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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Two thirds of workers don’t feel they deal well with problems

New analysis from Family Links shows that workers who feel they are learning and have autonomy feel more positive about themselves at work

A fifth of UK employees have low self-esteem, with negative consequences not only for themselves, but also for their organisations as a whole, according to new report published today Family Links: the Centre for Emotional Health with support from IPPR. The new research shows that only 32% of UK employees feel that they deal very well with important problems and over a fifth (22%) of UK employees found that after something goes wrong it takes them a long time to get back to normal.

Furthermore over half of employees in the UK (52%) report that their working relationships are not supportive. This is significant for employers who want to prioritise fostering collaboration, effective communication and teamwork.

The report calls for UK employers to look at ways they can improve the emotional health of their workforce, including supporting employees in becoming more resilient at work. It further highlights that supporting good emotional health in the workplace can help to promote five key organisation outcomes:

  • Employee wellbeing and mental health
  • Performance (including engagement, motivation and productivity)
  • Staff retention and reduced short and long-term absences
  • Team relationships and reduced staff conflict
  • Creativity and innovation

The findings in this report reinforce the importance of autonomy and voice in the workplace, such as 85% of employees who have ‘complete control’ over how their daily work is organised reported feeling very positive about themselves. However, the UK currently has one of the worst records on workplace participation in Europe, inhibiting the extent to which worker voice can become a central part of the UK economic model. In order to boost worker voice and autonomy, with a view to improving the emotional health of the UK workforce, every company with over 50 employees should create a ‘working life forum’, which would help to ensure that employees have sufficient influence over their working lives, and would provide employees with a voice through which to maintain high levels of emotional health at work.

Leading on from the Stevenson/Farmer report this year, which also highlighted the role of the employer in supporting good mental health and wellbeing, the report also recommends targeting skills training at an individual employee level can equip them with the necessary skills to manage and promote their own mental health and wellbeing, in addition to providing support for their colleagues.

The report further shows:

  • 86% of employees who felt they were learning “a great deal” of new things reported feeling positively about themselves, compared to just 56% of employees who were “not learning at all”.
  • 85% of employees with “complete control” over how their daily work is organised reported feeling very positive about themselves, while only 69% of employees with no control over their daily work felt this way.
  • 90% of employees who strongly agreed that they felt accomplishment from the things they do also felt very positive about themselves, compared to 43% of employees who strongly disagreed that they felt a sense of accomplishment.
  • Less than half (48%) of employees in the UK feel that they get help and support from their colleagues when needed.

The report recommends:

  • Implementing the Mental Health Core Standards identified in the Stevenson Farmer Review: Equipping all employees, but in particular line managers, with the skills and tools to support their own mental health and that of others, and ensuring ‘good work’ that supports the emotional health assets will improve emotional health at both an individual and organisational level.
  • Policy direction boosting the social and emotional competencies – and emotional health – of the UK workforce: The development of social emotional competencies and the emotional health assets should begin during compulsory education and should receive higher precedence within the national curriculum. These skills should continue to be cultivated during employment and be an ongoing focus of training, skill development and performance reviews.
  • Policy direction boosting emotional health at work through improving job quality: The findings in this report underline the importance of the new ‘job quality’ agenda, which aims to introduce measures of the quality, as well as quantity, of employment. Jobs which satisfy key criteria relating to quality are more likely to help develop the seven assets which collectively contribute to the emotional health of individuals and organisations, such as self agency and self-belief.

Sarah Darton CEO, Family Links, said:

“The recent Stevenson-Farmer review of mental health in the workplace outlines a vision where all employees have “the knowledge, tools and confidence to understand and look after [their] own mental health and the mental health of those around [them]”. This review by Family Links: the Centre for Emotional Health offers a framework of competencies that employees and employers can develop to support emotional and mental health, and form positive, supportive relationships.”

Jessica Tanner, Family Links and author of the report, said:

Findings from this report indicate that UK employees are currently lacking key skills to support their own mental health and that of others in the workplace. 22% of UK employees feel that it takes them a long time to get back to normal after a setback and 52% feel that their workplace relationships aren’t supportive. Creating an emotionally healthy workplace is essential not only to support mental health, wellbeing and positive relationships, but also for performance, productivity, retention, creativity and innovation.