More workers feel their employer takes their wellbeing seriously, survey finds

Employees are increasingly feeling that their employers take their mental health and wellbeing seriously, although this has done little to stop a rise in stress and anxiety at the workplace, a new survey has revealed.

Conducted by Misco, a research, consulting and recruitment firm, the Employee Wellbeing at the Workplace Survey 2022 shows that 56 per cent of respondents agreed that their wellbeing was given its due importance, an increase over the 53 per cent and 50 per cent who agreed with the statement in 2021 and 2020 respectively.

On the other hand, while 63 per cent reported feelings of stress and anxiety due to work in 2021, this has now increased significantly, to 79 per cent.

In fact, 68 per cent of respondents stated that they have experienced mental health problems caused by their job over the past 12 months.

Further evidence for an increase in job-related stress is that while 47 per cent of 2021’s respondents said their job is often stressful, this increased to 58 per cent this year.

This might be related to the fact that over half (52 per cent) said they work more than 40 hours each week.

The research showed that pressure (50 per cent), heavy workload (43 per cent) and tight deadlines (41 per cent) are often experienced at work.

Four in 10 respondents said they believe that experiencing trouble in concentrating is a major effect that poor mental wellness has on someone’s performance at work, followed by conflict with colleagues (29 per cent).

The survey was conducted via an online survey platform in the first quarter of 2022 and took approximately 10 minutes to complete. It was distributed among employed people and was answered by 355 respondents.