Skip to content
The pandemic has exacerbated a pre-existing mental health crisis. Fear over coronavirus, financial strain, social isolation, and limited access to support networks and resources have caused anxiety and depression to skyrocket. In the first nine months of 2020 alone, 315,220 individuals took the anxiety screen and 534,784 took the depression screen—compare that to the 162,958 people who took the anxiety screen and the 331,089 people who took the depression screen throughout all of 2019, and it becomes clear that mental health issues are on the rise.
Regardless of age, gender, racial identity, or industry, providing the proper mental health support to your workforce is crucial. With varying personal needs and engagement styles, employees must have access to a personalised wellbeing solution that spans digital engagement to connect members to the right intervention at the right time.
A global health concern
- Before COVID-19, 2 in 5 workerssuffered from mental health issues.
- 9 in 10 employees report that workplace stress affects their mental wellbeing.
- Of the known mental health issues impacting employees today, depression and anxiety lead across all industries.
- Mental health issues often exist simultaneously with preventable chronic conditions, exacerbating the health issues, and increasing costs of absenteeism and lost productivity.
Everyone felt the mental health burden of COVID, but some individuals faced different stressors that heightened their risk of mental health issues. While some industries shifted to fully remote work, others maintained full, or partial on-site staff throughout the pandemic. Industries like healthcare and manufacturing were deemed essential, forcing many employees to face the virus head-on from the front lines. Employees in the public sector faced budget cuts, abrupt and drastic changes to how they worked (especially for those in education), lost revenue, and more. The fear of unemployment and a rapid shift to remote work added pressure to employees in the finance field, an industry that was already coping with severe levels of work-related stress.
Addressing the prevalence and impact of mental health in the workplace is the first step in creating healthier, happier, more productive workforces. By exploring the unique mental health concerns of some key industries, your organisation can better understand how to support the holistic wellbeing of your employees.
Virgin Pulse’s solutions build employee resilience through a personalised member experience that leverages a whole-person approach, acknowledging the interplay between physical, social, financial, emotional, mental, and workplace health and happiness. Whether your employees are on-site or remote, Virgin Pulse’s high-tech, high-touch digital platforms address the full range of mental wellbeing issues your employees face today—stress, anxiety, depression, sleep—for a healthier, happier, more productive tomorrow.