With the cost of living crisis already taking a toll on people’s emotional health, almost nine in 10 workers (85%) feel employers should play a role in mental health and wellbeing support.
However, the survey of more than 2,000 workers by HR platform Lattice has also concluded that four out of 10 employees (41%) do not have access to mental health and wellbeing resources via their employer.
This rose to nearly three-quarters (73%) of employees working in small businesses (less than 50 staff).
Equally worrying, while large companies (250+ employees) were by and large providing far more wellness resources for their staff, uptake of resources available remains low.
More than two-thirds of employees (68%) within these organisations admitted to not having made use of the wellness resources available to them in the past six months.
When asked to pick their top three reasons why this had been the case, the most chosen reason was they did not feel they needed any wellness/mental health resources.
Stigma was also an issue, however, with some workers still struggling with the topic of mental health. A total of 15% said they felt uncomfortable engaging or discussing wellness in the workplace, and 8% were concerned how engaging on the topic could affect people’s perceptions of them.
Cost of living crisis
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Nearly a quarter (23%) of employees said their mental health and wellbeing has declined in the last 12 months, which could lead to burnout.
“Our findings highlight that employers are still getting wellness in the workplace wrong”, said Seth Kramer, head of EMEA at Lattice.
“It’s important to remember that a one-size-fits all approach to mental health and wellbeing is never the solution, but employees want a concerted benefits package that demonstrates an appreciation and understanding of their needs.”
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Separately, a survey by jobs’ site RemoteWorker has concluded that nearly nine out of 10 employers (87%) have still not offered any financial support to their employees to reduce the impact of the cost of living crisis.
A quarter of the employees polled (25%) said working in an office was affecting their mental health, with nearly all (96%) saying they preferred to work from home full or part time, as this was one of the most positive parts of their job.
