Making workplace mental health a priority in Asia

The past year of coping with the pandemic has revealed a lot about mental health. For me, one of the most important insights has been that mental well-being is a continuum. We all exist somewhere on that continuum, from a place of languishing to a place of flourishing. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly exacerbated existing mental health challenges, and it has also pushed many more people to a place on that continuum where they are experiencing distress.

Another related and important shift is the way we define and talk about mental health. There is growing recognition that mental health isn’t only about clinically diagnosed conditions or substance abuse. Anxiety, depression, burnout and stress can range in severity from mildly distressing to disabling, and can be chronic or recurring conditions.

Both of these ideas help us understand that mental health is relevant to everyone; we are all likely to be affected – directly or indirectly – at one time or another. While mental health has been a topic of interest for companies for a number of years, the pandemic has moved it up the agenda, including for many of our clients. Our latest research explores the critical role business leaders can play in bringing mental health out of the shadows and making workplace mental health a priority.

The data supports this. In Australia, for example, 20 percent of people aged 16 to 85 experience a mental health condition in any given year.  A slew of recent data suggest that the pandemic has taken a toll on mental health. One survey in Hong Kong in 2020 showed that one in four employees are experiencing mental health issues.

We know that depression – which is only one of the common mental health conditions – is already the leading cause of disability worldwide. By 2030, it is forecast to be the leading cause of disease burden globally.

The idea of bringing mental health out of the shadows is important in Asia. As a region, we face two main mental health challenges – stigma and overwork. One study from Singapore showed that 86.5 percent of employees do not seek help for their mental health because of the stigma around it. This stigma and the shame often associated with mental health challenges may be due to lack of awareness or to traditional beliefs.

While it is difficult to generalize about mental health in Asia given the region’s variability, data suggests that South Korea has a strong culture of overwork, while China and India are some of the countries with the greatest burden from depression and workplace productivity.

We also have strong evidence of the impact of mental ill-health in the workplace. People experiencing mental ill-health in Australia miss an average of ten to 12 workdays per year, and suffer 14 to 18 days of reduced productivity.

However, where help is sought – or offered – early recovery is possible and negative effects can be minimized. Increasingly, we see private sector organizations leading the way in ensuring that people are protected and given access to the services they need – and in destigmatizing mental health.

Workplace mental health differs from mental health in other contexts because of the range of factors in a workplace ecosystem that can encourage positive mental health or contribute to poor mental health. These include structural factors, cultural factors, operating models, and behaviors.

Risk factors for workplace mental health include high levels of role stress, long hours, lack of support from managers, lack of flexibility or control, and workplace bullying. A data and evidenced-based approach to these risk factors allows organizations to monitor them and take steps to address them.

Business leaders can think about mental health outcomes across five domains, namely: designing workplaces to minimize harm, building both organizational and individual resilience, facilitating early help-seeking, and supporting recovery and return to work. Importantly, any intervention would have to take into account the societal and cultural context in the region. What this could look like in practice is discussed in an episode of the Future of Asia podcast: Sustainably improving workplace mental health.

Who is driving the change also matters. Change is best led and supported from the top and not treated as a collection of programs owned by HR. Workplace mental health best practices should be holistic, methodical, and integrated into all elements of a company’s operating model.

In addition to corporate level interventions, business leaders can do some important things at a personal level to support workplace mental health. There’s an opportunity for leaders in the region to get educated and learn more about how to address mental health in culturally appropriate and culturally specific ways that will benefit their employees.

Help-seeking is unlikely to be as obvious as someone saying “I have depression”; it is likely to emerge in more nuanced ways. That’s why it’s important to listen to employees and understand how issues may manifest themselves in their cultural context. We can all play a role in bringing mental health out of the shadows in Asia.