Investment in company culture outperforms individual approaches to mental health, such as therapy services, self-care apps and even time off, according to an Oct. 10 report from Mind Share Partners and Qualtrics.

In fact, about 78% of U.S. workers said an emphasis on healthy and sustainable workplaces would be moderately to extremely helpful for mental health.

“Many employers have begun to take mental health at work seriously, and their efforts are producing noticeable results. That said, mental health broadly is not improving,” Kelly Greenwood, founder and CEO of Mind Share Partners, said in a statement. “Economic uncertainty and workplace factors — unsustainable workloads, a lack of a supportive community and systemic inequalities — are leading to employees languishing in their jobs. This is where organizational culture change is needed.”

In a survey of 1,500 U.S. workers, mental health in the workplace appears to show mixed trends post-pandemic. For instance, there was a 20% decline in workers reporting mental health symptoms this year after a major spike in 2021, which is a positive trend. However, employees’ views of their own mental health continued to decline, building on declines in previous years. In addition, nearly a quarter of workers cited work as their biggest stressor.

As Mind Share Partners reported in previous years and confirmed this year, women, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+ and Generation Z employees tend to report worse mental health outcomes than their colleagues. However, investments in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have led to improvements. Workers who said their employer supported their identity were also more engaged at work, committed to their employer and reported better mental health outcomes, according to the survey.

Click for full article