How HR should tackle the surge in mental health issues

Coronavirus has, of course, had devastating effects on employee physical and mental health.

HR has been constantly aware that whilst workers are striving to continue working and maintain productivity amid the pandemic, which continues to sweep across the nation causing localised lockdowns in areas such as Manchester and Leicester, has currently caused the infection and illness of 318,484 people within the UK – many of whom are active members of the workforce.

And as a result, the move to remote working has also caused concern for physical wellbeing. Offices by their very nature are designed for optimum health and wellbeing of employees; everything from ergonomic seating and computer screen positioning to air conditioning and lighting is designed for productivity and wellbeing. However, a recent study by clinical psychologists unveiled the numerous ways in which long-term remote working can affect physical health. The psychologists created a model called ‘Susan’ to depict what the home-worker of 2045 will look like, as reported by the Daily Mail. After working from home for the majority of her life, ‘Susan’ suffers from hunched shoulders, a double chin, obesity and ‘digital eye strain’, which includes ‘dry, bloodshot eyes from staring at a screen all day’.

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Yet whilst ‘Susan’ may be the future for those currently embarking on a more permanent move to remote working, the key immediate threat to heath for HR is currently a mental one. In fact, according to Deloitte data, the UK workforce is currently in the grip of a mental health epidemic. At the beginning of this year, Deloitte estimated that one-sixth of UK workers were experiencing a mental health issue at any one time, costing UK businesses between £42-45billion a year through lost days and reduced productivity. Thanks to coronavirus, that figure – already 16% higher than the one identified in the landmark Stevenson-Farmer review into mental health in the workplace conducted in 2017 – it’s also expected to grow exponentially as companies continue to announce more redundancies and the economic fallout from the pandemic is realised.