Employers should be focussing beyond Blue Monday, 20 January 2025, and ensuring mental health is given enough attention and support throughout the year, according to Towergate Employee Benefits.
“Employers should see Blue Monday as the day to take action to support employees for the whole of the rest of the year, not the one day of the year to offer additional support,” says Debra Clark, head of wellbeing at Towergate Employee Benefits.
Said to be the most depressing day of the year, the formula for Blue Monday is based on the weather, debt levels, time since holidays, and failing resolutions, but these and other issues can arise at any time and lead to mental health issues throughout the year. The message is that employers must give mental health the same support and attention throughout the entire year.
Make sure support is in place
Employers should check what mental health support they have in place. The bare minimum should be an employee assistance programme (EAP), which often comes embedded within other benefits – so it is worth employers doing a little digging to check.
Build resilience
Rather than just providing the solutions, employers must also consider providing the tools for employees to manage their own mental health. Individuals need to have the emotional intelligence to spot the signs of mental health issues for themselves, such as realising they are not sleeping or eating well or are becoming easily irritated.
Employers should look to health and wellbeing benefits to support this self-reflection and understanding. This may include using health risk assessments, occupational health questionnaires, and apps that track patterns in mood, sleep, exercise, etc.
Utilise digital options
New technology brings new ways of accessing support, and employers should make sure they are up to date on the options. These include virtual GPs and online counselling, where employees can easily access support without having to ask openly ask for help. Anonymity of support can be extremely important in many cases and is worth emphasising, although nobody should ever feel a stigma attached to needing support.
Building foundation
Mental health is often said to underpin the other pillars of wellbeing – physical, financial and social health. Employers must, therefore, ensure that this vital aspect of health and wellbeing is in place for 2025 to assist in the overall wellbeing programme and to encourage such positive benefits to the business as lowering absence rates, increasing productivity and improving retention of employees.
Debra Clark concludes: “Mental health should be one of the first priorities in January, through Blue Monday, and beyond. Putting the right support in place from the start will help to prevent issues occurring throughout the year and will help employees to learn how to become more resilient and able to make the best use of assistance available, if and when required.”
