Report: Mental Health at Work 2019

Now in its fourth year, the national mental health at work survey conducted by Mercer, in collaboration with business and nine national partners, has found progress in raising awareness and that more positive actions are being taken.

However, it concludes that progress is not happening with the scale and speed needed. And, some employers are still contributing to the psychological harm experienced by their staff through poor business practices and cultures.

Key findings

• 30% of the UK workforce have been formally diagnosed with a mental health condition at some point in their lifetime.
• Two in five employees report experiencing poor mental health symptoms related to work in the last year – 23% in the last month.
• 52% of those who experience mental health problems related to work say this is due to pressure such as too many priorities or targets.
• 62% of managers have had to put the interests of their organisation above staff wellbeing either sometimes, regularly or every day.

The report makes several recommendations to employers to help them put good work into practice. It calls on employers to be more ambitious and aspirational in their plans to tackle mental health in the workplace and argues that many organisations can make a faster change than they think.