How Hong Kong employers can consolidate the gains made through mentally-healthy workplaces

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According to City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong, employers can focus on three key areas: retaining employees, maintaining workplace flexibility, and improving communication with employees.

According to an employee wellbeing survey by City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong (CMHA HK), the COVID pandemic has dramatically changed working practices and environments. For Hong Kong employees in the professional services sector, the impact of the pandemic resulted in uncertainty around job and financial security due to the economic downturn, sparked fear around personal health and safety, and with it, pressure and uncertainty related to care responsibilities for children and elderly relatives.

Therefore, supporting the mental health and wellbeing of employees is increasingly recognised as a core business responsibility, both as a duty of care during these years of uncertainty, and as key component of good business practice to support productivity, sustainability and growth.

To understand the workplace practices and significant external factors that impact on employee mental health in the professional services sector of Hong Kong, the CMHA HK Employee Wellbeing Survey was offered to all Hong Kong member companies in 2022. Ultimately, 13 member companies participated and 396 employees completed the survey.

Here are the key findings.

Hong Kong has seen a significant increase in mental health problems since 2020

Among Hong Kong employees surveyed in 2022, 40% reported they had experienced mental health problems in the last 12 months. This is a significant increase from 27% reported in 2020 and 23% reported in the 2018.

This increased prevalence of mental health problems may be a result of the uncertainty and stressors related to the COVID pandemic, but could also be attributed to an increase in mental health literacy and a greater awareness among employees of their own mental health and a willingness to be open about this.

A deeper analysis of the data shows that employees aged 20-40 years reported a higher rate of mental health problems, 46%, compared with 32% of those aged 41-70 years, possibly reflecting the pressures of being in their early career, stress associated with a middle management position, or a greater awareness of mental health and higher willingness to acknowledge these stressors.

Meanwhile, employees with childcare responsibilities reported below average levels of mental health problems (34%) as did those in junior management roles (35%).

Key stressors impacting on employee wellbeing were:

• Travel restrictions (51%),
• Hours worked (40%),
• COVID (34%).

The survey found more than half of employees experienced symptoms which can be associated with mental health problems:

• Anxiety (64%),
• Depression (58%),
• Lack of interest (58%),
• Uncontrollable worrying (55%).

Employees who indicated they had experienced mental health problems in the last 12 months generally reported higher levels of stress across all listed variables, particularly in a lack of support at work; relationships with colleagues and managers; and bullying and harassment.

The data highlights the importance of providing additional support for what appears to be a growing proportion of employees. Increasing mental health literacy among managers, team leaders and the broader employee group, to ensure these stressors are understood and to advance cultural change within the organisation, would further support all employees to participate more equally in the workplace.

Employers can do more to support employee mental health

The CMHA HK Thriving at Work Assessment found that among CMHA HK member companies:

• 82% had established a workplace mental health strategy to guide implementation,
• 81% had implemented interventions and support initiatives providing culturally appropriate mental health support as well as preventative and early interventions,
• 78% were using external campaigns such as World Mental Health Day to promote workplace mental health,
• support for line managers increased by 32% from 2021 with the implementation of initiatives such as training in employee support and conducting difficult conversations,
• 97% had established flexible work practices.

In terms of flexible workplace practices, when asked how much of their time was spent working from home, 36% of employees reported all their time was in the office and three-quarters reported 80% of their time was in the office. Only one-fifth of employees worked from home more than 60% of the time, of which senior staff and senior management had the highest level, closely followed by junior management.

Four-fifths (80%) of employees were supported by online team meetings during work from home, 41% received home office equipment from their employer or purchased equipment with an allowance (45%), and 47% had regular check-ins with their line manager.

Employee interest in working from home was found to decline with seniority and age. While overall 81% of employees were interested in working from home, this was highest among those working in the back and corporate office (95%). Junior and senior staff, as well as senior management also expressed a high level of interest (89-94%) to work from home.

On the other hand, employees recognised the impact of working from home:

Employers should bear in mind the potential impact on inter-colleague relationships and time management. Supporting line managers and team leaders to establish team-based collaborative processes and the skills to ensure individual employees maintain mentally-healthy work-life separation can support both productivity and physical and mental wellbeing.

Employee access to and use of employer provided resources differs by seniority and role

The data revealed that, in general, the use of employer mental health services increases with seniority. Utilisation rates of resources across seniority groups gave an insight into how each group feels about accessing mental health information via different mediums.

• Senior managers are the highest users of mental health related apps (57%),
• Junior staff are the highest users of on-site counselling (57%),
• Senior managers, junior managers and director/C-Suite are highest users of off-site counselling (36-42%),
• Junior and senior staff, senior managers and admin staff are highest users of information sessions (38-43%),
• 68% of admin staff did not use any services,
• Junior staff are the next lowest users - 53% did not use any services.

The primary reasons given by admin staff for not accessing services was because they were uncertain about seeking help and had confidentiality concerns, for junior staff it was predominantly confidentiality concerns and a lack of knowledge on how to access services. Senior staff and junior management were mostly uncertain about seeking help, with junior management and directors often reporting that they were unsure the resources would help.

Among different levels of employee seniority there was a distinction in who they would discuss their mental health problems with.

• 63% of director/C-suite did not tell anyone at work. Of those who did, 67% approached a colleague, 50% talked with a manager, 33% with a mentor and 33% spoke with a mental health first aider.
• 75% of junior staff spoke with a colleague and only 13% spoke with either a manager, HR or used the EAP.
• 82% of senior management spoke with their manager.

How to consolidate the gains made through mentally healthy workplaces

The survey indicated that employers can focus on three key areas: retaining employees, maintaining workplace flexibility, and improving communication with employees.

Employees who had experienced mental health problems in the last 12 months had a higher turnover intention than their colleagues, with 34% sometimes considering leaving, 18% often, and 15% always thinking of leaving, as opposed to 27%, 6% and 1%.

Both groups ranked better career progression, workload, compensation, working hours, and role ambiguity highly when considering whether to continue with their current employer.

For workplace flexibility, to explore how employees feel about workplace flexibility options, the 2022 survey included questions about a four-day week. The result showed that:

• 59% are extremely interested, 26% are quite interested,
• 78% said it would improve company loyalty,
• 51% said it would improve their productivity,
• 85% anticipated improvement in their work-life balance,
• 75% felt it would improve their mental wellbeing and level of stress.

When asked if they were willing to take a pay cut to achieve a four-day week, 41% of employees said they were unwilling to do so, while 29% were willing to take a 5% pay cut. When analysed by seniority, Directors, senior management and senior staff were more willing to take a reduction in pay with 15-19% willing to cut 20% of their pay to shift to a four-day week.

When asked about employer insurance cover, 43% of respondents were unaware of the services that were included in their employer medical insurance package and 38% were uncertain how to access these services. Awareness of the services provided by employers varied by seniority, with senior level staff more informed (directors/C-Suite), and junior and admin staff least certain of the range of mental health resources available.

Promoting the use and process to access employer provided mental health services, as well as addressing employee confidentiality concerns for these services, would no doubt increase the uptake of services and ensure employees get the support they need. 

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Lead image / Shutterstock 

All infographics / City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong's 2022 Employee Wellbeing Survey