This year, World Mental Health Day takes place on 10th October 2022 and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual theme is “Making Mental Health & Wellbeing for All a Global Priority”. Following the pandemic, for some organisations mental health and employee wellbeing has fallen down the agenda.

Commenting on the role employers have on making mental health and wellbeing a priority, Stacey Lowman, Head of Employee Wellbeing at Claro Wellbeing said: “Mental health is something that has to be constantly monitored and maintained, there is no single solution to solve the variety of problems that people face on a daily basis. While the pandemic has passed, we are now faced with new challenges, such as inflation and the increasing cost of living, which are putting pressure on the wellbeing of many people. As the cause of many people’s worries has shifted from health issues to financial problems, the focus and support available needs to change too. Employers should be helping their employees to improve their wellbeing and have a key role to play in promoting a happy and healthy workforce.

“The link between wellbeing and financial worries is intrinsic. Our research found that 67% of employees say money worries impact their work performance. As a direct result, five days are lost in productivity per employee per year, by them spending time on personal finances. Evidently, it is in businesses’ best interests to provide financial education and wellbeing support to their workforce if they want to maintain a healthy and efficient workforce and prevent productivity from declining.

“Financial wellbeing support can come in the form of creating a comfortable and open environment where employees feel safe in discussing their personal finances and concerns, as well as proactive one-to-one coaching sessions from a financial coach, company-wide workshops, or online resources. Providing employees with access to these services is a great step in improving the mental health of many people across the UK and stating that mental wellbeing is a business priority.”