World Mental Health Day in October raises awareness of mental health-related issues and aims to break the stigma around these. This year’s theme focuses on improving mental health in the workplace, making this year a particularly important day for the business world. In fitting with this year’s theme, we’ve collated insights from HR leaders at tech organisations on how businesses can get started on their journeys to prioritise mental health in the workplace.
Jessie Scheepers, Belonging and Impact Lead at Pleo
“With this year’s World Mental Health Day theme centred around prioritising mental wellbeing in the workplace, business leaders should use this moment to reflect on the positive benefits creating a safe, comfortable work environment brings, as well as the steps that can be taken to make this a key business priority.
“Happiness at work leads to more motivated and productive employees. Focusing on good mental health practices will lead to higher output per employee and less staff turnover. Additionally, a strong culture around mental health will lead to increased feelings of belonging. Mental health issues disproportionately affect those from underrepresented backgrounds, meaning a working environment where every employee feels seen and supported is vital.
“To get started, businesses must create a positive culture around mental health. This includes treating it in the same manner as physical illnesses, ensuring that employees can take the required time to recover from mental ailments, and that this time doesn’t have a stigma attached. Additionally, leaders could also implement training, internally or from an external body, to provide employees with knowledge of the causes and challenges associated with poor mental health, as well as how issues can best be supported and remedied.”
Alan Murphy, Senior HR Director, EMEA and APJ at Docusign
“When addressing workplace mental health, business and HR leaders must consider the many factors affecting employee wellbeing. Our latest Digital Maturity Report found that productivity is closely linked to the employee experience – and whether or not people decide to stay in their roles. Repetitive, low-value tasks are not only impacting productivity – meaning workers lose nearly 13 hours (1.5 working days) each week – but leave them feeling mentally drained. 41% would consider leaving their company due to frustration with outdated systems; more still crave the opportunity to work on higher-value work and to experiment with new tools.
“To cultivate a healthier, more engaged workforce, it’s essential to minimise low-value tasks and enable employees to focus on meaningful work. Streamlining workflows and investing in technology that alleviates unnecessary burdens can boost retention and job satisfaction, and will help business and HR leaders foster a healthier, happier and more engaged workforce.
“Organisations must recognise the importance of enhancing the overall employee experience to create a positive, happier and more productive workforce.”
Hila Harel, Director of International Expansion, Fiverr
“According to Mental Health UK, one in five Brits have recently taken time off from work due to stress, with burnout as a leading factor. Further research from Fiverr reveals that burnout is much more pronounced within companies than it is amongst those who work from themselves. 52% of company employees experienced burnout in 2023, compared to 37% of self employed workers or those who freelance. As a result, more UK workers than ever are considering abandoning the full time, 9-5 job altogether – particularly younger people who are joining the workforce. To help address this issue, UK businesses need to explore ways to better cater to the flexibility that employees need. The first step is understanding employees’ requirements for flexible working options, via surveys or open conversations between leaders, managers and employees. The next step is finding ways to meet their needs without compromising efficiency and output, and the final step is to roll out flexible working policies with clarity and consistency across the organisation. This World Mental Health Awareness Day is a chance for us to empower people to explore new career alternatives that allow for workers to do their work in accordance with the styles and preferences that suit them best.”
Mandi Walls, DevOps Advocate at PagerDuty
“Technology workers are highly pressured, keeping society’s services running while constantly learning new skills and applying new technologies. All this, and their digital infrastructure keeps growing more complex and fragile.
“Previous PagerDuty research, The State of Digital Operations, showed an increased burden on these teams resulting in burnout and employees leaving jobs with poor practices and employee experience. Maintaining strong mental health at work for software engineers and developers involves balancing: The operational maturity of infrastructure – made worse if engineers must constantly battle to keep legacy tech online.
“The teamwork and interpersonal dynamics of their relationships and hierarchies. The working practices and hours involved managing their responsibilities. This includes the cognitive load from managing the ‘noise’ as they analyse incidents for relevant signals to solve problems.
Tanya Channing, Chief People and Culture Officer, Pipedrive
“Pipedrive’s State of Sales & Marketing Report found several factors this year that organisations can easily put in place to improve workplace mental health.
“Firstly, working additional hours is widely spread, but it does not equal better results. Limiting the requirement to work late is a critical measure. Secondly, only every third respondent felt supported by their manager. Those that did were on average 13 percentage points more likely to reach their targets. Work-life balance is also influenced by tool adoption. Respondents who use more automation in their work and have a CRM report feeling happier.
“Only every tenth respondent felt their work-life balance was poor or very poor, but the fewer additional hours worked, the higher the satisfaction with work-life balance. This is supported by remote working and flexible working hours. Simply put, the right tools help people perform effectively, and flexibility to manage their role is a strong way to increase reported positive mental health. It’s a strong reason for using automation and AI that improve the human experience.
“Organisations must progress to a more mature level of digital operations for service uptime and satisfied customers, but also very much for the mental health of their own tech employees who literally keep the modern business working.”
Daniel Pell, Vice President and Country Manager, UKI, Workday
“Fostering a culture of transparency and openness is essential in supporting employees to manage their mental health. It’s an urgent issue, with Workday Peakon Employee Voice Data revealing that nearly 30% of employees are at high risk of burnout.
“At Workday, we invest in platforms like JAAQ to support employees by providing access to mental health resources and encouraging story-sharing, which helps break down the stigma around mental health. Leadership also plays a critical role by normalising and facilitating these open conversations. Alongside our wider initiatives, including mental health first aiders and peer-to-peer support, we’re creating a network of care that empowers employees to speak openly.
“Through offering the right support, promoting self-care, and responding to employee sentiment, businesses can help combat burnout risk and build a healthier, happier, and more engaged workforce.”
