Mental Health Issues: Employers blame long working hours, employees blame leadership

Most employers feel long erratic working hours as a major factor leading to mental health issues while downplaying the role of leadership, finds a recent survey.

The study titled 'All in the Mind: the state of mental health in Corporate India' was conducted by capital solutions and services provider Gi Group among 1,088 employee respondents and 368 employer respondents from leading small-, medium- and large-scale businesses based out of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Pune.

The employers and employees contradicted each other on factors of influence, as 77 per cent of the employers surveyed point to long, erratic and always-on-work hours as the top factor, while 79 per cent of the employees put the role of leadership right as the major contributor for mental issues.

The study further explored that work-life balance, work-related stress and anxiety over career growth, are other top concerns perceived by employers as factors that lead to mental health issues.

Further, 29 per cent of the employees surveyed suffered due to erratic work schedules and 21 per cent suffered due to reduced salaries, it said.

While 70 per cent of all employers believed that mental health has a serious (45 per cent) or significant (25 per cent) impact on organisational performance or growth, about 30 per cent believed that mental health was insignificant on performance or growth.

Nevertheless, the survey admitted that current organisational policies fail to effectively address mental health concerns in an overwhelming majority of cases.

Only 14 per cent of the employers surveyed were found to have policies and mechanisms that were receptive to mental wellness.

Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (64 per cent) and banking, financial services and insurance (57 per cent) are among the top sectors on awareness levels on mental health, whereas fast-moving consumer goods (50 per cent) and automobile (53 per cent) industry are at the bottom-end.

Also, southern capitals like Chennai (63 per cent) and Bengaluru (57 per cent) scored better than other states when it comes to awareness of mental health, it added. Interestingly, Delhi-NCR (50 per cent) is placed only at the bottom of this list.