"Financial services workers were said to be most likely to see their mental health negatively affected by the pandemic."
The pandemic has been tough for us all and I’m not ashamed to say that there have been times when my mental health has been affected. Fortunately for me, these moments have been short-lived and I have a strong support network around me. Sadly, not everyone is so lucky. We all deal with challenges and issues in our own way. Some people have really struggled over the last year and then there are others who have thrived. Everyone has a unique set of circumstances to deal with and recent events have resulted in emotional and financial swings for many. And for those working within financial services, it is certainly no different.
According to a recent study from Westfield Health, a fifth of finance professionals are struggling to get to grips with new ways of working and are in need of wellbeing support as the UK economy starts to open up. The report – Coping after Covid - also found that wellbeing-enhanced productivity could add £61bn to the economy by 2025, if UK companies - including financial services firms - can create effective wellbeing strategies and improve underperforming ones.
The report uncovered that 17% of workers at financial services firms are struggling to get to grips with new ways of working and 23% are getting anxious about work. In fact, financial services workers were said to be most likely to see their mental health negatively affected by the pandemic. Over half (52%) said their mental health had worsened in the last year, followed by manufacturing (48%), professional services (47%) and construction (46%).
When asked what they would like to see from their employer in the next few months to improve their mental health, finance professionals asked for employers to make the workplace covid-secure (31%) in addition to extra mental (30%) and physical health support (27%). They also added that long-term changes to the way they work were needed (44%).
Studies like this are vital in realising the challenges facing different types of people in different types of working environments, and how we can overcome these. Here at Countrywide Surveying Services, we introduced a Mental Health First Aid course for our managers to enable them to better understand and support their teams when it comes to working from home and implementing a successful phased back to work programme. Local lockdowns and people needing to self-isolate after holidays resulted in many more localised challenges. Our approach has been to meet these challenges with honest, open conversations whilst ensuring that the safety of our surveyors is maintained at all times. Although we are always evaluating ways to improve and better support our people in a variety of ways.
Wellbeing and mental health are extremely complex and emotive subjects. And the more we talk about them, the more barriers we can break down from a business and personal perspective. So let’s keep these lines of communication open and remember that whilst its good to talk it’s as important to listen.
