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Nearly one-third of workers scored 50 or below on the mental health scale, indicating a concerning national trend as the results are beginning to enter "distressed" levels (0 to 49 points).
TELUS Health released its TELUS Mental Health Index for the month of September 2024, examining the mental health of employed people in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Europe. The report on Singapore revealed that the country’s workforce is facing an increasing mental health crisis, threatening productivity and physical health.
In fact, the mental health score stands at 61.6, dropping by 1.3 points from the last study in April 2024 (62.9 points). This marks the first significant decline since the start of the study in April 2022.
In other regions/markets surveyed, the mental health scores of workers for September 2024 are as follows:
- Australia: 61.1
- New Zealand: 59.7
- United Kingdom: 64.6
- Europe: 61.6
- United States: 70.6
- Canada: 64.4
Further details of the report show that 41% of workers have high mental health risk, 42% have moderate risk and 17% have low risk. Within the span of over two years since the launch of the Index, the percentage of high mental risk workers has increased by 2%. Additionally, all mental health sub-scores namely work productivity, anxiety, isolation, depression and financial risk have declined since the last index report in April 2024. Overall, the mental health score of managers remains to be higher than non-manager workers while labourers have been identified to have a lower mental health score than service industry and office workers.
Nearly one-third of workers surveyed scored 50 or below on the mental health scale, indicating a concerning national trend as the results are beginning to enter "distressed" levels (0 to 49 points). The productivity loss of this group is nearly three times the number of lost workdays as 8% of workers with a mental health score higher than 90.
In terms of diet, less than half of workers are reported to adhere to a healthy diet with a larger portion of them belonging to a younger group of workers. The health score for this group of workers is reported to have 17 points lower in mental health scoring as compared to the group of workers who stick to a healthy diet. Workers with no emergency savings who more often than not fail to have a healthy diet are more than three times more likely to be diagnose with anxiety and depression.
It is also reported that workers with mental health conditions experience the most significant productivity losses with a large number of them belonging to a younger age group (under 40 years old) and workers without emergency savings. 12% of workers have been diagnosed with anxiety while 8% are diagnosed with depression, each losing 70.6 and 69.9 working days of productivity per year respectively. That is 23 points and 22 points lower than workers who do not face with the mental conditions mentioned above.
Young workers are more than three time as likely to report being diagnosed with depression and two and a half times more likely to report being diagnosed with anxiety than workers over 50. Workers without emergency savings are more than three times as likely to report being diagnosed with anxiety. They are also nearly three times more likely to report being diagnosed with depression as well.
Apart from the above, there is also a low interest in improving health and wellbeing among workers, resulting in them to lose more than four additional weeks of productivity annually (75.4 working days). On the other hand, workers who are interested to improve their quality of life would only experience a productivity loss of 54.2 working days per year. The areas of improvement and percentage of workers that would like to do so are as follows:
- Physical fitness - 62%
- Sleep quality - 60%
- Stress level - 46%
- Diet and nutrition - 39%
- Pain management - 17%
In further findings, employees who rate poor employer support for their physical wellbeing score 18 points lower than those reporting excellent support. The former group also loses an additional 36 working days in productivity annual.
Delving into this, the index noted that 31% rate employer support for physical wellbeing as very good/excellent; the mental health score of this group is at least 14 points higher than workers rating
employer support as poor and at least two points higher than the national average.
At the same time, 27% rate employer support for mental wellbeing as very good/excellent; the mental health score of this group is at least 12 points higher than workers rating employer support as poor and at least one point higher than the national average.
What's also interesting to note is that as the rating for employer support declines, productivity losses increase. The data revealed:
- Workers rating employer support for physical wellbeing as excellent lose 43 working days per year in productivity compared to 79.5 working days per year in productivity loss among workers rating employer support as poor.
- Workers rating employer support for mental wellbeing as excellent lose 36.7 working days per year in productivity compared to 79.1 working days per year in productivity loss among workers rating employer support as poor.
Commenting on the findings, Haider Amir, Director, Asia at TELUS Health, said that apart from the greater intensity of anxiety and isolation, financial insecurity is also the impacting mental, physical, and financial health of employees. However, he noted that this challenge opens up a powerful opportunity for employers to begin prioritising wellbeing programmes and creating a supportive workplace culture, all in an effort to make a difference in their employee’s overall wellbeing.
"This holistic approach, which includes financial education and support, can alleviate stress, improve financial decision-making, and ultimately drive higher productivity and stronger organisational resilience," he added.
READ MORE: How employees surveyed in Singapore feel about their mental health
Lead image/ TELUS Mental Health Index
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