Over the next four months Legal & General will be highlighting the mounting problem of long-term sickness absences in the financial services sector by revealing new data and positioning posters in London’s main commuter train stations.
Speaking at the Second Reading of the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill on Friday 14th September, Charles Walker, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Mental Health congratulated Legal & General for addressing mental health and tackling stigma “particularly in the City, where there is a sort of macho culture in which people deny any weakness in case their colleagues think the worse of them.” He also called on the Government to “work with employers to promote the agenda of ‘No health without mental health’ and to celebrate those who take a lead.”
The Health & Safety Executive’s Labour Force Survey estimates that 10.8 million working days were lost in 2010/11 due to mental health issues such as stress, depression and anxiety.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Diane Buckley, Managing Director, Group Protection, Legal & General said: “Over the past year the financial services sector has been under increasing pressure. Mounting regulation, and trying to deliver ‘more for less’ are all taking their toll. Employees are trying to juggle a busy home life with their working life, and stretching their budgets to go further. All of this adds up to a lot of stress.
“What we are doing is raising awareness of the increase in stress-related absences and saying to employers that they have a role to play in ensuring the mental wellbeing of their staff in the workplace.”
Jenny Edwards, Chair of The International Stress Management AssociationUK said:
“Managing stress in the workplace is not just a nice to have policy, but a necessary requirement to reducing the current rise in mental health problems, particularly within the financial services sector. The effects of stress on the individual will also affect moral and teamwork within an organisation frequently resulting in presenteeism, which is 1.5 times more costly than absenteeism”
Jonathan Naess, Chief Executive and Founder of Stand to Reason, the workplace mental health charity said:
“’Stress in the City’ reflects a watershed moment in the battle to tackle stigma and bring mental wellbeing and emotional health onto the core agenda of a FTSE 100 company. Further to the partnership and co-production between Legal & General and Stand to Reason, this is to my knowledge the first time any enlightened or leading edge corporate has allocated marketing dollars to promote healthy messages about how to support people with stress and mental health challenges at work, and enable them to achieve their full potential. I am truly proud and honoured to support this campaign”
Mick Gillingham, Clinical Director of CBT Services Ltd said:
“Over the past couple of years we have seen an increase in the number of people asking us about handling stress in the workplace. HR departments are really paying attention to the benefits that CBT can bring to supporting their organisations”.
Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of mental health charity SANE, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a Black Dog Campaign said:
“We commend this timely initiative. There is often a conspiracy of silence surrounding stress and mental illness in the workplace, to the detriment of both employees and employers. It is important that people realise that treatment is available, and that they should seek help if they feel they are struggling.
“We are delighted that Legal & General are a founder-supporter of our Black Dog Campaign, through which we hope people will find a new language to express painful moods and thoughts that are difficult to communicate. We are excited to be developing our partnership with them to raise awareness and reduce stigma among their workforce and more widely.”
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