I was interested to read the feature on employment issues in the latest issue, (HCM 3 2022, page 54 or www.hcmmag.com/staffing) especially during National Stress Awareness month, as it really highlighted that, no matter how much people love working in our industry, that alone is not enough, without better pay and conditions.
The impact on our workforce’s mental health has never been clearer; demonstrated by the 2022 Workforce State of Mind survey, launched at this year’s active-net by Workplace Mental Wealth, which found 57 per cent of respondents had experienced a mental health issue in the last 12 months.
While three-quarters of those with a line manager feel the manager cares about their mental wellbeing, only 11 per cent said someone regularly checks in on their mental health at work and 48 per cent said they would not be honest with an employer if they felt they needed time off work because of a mental health issue.
We need to do better, and it’s one of the reasons we were keen to theme this year’s event around mental health, with a keynote revealing the survey’s top-line results and provoking a discussion around how employers can do more and breakout sessions discussing the wellbeing of our workforce, customers and communities.
After-dinner speaker, Jamie Cartwright, held the room in silence for more than an hour as he told his powerful story of child abuse at the hands of football coach, Barry Bennell, and how he turned his life around.
The talk had a profound effect on delegates, with many approaching me to say how touched they were by his honesty and declaring their organisations’ mental health pledge.
I hope these frank discussions encourage more employers to sign up to the Good Work pledge at www.workplacementalwealth.com and engage with next year’s survey, so we can continue to gauge and improve how we’re doing as an industry.
It’s time to give the same importance to mental health as we do to physical health. We hope active-net 2022 put a spotlight on how our sector can help.
It’s time to give the same importance to mental health
as we do to
physical health