Businesses across Britain are losing £1,000 a year for every person they employ because of mental ill health issues among their staff, according to a report published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
The report, ‘Mental Health at Work’, estimates the total cost to UK employers from mental ill health issues at over £25 billion. Of that, £8.4 billion is sickness absence; £2.4 billion is the cost of replacing staff leaving their jobs; and some £15.1 billion is the cost of reduced productivity among people still at work but unwell.
Yet simple steps, including training managers to recognise when staff have become unwell, could save up to 30 per cent of these costs – or £8 billion a year. BT, for example, has reduced its mental health-related sickness absence rate by 30 per cent through its WorkFit strategy.
Dr Bob Grove, Sainsbury Centre employment programme director, said: “Employers who take effective action to improve the wellbeing of their staff will reap the rewards for their efforts. They can take steps to reduce the risk of mental ill health among their staff. They can train and support line managers to respond quickly and effectively when staff do become unwell. And they can help staff who do need to take time off to get back to work when they are ready.”
He added that employers must be aware of mental health. “It affects every workplace in the UK. It is a normal part of the human condition. Yet most employers vastly under-estimate how many of their staff will have mental health problems.
“The costs of ignoring mental health at work are astronomical. A small organisation with 50 staff will lose around £50,000 a year.”
The report also found that less than one-fifth of mental ill health is directly associated with working conditions.
On any day, one worker in five will experience mental distress. Mental health problems account for 40 per cent of sickness absence from work. And the cost of reduced productivity among people who go to work despite being unwell (so called ‘presenteeism’) is greater still.
Dame Carol Black, the national director for work and health, said: “Too often people only count the days lost to absenteeism. But as this paper highlights, presenteeism attributable to mental health accounts for one and a half times as much working time lost as absenteeism. When bad management or inadequate support allows mental ill-health to develop at work, it’s not just the employees who suffer. Poor mental health is poor business: it’s just a fact.”
