It doesnt matter if were talking about quiet quitting, bare minimum Monday, its almost Friday Thursday, or I swear if theres one meeting on my calendar Fridayits obvious the American worker is going through it. Two-plus years of an isolating, anxiety-inducing pandemic gravely impacted peoples mental health. We worked through it for the most part, or simply dove right back in in the post-vaccinated world.
Three out of four U.S. employees, according to a new study from One Medical and Workplace Intelligence, say their mental and physical health either worsened or stayed the same in 2022a year marked by pushes to return to normal and get workers back to their desks in corporate offices.
One Medical, a membership-based primary care practice, surveyed 1,600 U.S. workers and HR leaders, 64% of whom reported struggling with mental or behavioral health issues. As a result, 91% of those workers say theyre less productive. Whats more, 45% of employees struggling with mental health at work report a productivity loss of more than five hours a week.
The study lays out the major problem: As workers contend with higher levels of anxiety and stress at work and increased workloads, theyre unable to access the care and information they need from their employers to get help. More than half of the respondents say they feel overwhelmed when navigating the healthcare system, and despite the 64% of workers reporting struggling with mental health, only 19% say they used their companys mental health care benefits in 2022. Thats partly because companies arent necessarily making it easy to navigate them.
Employers have come a long way in their support of employees mental health, but workers arent making the most of the benefits available to them, Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, says in a statement. Its critical that companies focus on improving care navigationincluding pointing people to primary care as a first stepif they want to move the needle on this issue. Those that dont will continue to experience productivity losses and other negative outcomes that can result from poor workforce mental health.
Its clear that companies need to do more when it comes to addressing employees mental health. In a 2022 survey from PwC of more than 720 executives, roughly 62% acknowledged they had either already implemented, or have a plan in place to expand, mental health benefits for their workers. A little more than 20% of respondents said they were considering developing a plan.
Theres a benefit for companies to invest more both in developing their mental health programs and making sure employees understand and utilize them when needed. When they invest in mental health needs, companies tend to see a 4x return on their investment.
Plus, 97% of the HR leaders in One Medicals survey agreed that providing healthcare benefits that are high-quality, patient-centered, and a good value increases job satisfaction, employee engagement, and their ability to recruit and retain employeesall leading to more productive workers.
