In the late ’90s, Liz Hilton Segel was managing a group at consulting firm McKinsey & Company when she noticed that something was off with one of her team members. They were working around the clock on a fast-paced project, and his work was uncharacteristically missing the mark. He confided that he was in the midst of a depressive episode and needed to take a break from work—immediately. “He literally left the office that day, at 5:00 on a Wednesday,” Hilton Segel recalls. “And I had just completely missed it. I could have seen what was going on—I could have seen it in his physical appearance, in the way he spoke. But I didn’t.”
The experience has stuck with Hilton Segel, who now is the global leader of McKinsey’s industry practices. As the issue of mental health in the workplace has gained more attention in recent years, Hilton Segel wants to make sure that employees have the support and interventions they need and that employers are taking the right steps to address these issues in the workplace. “We need to teach people to look for it, to ask the question, to check if someone’s okay,” she says. “This is about changing people’s lives.”
THE BENEFITS OF SUPPORTING MENTAL WELL-BEING
Mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, aren’t new to the workplace. For as long as there have been W-2s, workers have struggled to balance their mental health and well-being with the rigors of their jobs. But in the past two years, the number of workers grappling with mental health issues has risen sharply. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,more than 30% of adults have reported symptoms of anxiety and depression- 与大流行之前相比，近三倍。麦肯锡首席人民官员凯蒂·乔治（Katy George）说：“每个雇主都看到了心理健康问题的增加。”“我们已经看到一系列抑郁，焦虑和隔离问题大大增加。”
Failing to support employee mental health can be costly for companies. Productivity can suffer, and talent can head for the exits—sometimes abruptly. And companies with a reputation for failing to support their employees’ mental health may find it harder to recruit top talent. By contrast, investing in employees’ mental health offers plenty of upside for companies. For starters, those investments can provide a considerable return: The World Health Organization estimates thatevery dollar invested in treating depression and anxiety yields $4 in productivity gains.
除了生产力之外，为员工提供这种支持还可以帮助他们尽力而为，最具创新性和创造力。希尔顿·塞格尔（Hilton Segel）说：“如果您处于压力重大，睡眠不足的状态，我要求您发挥创造力或应对紧张状况，那么您只是不会拥有它。”“雇主的部分利益是为人们提供燃料或能量，使他们能够真正显示出所需的创造力或情感韧性水平。”
A CULTURAL CONVERSATION
So how can companies take a more proactive approach around employees’ mental health? The first step is recognizing that supporting mental health requires more than offering benefits such as increasing coverage for therapy. “We need to move mental health from a benefits conversation to a cultural conversation,” George says. “It’s about rejecting stigma and making people feel safe talking about their mental health needs.”
麦肯锡（McKinsey）正在通过诸如学习计划的计划朝这个方向发展，这些计划可以帮助员工管理自己的心理健康，并支持同事的健康。它正在开展培训计划，以帮助员工确定可能遇到麻烦并提供支持的同事，如果他们看到精神疾病或困扰的迹象。作为这项工作的一部分，麦肯锡创建了一个名为Mind Matters的计划，其中包括在麦肯锡在世界各地的每个地点进行培训150个“心理健康冠军”。这些人可以通过支持遇到心理健康挑战的同事的过程来帮助员工，同时还可以帮助员工帮助危机的员工获得所有可用的福利。
该公司还将这些对话扩展到其墙壁之外。它启动了麦肯锡健康研究所（MHI），以催化各大洲，工业和社区对健康的行动。希尔顿·塞格尔（Hilton Segel）说：“ MHI的主要重点领域之一是心理健康和福祉。”“我们希望促进有关雇主如何提高最新技术，互相学习并实质性地改善员工和社区健康的全球对话。就像麦肯锡全球研究所专注于经济生产力一样，MHI将专注于所有人的福祉。”
The pandemic has forced many companies to rethink their relationships with employees, from their expectations for how, when, and where work gets done to how they can boost employees’ on-the-job satisfaction. Supporting employees’ mental health is a key piece of that puzzle. “Work is such an important part of our lives, and employers have an obligation to support well-being in our employee base,” Hilton Segel says. “And there are tremendous benefits to doing so, because it can unleash creativity, innovation, and productivity in the workforce.”