Does your organisation promote positive mental health at work?
Our short Mental Health at Work quiz has been designed as a quick tool to help employees and organisations discover the answer to this question.
The quiz is structured around the six areas of ‘work design’ outlined by the Health and Safety Executive as the primary sources of stress at work, areas that when not managed well, can be associated with poor mental health.
This can lead to increased absenteeism and presenteeism and increased conflict and people issues and often resulting in reduced creativity and productivity and ultimately compromised outcomes and results.
Have organisations been doing enough to promote positive mental health at work since the start of the pandemic?
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic our quiz has been completed by an additional 222 people across a range of organisations. As the nation is now returning to the workplace, we thought we’d pull together the results from the last year and a half to share with you.
(Find out more about the six areas of work design and the results from November 2019 in our previous blog post – Our Mental Health at Work Quiz – The Results Are In!)
What does the quiz cover?
Our Mental Health at Work quiz asks people to consider the organisation they work in and to either agree or disagree with 12 statements that are aligned with the 6 areas of work design (2 statements for each area), from their own perspective.
What are the results?
DEMANDS (the extent to which people can cope with the demands of their work).
70% of people responded that people in their organisation don’t feel that they are able to fulfil their duties and add value within their contracted hours and still take breaks.
64% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation have manage-able workloads, achievable deadlines and/or realistic time pressures.
These scores have decreased from 84% and 68% respectively since 2019.
CONTROL (the level of say people have in the way they do their work).
50% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation’s working time can be flexible and/or that they can decide when to take a break.
57% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation have a choice in what they do at work and/or how they do it and can’t work at a pace that suits them.
These scores have remained consistent since 2019, with a small decrease (from 59% to 57%) in the percentage of people who feel that the people in their organisation do not have a choice is what they do/how they work.
SUPPORT (the information, encouragement and resources provided to enable people to do their work).
50% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel respected and/or encouraged and/or that they don’t receive helpful feedback on the work they do.
53% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel able to talk openly about challenges and/or that they will receive the help they need if they’re struggling.
These scores have also remained consistent since 2019, with a small decrease (from 56% to 50%) in the percentage of people who feel that the people in their organisation do not feel respected, encouraged or that they receive helpful feedback on their work.
RELATIONSHIPS (the extent to which people are free from unacceptable behaviour/conflict).
42% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel that relationships at work are positive and that there is friction and anger between colleagues.
36% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel respected and that they are treated kindly and fairly by colleagues.
These scores have decreased from 2019, from 60% and 58% respectively.
ROLE (the level to which people understand their role and don’t feel they have conflicting roles).
44% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel clear on what’s expected of them and/or how to get their work done.
51% of people don’t feel that people in their organisation feel clear about the goals for their department and/or how their work fits into the bigger picture.
The percentage of people who feel that people in their organisation feel clear about what is expected of them has decreased from 51% in 2019, while the percentage of people who feel that the people in the organisation don’t feel clear about the goals of their department has remained the same.
CHANGE (how change is both managed and communicated).
65% of people don’t feel people in their organisation are consulted on and/or given sufficient support opportunities to question changes.
66% of people don’t feel people in their organisation are clear about how changes at work will work out in practice.
These scores have remained consistent since 2019, with a slight decrease (from 66% to 65%) in the percentage of people who feel that the people in their organisation feel clear about how changes at work will work in practice.
What do these results mean?
Overall, the level of agreement for 9 out of 12 statements was between 50 and 66% with the first statement under Demands (regarding people feeling able to fulfil their role within contacted hours) scoring highest with 70% agreement!
This would suggest that there are some obvious signs of work-related stress in the organisations concerned. This level of work-related stress will inevitably be having an impact on creativity, productivity and results in these organisations.
The areas highlighted as being in need of most improvement are Demands and Change.
It is also worth acknowledging that approximately 50% of people indicated disagreement with the statement in 4 of the questions, covering 3 out of the 6 areas of work design (Control, Support, and Role) For instance:
- 50% of people feel that the people in their organisation are able to work flexibly and/or decide when to take a break
- 50% of people feel that the people in their organisation are respected, encouraged and/or receive helpful feedback on the work they do
- 47% of people feel that the people in their organisation are able to talk opening about challenges and/ore receive help if they are struggling
- 49% of people feel that the people in their organisation feel clear about he goals for the department and/or how their work fits into the bigger picture.
In addition, with regard to the statements relating to the Relationships area of work design, more than half of people indicated that they disagreed with the statements in our quiz. For instance:
- 58% of people think that the people in their organisation feel that their relationships at work are positive
- 64% of people think that the people in their organisation do feel respected and are treated kindly and fairly by colleagues.
This is encouraging to see.
Is your organisation doing enough to promote positive mental health at work?
You can complete our short quiz here: https://www.mentalhealthintheworkplace.co.uk/mental-health-at-work-quiz/
If you’d like a PDF copy to circulate to your team, please get in touch at: solution@mentalhealthintheworkplace.co.uk
How can we help?
Once you’ve completed the quiz and have got a better idea of how your organisation is doing in relation to promoting Mental Health in the Workplace, you may find it helpful to discuss the result in more detail.
We would be happy to spend 30 minutes on the phone with you to help you to prioritise improvements in your workplace to promote a healthier working environment. Get in touch here: solution@mentalhealthintheworkplace.co.uk
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