2023 Insights on employee mental wellbeing

Mental wellbeing is a critical component of a healthy, happy life. Yet much of the time, stress, anxiety and depression are viewed as something we must simply learn to live with or worse yet as something to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic brought mental health out of the shadows and opened employers’ eyes to the mental health challenges their people face daily. This prompted many companies to expand their investments in mental health programs.

Now that COVID fears have waned, employers have cut back on wellbeing budgets, while the number of employees rating their mental and emotional wellbeing positively remains stagnant.

And this despite the persistent economic uncertainty, which one-third of employees say has negatively impacted their mental and emotional health in the past year.¹ Employers are in a powerful position to help their people improve their mental and emotional wellbeing.

However, employers must first discover where employees are struggling, continue to show their commitment and explore how they can deliver much needed support.

Mental wellbeing: a post-pandemic assessment

While numbers across all measures of wellbeing – mind, body, wallet and life – rebounded from historic lows in 2021, we haven’t seen any further growth, according to findings from the 2023 Alight International Workforce and Wellbeing Mindset Study.

This holds true for perceptions of personal mental and emotional health. Perhaps most concerning, a growing number of employees feel their stress is out of control:

• Just 43% of workers say they have the ability to control their stress, down five points in just one year.
• Even fewer Gen Z workers (31%) feel in control of their stress.
• 46% of employees have suffered symptoms of burnout, up 5% from 2022.
• With that many employees reaching the breaking point, it comes as no surprise that just over one-third (34%) dread going to work or starting their workday.
• Nearly one-third (31%) of high stress workers say they are actively looking for a new job, compared with 11% of those reporting low levels of stress.

• Half of employees would like to receive more time off to address mental wellbeing, while 39% wish their employer had more mental health resources available.
• Nearly half (49%) consider work-life balance to be an important contributor to good mental health.
• The number of employees saying their employer has made changes to the work environment to better support mental and emotional health fell to 36% from 40% just last year.

If employers ever needed a call to action, this is it. Their people need help with their mental and emotional wellbeing, and it is incumbent upon them to erase the stigma and create a culture where people feel comfortable discussing their mental health challenges. By providing employees with robust tools and resources, employers empower them to take charge of their mental health and improve their overall wellbeing.