Author- Lise Austen, Recruiters’ Club Manager, MyPlus
Every year as part of our MyPlus Recruiters’ Club calendar we run an event on mental health and employment, and every year it is one of our most popular events amongst our employer members. This year was no exception. To help employers understand more about the challenges that early career individuals with mental ill health face and what can be done to support them during recruitment and in the workplace we were joined by experts working in mental health as well as those with first-hand experience of mental ill health.
The importance of focusing on mental ill health
Helen Cooke, CEO and founder of MyPlus introduced the event by sharing some worrying statistics which are expected to continue to grow around the prevalence of mental ill health amongst the working population and amongst students and graduates.
1 in 4 of us will experience poor mental health during our lifetime
1 in 6 of the working age population will be experiencing mental health challenges right now
450% increase over the last decade of UK applicants to UCAS that shared a mental health condition
59% of students surveyed in January 2022, reported having a mental health issue (Source: Student Minds)
These stats highlight why mental health is a huge area of importance for employers who must be able to support employees and enable them to continue in their career, as well as attract individuals to join their organisation, particularly for those transitioning from university. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also leave employers wanting in terms of the talent needed to be a successful organisation if they don’t.
Challenges facing individuals with mental ill health early in their career
According to Farimah Darbyshire, Director of Programmes at CMHA young people transitioning from study into the workplace face one of the most stressful times dealing with things like moving away from home, loneliness and financial worries. It is a time when new mental health conditions can start, existing ones can worsen and old ones can be triggered.
3 years ago, CMHA surveyed over 500 job seekers in the financial, technology and legal industries and professional services. The study showed the state of the mental health of young job seekers.
76% of young job seekers have experienced poor mental health
72% of job seekers think talking to a prospective employer about a mental health issue would hurt their chances of getting the job.
This will likely to have increased given what has happened since the survey with Covid and the current cost of living crisis. CMHA followed up this research less than 12 months ago when they surveyed 1000 young professionals (20-26 years) in similar industries about their mental ill health and the results highlighted that business have to take this seriously.
72% experienced poor mental health in the previous 12 months
Only 27% feel comfortable seeking support through work
47% said that 1 of the most important things they would look for in a future employer is whether it would prioritise their mental health
Working with other businesses the CMHA have identified ‘8 Standards for mentally healthy recruitment and induction’
Challenging the intense pressure to be perfect
Demonstrate an open culture, which is supportive of good mental health, throughout the recruitment process
Have a consistent process for offering recruitment adjustments for mental health reasons
Design the recruitment process to support the positive mental health of all candidates
Provide support, resources and training to recruitment teams
Make mental health and wellbeing part of the induction
Measure progress and impact
Be committed to supporting the positive mental health of all employees
How can businesses support young job seekers and professionals?
We then had the opportunity to learn from other organisations regards what they are doing to create a culture of openness around mental health and how they support their employees.
Helen Tabeshfar, Executive Director in the Europe Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team at JPMorgan Chase was our first employer sharing how they support the mental health of their employees. For JPMorgan Chase this is achieved in 4 key areas:
Culture. Starting at CEO level and embedded throughout the organisation; it is led by lines of business not HR.
Support. Includes policies, regular check ins, occupational health, onsite counselling support and webinars around specific areas of worry for employees
Story Telling. Employees throughout the organisation are encouraged to share their story to help normalise conversations around mental ill health.
Duty of Care. Making a difference externally. An example of this for JPMorgan Chase is being a brand partner for Will Youngs’ ‘For One Night Only’ Wellstock initiative which is raising awareness and funds for mental health charities.
Our second employer was Yvonne McGuiness, an Occupational Health Nurse at Shell. Yvonne explained that at Shell wellbeing and particularly mental health is regularly spoken about, with line managers being keen to learn about this subject and how best to speak to their teams about it. It is promoted and embedded from the top down, and all country communications will have some element of wellbeing and mental health in there. The global health team develop their wellbeing strategy, programmes, products and consulting. Their aim is to create a caring environment that fosters happier, high-performing people around 3 key areas:
People. Empowering people to take care of their health. Helping them to thrive and bring their best selves to work
Culture. Promote an inclusive health culture, where people feel supported, valued and cared for
Lived experience. Create a psychologically safe environment where individuals can share their experiences. Creating a sense of community and belonging.
Personal experiences
We then heard from individuals who have experienced mental ill health who shared their personal and work experiences, including the challenges they have faced and the support they have benefited from or would recommend.
Adam Dempsey, an Assistant Manager at KPMG Law who goes through periods of mental ill health shared how he had a long journey from childhood, through university, a previous employer to working at KPMG before being properly diagnosed. Adam explained how anything from a big change to something small like a shop not having the type of bread that he normally buys can trigger him not being able to get out of bed.
When Adam started working at KPMG, with the help of his therapist, he decided to be honest and open telling them ‘This is me; this is what I need. If you want me to be my best self and be the most viable asset to the team, accept that I work differently to other people’. KPMG were incredible not only in their response but also how they continue to support him. Adam has a unique working pattern built entirely on trust. He works flexibly around where his current mental health is at and one of the most important things for him is that there are no questions asked. Adam really emphasised it is vital that organisations don’t just have the top end of an organisation outlining all their mental health initiatives but they also hone in on the culture and make sure they walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
Tom Jon, Adam’s Manager at KPMG gave us a perspective on managing employees with mental ill health. He started by explaining that stress is not a bad thing as there will always be things that stress people; for managers it’s about managing it and making sure work is not being piled on employees in unacceptable levels.
People at an early stage in their career are not going to have the confidence to explain what they need and also won’t necessarily know themselves which means as an organisation you have to be more proactive in making sure that the appropriate environment is created. Most organisations want to be supportive but don’t know how to do it and there is a tendency to be led by the employee or to refer them to occupational health who will provide accommodations that they apparently need. According to Tom, this is not enough. HR and/or D&I need to be giving support to line managers, so they know how to manage employees with mental ill health and create a culture where people feel valued and supported even if they never tell you they have mental ill health.
We then moved on to hear from Ben Lawson, a student currently studying a master’s in international development. Ben is a mental health activist, who experiences depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia which means that there are days when he physically and mentally can’t do basic things like get out of bed. Based on a survey of students at the University of Warwick which Ben did last year he shared with us that students aren’t disclosing their mental ill health due to perceived stigma around young people. There is a perception that if you struggle with mental health, you are somehow ‘less than’ or ‘weaker’ or unable to fulfil roles and responsibilities that other people can because they don’t struggle with, for example, depression or anxiety. In the workplace this perceived stigma can take on a completely new mask. Ben gave an example of graduate friends working at large companies who feel they are constantly being watched or monitored; as a result they feel they have to be working 100% every day which is clearly not a healthy way to be working as we all have off days.
From a student perspective what can firms do to help mitigate this further? During the application process firms need to show they actively care about the mental health of those interested in working for them by showcasing the support available, initiatives that are in place and share what current employees are saying about their support. According to Ben there is a massive shift around mental health with people being more receptive to talking about it. However, he felt employers still need to get out of the mindset of dealing with mental ill health as a tickbox exercise or meeting certain criteria and instead show they are committed to working towards the individual needs of employees in the workplace and students in the recruitment process.
Will More, provided us with his perspective as an early stage employee, working at a large multinational, who had OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). OCD is a mental health condition where you have recurring thoughts and behaviours that you use to try and keep that anxiety under control. Will experienced obsessive thoughts and insecurities about himself and how people perceived him, which led to a cycle of anxiety and compulsive behaviours fighting these thoughts which he became entrenched in every day. Consequently, Will found it hard to focus on work tasks, became tired and unconfident.
5 years on Will has learnt a lot about what employers can do to support employees on their journey of their mental health, and says it’s a huge opportunity to help people as they are likely to be more loyal to you but also whatever you put in place to support one employee is likely to benefit the whole organisation, as everyone has mental health and everyone’s mental health is on a spectrum.
Will shared 5 ways to mental wellbeing which Mind and the NHS often share.
The 5 main ways that individuals can keep themselves well are:
connecting
being active
taking notice
learning
giving
In conclusion there were three themes that came from our speakers; these were:
The importance of focusing on your culture
Trust
Storytelling
Thank you to all of the speakers who shared so openly their experiences, thoughts and advice.
Some of the feedback from the event really highlights how valuable this session was.
“This was my first MyPlus Webinar, wow, wow, wow! Huge appreciation to all the speakers today, sharing such personal and important insights.”
“This session has been so helpful. Thank you for sharing your stories and thoughts around mental ill health. This session has been a real eye opener. ”
The aim of this event was to enable delegates to learn more about mental ill health and develop the confidence to engage in conversation with applicants and employees, enabling employers to provide the support they need to excel.
This event was part of the MyPlus Recruiters’ Club calendar of events. For details of the next event and to view the full calendar visit the Recruiters’ Club events calendar webpage.
