Employers should do more than just talk

Workers still fear discrimination despite years of raising awareness. Do companies need to go further?

- Bethan Staton

Spring has been a particularly busy time for mental health awareness at work.

Companies have taken every opportunity to trumpet their approach to mental health problems from highlighting burnout to the impact of global government elections. Many were responding to April's stress awareness month, which was quickly followed by Mental Health Awareness Week in May.

But an extensive report by a coalition of businesses, including Deloitte and BP, suggests those efforts may have been in vain.

Nearly one-third of the 12,000 people surveyed by the Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health (GBC) said they would not tell their boss that mental health challenges were the reason they had to take time off. They had cause to be cautious: Half the people who did disclose such problems said they had been discriminated against at work as a result.

Even after all those awareness campaigns, only 22 per cent of people thought stigma surrounding mental health in the workplace had fallen since the Covid-19 pandemic. Fewer than half of respondents said their workplace offered useful support when it came to mental health.