Society is in a deep and vigorous discussion on the right trade-off between health and economy. Research into mental health in the workplace suggests that this trade-off is a reality of work, with 62% of managers reported that they "have had to put the interests of their organization above staff well-being either sometimes, regularly or every day.” As workplace pressures increase, coupled with a sense of feeling unsupported and unheard, 39% of employees report experiencing poor mental health symptoms related to work in the last year, and 23% just in the last month.
At the same time, only 51% of people feel comfortable talking about mental health, even in a general sense, and managers often feel that there are systemic barriers to causing any significant or meaningful change around employee well-being. This reality contributes to stress, anxiety, declining productivity and increasing business costs.
Evelyn Jonkman, Senior Consultant at Conversant, has been exploring this paradigm and researching the foundations of healthy workplaces in a way that makes long-term economic sense. In this episode of the Greatness Podcast, she joins Gretchen Gagel to discuss the sensed trade-off between employee well-being and organizational interests in businesses globally, bringing a new possibility to the conversation - maybe it isn’t a trade-off after all?
More on the Greatness Podcast:
Gretchen Gagel, Managing Director of Conversant Asia Pacific, hosts the Greatness Podcast, where she has interviewed the world's leading thinkers as they share their ideas about how to create greatness in leadership, teams and organizations.
You can find this and all past episodes of the podcast online here, or through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more.
