Pandemic | How to eliminate employee stress around COVID-19

2020 has been a difficult year. Changing circumstances at work and pressures in our personal lives have badly affected our mental wellbeing.

Research from 87%, an innovative digital platform that provides mental health assessment and support to businesses and their employees, shows how the workforce has struggled with the mental pressures of Covid-19. Since March, 87% has closely monitored changing sentiments and emotional behaviours across its thousands of users, many of whom work on the medical frontline for organisations like the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and Air Ambulances UK.

During this time, users have shown diminishing mental wellbeing scores across a number of key metrics including anxiety, fatigue, isolation and stress. Anxiety scores have risen by 15% across the board while those aged 36-45 are the worst affected. Women were almost 20% more anxious than men in November. Those aged 18-25 are feeling the most isolated and this is especially prominent for women in this age range. Despite the flexibility of working from home and reduced commuting, fatigue has also increased. Across all users, half (47%) report having less energy than usual and women are reporting significantly less energy than men.