Gi Group India, a human capital solutions and services provider has launched ‘All in the Mind: The state of mental health in Corporate India’, a study highlighting the role of the workplace in causing, furthering, and perpetuating mental illness.
The study is a triangulation between employer, employees, and experts’ views on mental health in India Inc and was extended to the Automobile, BFSI, Consumer Durables, E-Commerce, FMCG, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, IT/ITeS, and Retail firms to help give a multi-sector and deeper understanding about the role mental wellness plays in an organization/employee’s performance.
Comprising inputs from the three, employee, employer, and the human resource department, the study shares a bird’s eye view into the state of mental well-being of India’s corporate segment and shares critical analogies that can help reduce stresses in general, thus creating a happier and more motivated workforce.
Speaking on the launch of ‘All in the Mind: the state of mental health in Corporate India’, Marcos Segador Arrebola, Managing Director, Gi Group shared, “It is clear that the pandemic has increased the recognition as well as receptivity of mental health issues in our country specifically in the corporate sector. Being one of the world’s largest staffing groups and an integral part of Corporate India, we believe that shining light on a nebulous, but critical problem must concern us beyond business as usual. Through the study, All in the Mind: The state of mental health in Corporate India’, we have set out to give shape to the seemingly amorphous entity. As an organization committed to its ethics, Gi Group wishes to focus on a formidable issue that concerns the nation, and the world, and look at possible solutions.”
Some of the key findings from the report are below:
- Employers and employees contradict each other on factors of influence. 77% of the employers point to long, erratic, always-on work hours, as the top factor, and play down the role of leadership. And 79% of the employees put the role of leadership right on top of the factors
- The top concerns that lead to mental health issues, as perceived by employers are Work-life balance (49% of all employers), Work-related stress (42%), and Anxiety over career growth (34%)
- COVID-19 was a mixed bag for issues concerning mental wellness. Awareness and accessibility leapfrogged and taboos significantly diminished. However, only a small proportion of employers were more in control of their mental health. 29% of the employees surveyed suffered due to erratic work schedules and 21% suffered due to reduced salaries
- Employers understand the fallout of mental health issues on the functioning of their organizations in varying ways. A big majority (70%) of all employers believe that mental health has a serious (45%) or significant (25%) impact on organizational performance or organizational growth. 30% believe that there is an insignificant or negligible impact on either performance or growth.
- Organizational policies and mechanisms do not effectively address mental health concerns in an overwhelming majority of cases. Only 14% of the employers surveyed were found to have policies and mechanisms receptive to mental wellness cases. 54% of the respondents have not put formal policies and mechanisms in place and deal with mental wellness concerns in their informal ways.
- A large proportion of the employers surveyed (82%) are sensitizing their organizations to be receptive to mental health concerns. 63% are opening up multiple channels for people to speak up, and 51% encourage healthy interpersonal equations between people
- IT/ITes ( 64%) and BFSI (57%) are among the top sectors on awareness levels on mental health, with FMCG (50%) and Automobile (53%) industry faring at the bottom end.
- On the cities with high awareness on the topic, Southern capitals- Chennai (63%) and Bengaluru (57%) score better than the rest. Delhi NCR (50%) is at the bottom of the list when it comes to awareness of Mental Health.
All in the Mind: The state of mental health in Corporate India had a sample size of 1088 employee respondents and 368 employer respondents from leading small, medium, and large-scale businesses based out of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, and Pune. The study has been done keeping the employee, employer, and the human resource department in consideration and has inputs from experts from the fields of psychology and emotional wellness.