The National Employee Mental Wellbeing Survey has been launched by Business in the Community (BITC) and will be conducted by YouGov every year for the next three years. BITC aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the UK workforce's mental wellbeing, and identify solutions to improve mental health at work.
Questions focus on levels of employee mental wellbeing, awareness of mental wellbeing issues, and managers' ability to support mental wellbeing. BITC said that it wants to hear UK employees' experiences of mental wellbeing at work, end the stigma associated with mental wellbeing, identify factors that help or hinder the mental wellbeing of UK employees, understand how employers are responding to mental health issues, and identify how equipped employees and line managers are to spot the early warning signs of poor mental health.
The mental health charity Mind, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Work Foundation, Maudsley Learning at Work, and Mental Health First Aid England are all supporting the survey, as well as businesses including Anglian Water Group and National Grid.
Line managers, senior leaders and direct reports in all forms of employment are being encouraged to take part in the confidential survey. Participants must be between 16 and 64+ and be in employment in the UK. The closing date is 29 July and the findings will be published one week before World Mental Health Day, on 4 October.
BITC says it hopes the survey will transform how the UK approaches mental wellbeing at work. "It will raise public and employer awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing, including the crucial role of the line manager," said Louise Aston, the charity's wellbeing campaign director.
Figures published on BITC's website state that at any one point, one in six of the working population is suffering from a mental health condition. Last year, stress accounted for 43% of all working days lost due to ill health and for 34% of all work related ill health cases, yet 95% of employees cited a reason other than workplace stress for their absence due to stigma.
