"Employers may feel overwhelmed by the choice of support now available to their organisation and their staff."
- Christine Husbands, Commercial Director at RedArc
According to the latest research commissioned by Group Risk Development (GRiD), employers believe that stress and anxiety related to work are now the biggest health & wellbeing concerns across almost (except Gen X) all generations in the workplace. Previously, employers ranked finances and debt as the biggest health & wellbeing concerns, coming in as number one for Gen X, Y (Millennials), and Z in 2023 and Millennials and Gen Z in 2022.
In 2024, stress and anxiety related to work (such as the impact of overwhelming workloads and uncertainty of the future) were cited by 44% of employers for Millennials, followed by baby boomers (40%), Gen X (40%), and Gen Z (39%).
For Gen X, stress and anxiety related to home life (such as caregiving responsibilities and managing difficult relationships) overtook both work and financial pressures. Home life is now the biggest employer concern for this group (42%).
GRiD stressed that whether stress and anxiety are rooted at work or home, the two go hand-in-hand and what affects one will almost certainly affect the other. The industry body noted the evolution of hybrid working as a potential cause for this, creating more cross-over between work and home life than in previous years.
When employees were asked what their biggest health & wellbeing concerns had been, staff under the age of 60 said stress and anxiety related to work was the most pressing issue. For those aged 60 or above, serious ill-health (such as cancer or heart disease) and living with long-term chronic illness or health conditions (such as diabetes) were their biggest worries.
Although employers and staff appear to be aligned in their concerns, it’s important not to make generational assumptions and to ensure that support is as broad as possible to reach cohorts who could be overlooked, such as those balancing work with serious illness or those with caregiving responsibilities.
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GRiD highlighted that support can be found in several employee benefits including group risk - employer-sponsored Life Assurance, Income Protection (IP), and Critical Illness (CI). When selecting a provider to support employees specifically with stress and anxiety, it’s important that counselling is available 24/7 which is usually the case with Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs).
The industry body also identified preventative health support as key, including nutrition, sleep, relaxation, exercise, and health checks. Ideally, support will also be channel agnostic so that employees can benefit from face-to-face & telephone support as well as online or app-based technologies.
“It’s interesting to see that in employers’ eyes, the main driver for employee stress is now due to work itself rather than being financially related. This is something that employers need to keep a close eye on as it is in their control,” explained Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson for GRiD.
She said: “As our research shows, the issues that affect staff change over time – being in a particular demographic doesn’t necessarily pinpoint a specific health & wellbeing concern: external factors also have a significant impact, and these are harder to predict. With this in mind, employers need to ensure their employee benefits are comprehensive and meet the needs of staff.”
Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection, agreed with this sentiment, noting that “mental health needs to be prioritised in the workplace but there doesn’t need to be a dictatorial approach. Employees should instead be supported by being given the means to take responsibility for their mental health.
“Good mental health in the workplace can and should be a mutually beneficial partnership. If the employer provides the right tools for the job, this can help employees take greater responsibility for their mental health. Improving mental health behaviours will result in less absenteeism, less presenteeism, greater productivity, and more profitable outcomes,” she added.
Echoing the above, Liz Walker, Chief Operating Officer at Unum UK, said: “Employers have an important role to play in supporting the mental health of their workforce – and it’s in their interest to do so, both in terms of nurturing a supportive and happy work culture as well as maximising staff retention and productivity.”
Notably, recent data from Unum UK’s health & wellbeing app (Help@hand) showed anxiety, depression, and stress triggered 77% of mental health appointments so far in 2024. “Our research has found that almost eight in ten employees in the UK would be influenced to leave their current job due to high levels of stress.
“Stress ranked just 1% below salary (79%) as the primary factor influencing employees’ decisions to quit their jobs. Yet less than half (49%) agreed that their employer has the necessary practices and services in place to effectively support their mental health,” she explained.
“With high-quality mental health support services to help manage stress, employers could address concerns from employees who’d be tempted to head for the exit over poorly managed workplace stress. This could also help to reduce the millions of working days lost to work-related mental ill-health,” Liz added.
Christine Husbands, Commercial Director at RedArc, raised concern that “Employers may feel overwhelmed by the choice of support now available to their organisation and their staff. It’s important to understand that some mental health support is just light touch which means that support may not be adequate.
“To ensure support is adequate for everyone, employers need to make sure it is provided by mental health professionals, is easy to access, meets the requirement of those with complex needs, and is not constrained by time. Today is a good day to take stock and make the necessary adjustments so that all employees can depend on their employer’s mental health provision,” she concluded.
