Mental Health Issues and its Effects on Productivity [Infographic]

Career is a cardinal word and it holds paramount importance in our life. It is what our livelihood depends on. Be it saving for college fees, paying off student-loan, buying a new car, the mortgage on a house, getting married, sending children to school, meeting up with friends for dinner, or shopping for Christmas, or any other thing you think of, it all comes from what you earn. So one’s workplace, from where we make out career and earn comes from, is like the Holy Grail for any person in the world.

60% of employees (60%) have experienced mental health issues in the past year because of work

When there is a slight alteration in the work environment it can affect the mental well-being of a person. An unreasonable boss, an unrealistic target, competition for the coveted promotion, unpleasant colleagues, health issues, etc. can affect the productivity of a person, which in turn can cost the employer or the company. Each person is different and their threshold to take on the work stressors can be different. Some buckle in very early while some can go and cope with stress for long periods of time. However, what we have to see here is that each person has some kind of stress, and also has a different way of coping with it.

It is a good thing, many business directors and managers are beginning to take notice of the mental health of their workers

As per the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people suffer from depression globally which is the number one cause of disability. Depression can also be accompanied by anxiety, which is another issue that is bothering a majority of people in the around the world. A recent WHO-lead study gauges that depression and anxiety issues cost the worldwide economy US$ 1 trillion every year in lost productivity.

Only 13% felt able to disclose a mental health issue to their line manager

A negative work environment is one of the major reasons for the staggering mental health issues in the workplace. Some of the factors that lead to mental health issues are poor correspondence and administration rehearses, inadequate health and safety policies, limited or lack of support for employees, an unwelcoming team, inflexible work hours, limited or no participation of employees in decision making, unclear tasks, unclear organizational objectives, etc. This list can go on; identifying and dealing with all of these should be a priority of the employers.

Mental health problems are often overlooked at workplace mainly because these are often difficult to identify or probably hidden as such employees are usually reluctant to seek medical help or shy away from discussing it with the manager. An employee might also consciously not want to share it with colleagues at work because of the fear of getting mocked.

Cost of a single unhappy employee per year – £16,000

Creating a healthy workplace is of utmost importance to prevent loss of productivity. Having proper health and safety policies, involving employees in decision making, improving company culture, recognizing and rewarding employee efforts, effectively communicating about the tasks, encouraging taking breaks, having proactive team building programmes that emphasize on the importance of teamwork can all help in the betterment of workforce mental health issues.

Click here to know the statistics of how mental health can affect a workplace in detail, you can go through this amazing infographic from Maximillion. It discusses all the statistics and the reasons that are causing mental health issues are and provides recommendations on effective team building for managing mental health in the workplace.

Adam Chapman works on behalf of Maximillion in content creation and marketing. He creates engaging graphics and content that help businesses stand out from the crowd. Over the past 7 years has worked with dozens of SME’s in both an agency and freelance capacity.