More on the Great Resignation — Employers & Mental Health

Over the last few months Weekly Industry News has done several stories on the Great Resignation and how people are changing jobs on an unprecedented scale. We’ve looked at why they’re leaving, why people stay with jobs, and what employers should look for to keep the people they have working for them.

Mental health is one of the main themes we’ve run across in most of our stories.

According to a survey done by Uprise Health titled, Are you Listening? What Employees Expect from Employers for Mental Health Support, mental health issues are primary in the decision to leave a company and the primary reason to stay.

The conclusion of the survey of 1,100 workers is this: employers prioritizing the wellbeing of their employees will have more success keeping people than their other businesses. They’ll also do better in recruiting for open positions.

Here’s more information from the survey:

56% say they thought about leaving their jobs during the pandemic

25% of that group said their mental health was the reason

78% say their mental health has been impacted by the pandemic

These are issues we’ve seen before in other surveys so most of you won’t find those statistics all that surprising. Here’s how the 78% claim their mental health was compromised by the pandemic:

43% felt overloaded with work

39% were frustrated with company leadership and coworkers

28% say they were not recognized for the hard work they put in

Dr. Jay Spence is a clinical psychologist at Uprise Health. He said what separates employers people want to leave from those able to keep workers, is attention on mental health from human resources departments.

Their focus was improving mental health at work.

Those taking the survey liked that their current employers are doing to help them with their mental health:

83% say their workplace has been supportive of their mental health

60% say they are comfortable talking with supervisors about their mental health

Spence said this effort has — apparently — paid off. “Compared to a year ago, there has been a significant increase in these numbers, meaning the efforts that have gone into making workplaces less stigmatized against mental health is starting to pay off,” he said. Spence noted those employing a more sophisticated look at employee mental health, and how it can impact the retention of employees, have been more successful.

He also pointed out that these efforts have worked best with younger workers — those in the 18 to 29 year old range. A third of them have changed jobs in the last half year. Pandemic related stress is the reason they gave for leaving.

“You attract Gen Z through mental health policies and practices,” Spence said. “They’re not as worried about the stigma because it has become more normalized in their conversations. Their expectation is to treat mental health the same as a physical illness.”

Source link: Insurance Business America — https://bit.ly/3sajYfJ