UK employers see the ‘whole person’ and increase mental health support in 2022

How much does your employer care about your mental health? A lot? Not at all? If the answer is the latter, the good news is that things might be about to change.

I was reading that UK business leaders plan to up their spend on employee mental health and wellbeing by 18% in the next 12 months. Three in 10 say they’ve made employee mental health their number one priority (28%). In fact, according to Bupa Global’s Executive Wellbeing Index 2021, one in five now even think of their CEOs as Chief Empathy Officers.

While we don’t have any Chief Empathy Officers here right now, we know that the leadership team at Revoco have got our back – we’re encouraged to take time out for ourselves and work in a flexible way that benefits everyone, not just the business.

It sounds like today’s candidates are looking for similar companies with a more human-centric employee value proposition. I wasn’t surprised to learn that 65% of candidates have admitted they’ve pulled out of a recruitment process in the past due to an unattractive EVP.

It’s great news mental health is now getting the board-level recognition it deserves. According to Bupa’s report, the increased spending in this area will go towards creating new roles focused on supporting mental health; upskilling existing HR and management-level staff; paid mental health sick days; and private medical insurance with mental health cover.

The pandemic has undoubtedly played a part in leaders’ understanding of the importance of seeing each employee as a “whole person” – someone who has a life beyond work – and to make adaptations to ensure they have the best possible opportunity to succeed.

During the pandemic, we wanted to reach out to businesses who were struggling and volunteer our expertise and outplacement services to help those making redundancies – a highly stressful situation for anyone to go through and a challenging time for everyone’s mental health.

Does your employer do enough to support your mental wellbeing? If not, talk to the team at Revoco and let us help you find a company that’s a better fit for you.