Employees’ support strategies for mental wellbeing during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: Recommendations for employers in the UK workforce

Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond for many businesses, employees have had to adapt to new ways of working due to disruptions in traditional practices. It is therefore crucial to understand the new challenges that employees are facing when it comes to taking care of their mental wellbeing at work. To that end, we distributed a survey to full-time UK employees (N = 451) to explore how supported they felt throughout the pandemic, and to identify whether there are any additional types of support they would like to receive. We also compared employees’ intentions to seek help before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed their current attitudes toward mental health. Based on direct employee feedback, our results show remote workers felt more supported throughout the pandemic compared to hybrid workers. We also found that employees who had previously experienced an episode of anxiety or depression were significantly more likely to want extra support at work compared to those who had not. Furthermore, employees were significantly more likely to seek help for their mental health during the pandemic compared to before. Interestingly, the largest increase in intentions to seek help during the pandemic compared to before was with digital health solutions. Finally, we found that the strategies managers have adopted to better support their employees, an employee's mental health history, and their attitude to mental health all contributed to significantly increasing the likelihood that an employee would disclose a mental health concern to their line manager. We provide recommendations that encourage organisations to make changes to better support their employees, and we highlight the importance of mental health awareness training for both managers and employees. This work is of particular interest to organisations who are looking to tailor their current employee wellbeing offer to a post-pandemic world.

Making hybrid work for diverse staff in higher education: A behaviour change approach

“…Managers can also be offered training to support their staff with hybrid working. Mental health awareness training (BCT: information about health and emotional consequences) can be provided to managers to counter staffs' feelings of loneliness and uncertainty (Bailey et al., 2023); mental health training has been shown to impact managers' attitudes about, and understanding of, mental health (Dimoff et al., 2016). In addition, mangers can attend sessions on diversity awareness and empathy training (BCT: information about health and emotional consequences) to improve their recognition of their staffs' individual needs, which can lead to more inclusive and equitable practices and support in relation to hybrid working (CIPD, 2022; Patrick & Anim, 2022).…”

“…Managers can also be offered training to support their staff with hybrid working. Mental health awareness training (BCT: information about health and emotional consequences) can be provided to managers to counter staffs' feelings of loneliness and uncertainty (Bailey et al, 2023); mental health training has been shown to impact managers' attitudes about, and understanding of, mental health (Dimoff et al, 2016). In Second, organisations can provide more infrastructure to support hybrid working through the allocation of physical resources (BCT: restructuring the physical environment) such as quiet rooms for disabled staff who might benefit from reduced noise/distraction (Taylor et al, 2022), office spaces and technological tools conducive to hybrid working teams (CIPD, 2022;Winkler et al, 2022) and a partnership with an established child care provider that can meet the needs of hybrid working parents/caregivers (Modestino et al, 2021).…”

Employees Digital Experience and Mental Health During Covid-19 in Higher Education in the UK: Understanding the Aftermath

“…According to another recent research, employees who had previously gone through a depressive or anxious episode were much more likely than those who hadn't to request further support at work. Additionally, compared to pre pandemic era, workers were much more likely to seek mental health care and interestingly, digital health solutions had the biggest rise in intentions to seek treatment [10]. A UNISON survey [82] compared how much stress the participants had undergone over the previous years to that they had undergone prior to the outbreak, as we know the pandemic has been quite traumatic for many.…”