PNS|Hyderabad
A total of 88 per cent of employees in India are willing to switch jobs for their mental well-being, revealed a survey by the Ultimate Kronos Group.
The survey was conducted by the Workforce Institute with 3,400 employees across 10 countries. The report analyses the role played by leaders in providing support for the mental health of the employees in and outside of the workspace. It also analyses the compromises employees are ready to make in order to prioritise their well-being.
The survey found that in the case of a majority of employees, 69% of them, their managers have just as much of an impact on their mental health as their spouses and more than their doctors and therapists. In addition, employees feel that stress from work often has a significant effect on their personal lives; 71% of them say that it negatively influences their home life, and 62% think that it has a bearing on their relationships.
In India, 25% of employees state that they always have trouble getting started with their workday, and 26% of them always feel exhausted by the end of it. The findings of the report suggest that working long hours is the primary trigger for work-related stress amongst 33% of Indian employees.
It is inevitable that this stress bleeds into work performance as 34% of employees find it hard to concentrate on their jobs, 31% are unable to build healthy relationships with fellow colleagues, and 26% experience decreased levels of productivity and performance.
Though a few companies have begun encouraging employees to speak about how work stress is adversely affecting their mental health, there is a lot to be done. In India, where 30 % of employees speak to the manager only once.
19 % of employees think that the managers won’t care; 28 % of them say that the managers would be too busy and 33 % believe they can handle it themselves.
Sumeet Doshi, Country Manager at UKG, India, stated “Employees, when driven by a positive sense of purpose at the workplace, tend to perform a lot better than they ever would when confronted with work-related stress on a daily basis.”
“Organisations need to cultivate that culture of positivity and engagement by prioritising the mental health of their employees as well as managers and leaders; there are no two ways about it,” he added.
