Earlier this year, Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA England) published survey findings revealing that some 83% of finance sector employees have considered changing jobs due to the impact of work on their mental health, with nearly half of those actually doing so.
Employers in financial services should act to retain talent in the industry according to MHFA England, whose survey findings highlight the impact of poor mental health in the workplace. The survey of 1000 employees working in financial services revealed 60% of the sector’s employees feel their employer could do more on workplace mental health, with 41% of financial services employees saying flexible working hours would improve the condition.
Meanwhile, more than a third of staff in the sector believe a choice over when and where they work would help, whether at home or in the office, according to the survey.
Mental health concerns have been compounded by the recent pandemic and lockdown. A survey of 352 banking and finance professional staff conducted in the UK during the Covid-19 lockdown by wellbeing company Helix Resilience showed that 86% felt their mental health to have been affected, with 52% of respondents claiming to be less productive as a result of lockdown.
Promisingly, Vicki Cockman, workplace lead at MHFA England says that among professional sectors, financial services stand out as seriously wanting to create high-performing teams and cultures. “We really believe that wellbeing, mental health and performance can genuinely feed one another,” she says.
there is a need to ensure [staff] really enjoy the work they’re doing, which is key to the retention of staff
The underlying conclusion of such data is that when employees feel valued, they do their best work. “It is important to make sure that some of these measures are put in place to ensure people feel really valued, to make sure they feel as if they are in an environment where they can thrive and feel the purpose in their role,” Ms Cockman says. “I think more importantly, there is a need to ensure they really enjoy the work that they’re doing, which is going to be key to the retention of staff as well.”
Action on attention to the issue of mental health taken by banks and other financial services organisations extends beyond addressing concerns relating to their own staff. For example, earlier this year Lloyds Bank partnered with Mental Health UK in unveiling its Stronger Mind, Stronger Business campaign, an initiative offering UK small business owners free therapeutic coaching sessions. The purpose of the campaign was to highlight ways in which a healthy mindset contributes to business success while challenging the restrictive belief that mental health must be sacrificed for success.
Marking last month’s Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK last month, High Street bank Barclays launched This Is Me, a campaign to demonstrate to employees the importance of discussing the issue of mental health. This initiative was supported by PwC and other major businesses along with mental health charities.
Support for all
Supporting MHFA England’s view that banks are taking measures to protect their own staff against poor mental health and to help prevent staff loss as a result, Fiona Cannon, group sustainability director at Lloyds Banking Group says the wellbeing of the bank’s staff is top priority.
“We remain committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive at work. We believe it is important that we are consistently challenging the stigma that can still exist around mental health and encouraging open conversations so that we are able to serve our customers in the best way we can,” she says.
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Ms Cannon adds that Lloyds’ approach focuses on the spectrum of mental health, from everyday wellbeing through to clinically diagnosed conditions. “We are focusing on prevention as well as support,” she explains. “We’ve mobilised a permanent wellbeing team with the purpose of understanding the changing needs of colleagues and evolving the support we offer and creating a culture around wellbeing where colleagues and leaders can be vulnerable and seek support.”
She adds that Lloyds Banking Group staff now make more than 60,000 visits per month to the bank’s internal wellbeing website, which hosts continually renewed resources to support colleagues on considerations including working from home, staying healthy and managing finances.
At the start of 2018, the bank increased cover of up to £50,000 available to colleagues through private medical benefit for mental health conditions, a figure equal to the financial support available for physical conditions.
More than 31,000 Lloyds Banking Group colleagues learned about mental health and how to support others through specialist online training, according to the bank. It has also formed an internal network dedicated to the support of mental health that consists of more than 3200 staff all trained to have supportive conversations and to guide their peers through the wellbeing support available through the organisation.
“We offer an app, Headspace, to all permanent colleagues, and we have recently extended this to also provide free access for up to two friends or family members for each colleague,” says Ms Cannon.
Common themes
MHFA England’s discovery of a high level of mental health pressures among banks and financial services staff supports those of a Deloitte survey last year, which found an increase of 25% in the cost of poor mental health to employers compared with 2019. The survey also found that 28% of employees either left in 2021 or were planning to leave their jobs in 2022, with 61% citing poor mental health as the reason they are leaving.
MHFA England works with a range of organisations across the financial services sector, including global banks, risk auditors and wealth management organisations, where Ms Cockman says they have found themes in common.
“Notable among things they are doing well is making sure that they are training in mental health literacy and mental health awareness,” she says. “That means giving people the most appropriate positive language to use. It means they then feel that they can talk in confidence about mental health and wellbeing and that they can support a conversation with a colleague, or with them with their manager, which is very important.”
Financial services organisations are responding well to the issues of mental health and are focusing on people management in this regard, she stresses. “It is around upskilling, empowerment and confidence around the topic of mental health and wellbeing and about understanding how they can weave that into regular one-to-ones and making sure that they can identify an individual who might be struggling to achieve the outcome set for them, and that actually that conversation can be around mental health and wellbeing,” she adds.
We have focused investment on how we manage a mental health crisis. For us it is all about risk management
Ms Cockman adds that when MHFA England has identified organisations that handle mental health issues well have a senior leadership member accountable for the area. “This means making sure that it is an objective that is spoken about and making sure that there are measurements within the organisation, in terms of how they are measuring the wellbeing of their staff to look at how they can improve it moving forward,” she explains.
Banking trade association UK Finance is among the organisations that support the MHFA England campaign. “Mental wellbeing is a key issue and something UK Finance and the wider banking and finance sector takes very seriously,” says Julie Carruthers, managing director, membership and strategic partnerships. “MHFA England has set out some important ideas for improving employees’ mental health through greater managerial support and flexibility.”
Jenn Barnett, head of ESG and EDI at Grant Thornton UK says burnout is very high on the firm’s agenda. “That prompted our conversation with MFHA England,” she says. “Professional services is a highly performing and high-pressure environment. People join that sector because in part they enjoy that kind of challenge and some of that pressure that comes with it.” However, professional services companies have tended not to spend time on self-care, she says, adding that Grant Thornton has focused on a “holistic approach to wellbeing”.
Ms Barnett adds that financial pressure is now the top cause of stress outside work. “We know that more people than ever are starting to experience what we call kind of negative stress,” she concludes. “We have focused investment on how we manage a mental health crisis, and how we help people to do that. For us it is all about risk management.”
