is the clear definition of ‘mental health’ they proffer based on the WHO notion of good mental health. It is “a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”

Eko Consulting is a boutique Consultancy absolutely committed to facilitating the achievement of positive change at individual, team, organisational and societal level. We have a strong interest in the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the British workforce.