46% of employees are still suffering from mental health concerns
Mental health is a growing concern for Canadian employers – even post pandemic. When COVID began to dissipate, leaders were optimistic that psychological wellbeing would similarly improve. Unfortunately, what we saw in Canadian organizations, was a rise, not fall, in mental health issues.
Speaking to Elena Bobyreva, HR director at telecom retailer Glentel, she tells us that this shift in concern is something they take very seriously.
“Mental health is important to our employees and leaders,” she told HRD. “Over the last few months, in addition to offering [an employee and family assistance program], the HR team facilitated training for the managers on recognizing signs of mental health distress among employees and what actions they could take.”
Data from Eagle Hill Consulting found that almost half (46%) of employees are still suffering from mental health concerns – specifically burnout – with younger workers more unwell than their older counterparts. And despite the fact that this figure is a five percent drop from 2020, it’s still no reason for employers to take their hands off the wheel.
At Glentel, Bobyreva says that they’re offering new benefits plans to supercharge wellbeing internally – something that’s reflected as a trends across Canadian organizations of late.
“We partnered with our EFAP provider to offer orientation sessions for new hires and managers, and to offer webinars for Glentel employees related to stress management and dealing with life transitions,” she adds.
In order for organizations to thrive this year, leaders need to get serious about mental health plans – specially the benefits on offer. A recent report from CloudMD found that despite rising mental health concerns, only 37% of employees are utilizing their mental health benefits - a worrying statistic going into 2023.
Glentel was one of HRD’s Best Places to Work – read our exclusive report and see who else made the list here.
