The workplace wellness sector has been given a shot in the arm. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, transposed into Irish law in July, requires a growing cohort of companies to report on their environmental, social and environmental (ESG) impact, just as they do their financials.
With staff a key stakeholder, workplace wellness is set to be key focus of the ‘S’ in ESG. That’s a tonic because a study of health and wellbeing promotion in Irish companies, published last year by UCC, MTU and Warwick Business School, found 80 per cent of employers in Ireland are not investing in workplace mental health at all. This is despite the fact that almost the same amount (76 per cent) regarded employee mental health and wellbeing as their responsibility.
What’s more, mental-health-related sickness absence increased post-pandemic, the study found, with 64 per cent of employers saying that absenteeism – physical and mental-health related – was adversely impacting business performance.
Indeed, mental-health-related sickness absence is a growing challenge for many Irish employers, with more than half reporting that the proportion of absenteeism due to mental ill-health had increased in the previous 12 months. Presenteeism, working when ill, was flagged up as an issue too.
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Research published in May by CIPD Ireland, the human resource professional’s association, also points to ongoing challenges, with the most common reason for absences in the previous year given as mental health, at 22 per cent, up from 17 per cent the year before.
In terms of factors contributing to mental health issues, “workload featured significantly, with 55 per cent of respondents identifying this,” the research found.
While non-work issues relating to family or relationships were cited by 59 per cent of respondents, 47 per cent reported a perceived lack of management support.
On the plus side, growing demand for workplace wellness solutions has spurred both innovation and investor interest. Earlier this year digital health and wellbeing start-up Spectrum Life closed a €17 million investment round, designed to accelerate its international growth. Cofounded in 2018 by Stephen Costello and Stuart McGoldrick, its products are already available to more than seven million people, across 3,000 corporate clients, multiple insurers and 50 UK universities, making it one of Europe’s fastest growing digital health providers.
Spectrum Life provides instant access to clinical support via phone, WhatsApp, SMS and live chat, as well as cognitive behavioural and psychotherapy services. In some instances it includes access to internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) via Silvercloud, another home-grown success story.
The company, which was founded in 2012 and acquired by US telehealth company Amwell just under a decade later, has a platform offering a portfolio of programmes to support employees through everything from stress, anxiety and depression to chronic conditions and substance abuse.
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One of the best-known figures in workplace wellbeing is Olympian and TV sports commentator Derval O’Rourke who, with business partner Greg O’Gorman, established a new platform, SAOL, last year.
It offers employees access to on-demand programmes covering both physical and mental wellbeing. The pair had already been running their wellbeing site, Derval.ie, for five years but saw fresh opportunities arising from workplace changes brought about as a result of Covid.
In July, Lua Health, a developer of AI-based technology that can detect poor mental health from how a person speaks or writes, raised half a million euro in pre-seed funding. Early investors saw the potential for a proactive approach to wellness that focuses on early detection and, as co-founder Fionn Delahunty said, puts “an end to silent suffering”.
But the market isn’t entirely made up of tech innovators. Aware, the national voluntary organisation specialising in depression, has a range of “wellness at work” programmes covering issues such as stress and mental health.
Early-stage research suggests workers are feeling increasingly isolated not during the portion of time they spend at home but during the periods they spend in under-populated offices
Another not for profit, Shine, runs a programme called See Change, which works with organisations to develop a more open and inclusive culture around mental health.
Mental Health First Aid Ireland has trained more than 22,000 people in how best to support a friend, colleague, or family member who may be experiencing a mental health difficulty.
Ireland making healthy progress
Ireland was the first country in Europe to launch a day devoted to workplace wellbeing. Hosted by employer’s organisation Ibec, the 10th National Workplace Wellbeing Day took place in April.
Ibec is a key player in workplace wellbeing. Its KeepWell programme offers a practical and evidence-based approach for businesses to build and measure what it calls their “wellbeing capital”. It focuses on key areas of workplace wellbeing including mental health, absence management, physical activity and healthy eating.
On joining the programme, organisations receive a framework of standards in such areas and tools to benchmark their performance. Those who perform well are accredited with the KeepWell Mark.
However, even organisations that do workplace wellness right can get it wrong. Earlier this year a BBC report alleged that a provider of employee assistance programmes had allowed line managers to listen in on calls made to the service. The company at the centre of the allegations denied any breach of confidentiality but the episode highlighted how critically important it is that all aspects of workplace wellness are approached with sensitivity.
According to 2023 research from Workplace Wellbeing Ireland, a community of practitioners, three quarters of firms with fewer than 50 employees have no wellbeing initiatives in place at all. Those embarking on them need to proceed with caution.
“The biggest challenge companies have in trying something for the first time is that they are potentially going to be met with scepticism from employees. Building trust in this space is absolutely vital and if you lose that trust, it takes a long, long time to rebuild it,” says Brian Crooke, the organisation’s founder and developer of a postgraduate certificate course in workplace wellness delivered via Trinity College Dublin’s Tangent ideas workspace.
Be transparent about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you are safeguarding information and confidentiality, adds Crooke. The shift to working from home makes workplace wellness programmes more important than ever, he points out. That’s because early-stage research by one of his colleagues suggests workers are feeling increasingly isolated not during the portion of time they spend at home, but during the periods they spend in underpopulated offices.
Helena Dineen, a mindfulness coach and provider of workplace programmes, works both independently and as part of Kara Connect, a popular platform whose programmes are delivered in person, with a live booking system. Staff using it get credits to book the supports they need.
Dineen works with a range of organisations in the public and private sectors and has seen significant growth in demand since Covid, a massive disruption which she believes society, and not just the workplace, has yet to fully process.
“People are very keen to take care of their teams,” says Dineen. She advises employers looking to introduce wellbeing initiatives to choose solutions and suppliers with care. “It’s not f, it’s people’s health and wellbeing so it’s very important to get right in terms of quality and confidentiality,” she says.
As well as being the second largest insurer in Ireland, Laya Healthcare is the leading provider of workplace wellbeing programmes, servicing more than 2,000 companies. Its offering includes wellbeing supports for everything from counselling to financial wellbeing, career guidance and even parenting advice.
“It’s all the kind of things that keep you awake at night but don’t prevent you from getting out of bed in the morning,” explains Sinéad Proos, its head of wellness. Such a holistic approach makes sense, adds Proos: “There’s enough evidence out there now to show that healthy, happy people are the most productive and absolutely the most engaged.”
Laya’s Workplace Wellbeing Index has found that since 2022 employees have valued wellbeing and salary equally – a new departure. The sentiment was most pronounced among young people and perimenopausal women, “one of the fastest growing demographics in our workplace right now”, says Proos.
Organisations take note. “It was the first time we saw employees, especially the younger generation, say ‘You know what? I want an employer that actually cares for me’,” she says.
