"Employee mental health is a business-continuity issue that every leader needs to address, particularly as many employees return to the office and experience new day-to-day stressors," said Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace Health.

Among the report's findings:

• Eighty-three percent of CEOs and 70% of employees report missing at least one day of work because of stress, burnout and mental health challenges. Only 28% of employees report feeling "very engaged" in their work.
• Top global stressors for employees are COVID-19; burnout because of increased workload or lack of staff; poor work-life balance; and poor management and leadership.
• More women (40%) feel burned out at work than male (33%) or non-binary employees (34%).
• Non-binary employees report a wider range of stressors at work than their male and female counterparts.

However, many employers are pulling back on mental health programs at the exact moment employees need and want them most:

• Ninety-four percent of CEOs believe they do enough to support workforce mental health, while only 67% of employees feel the same way.
• Seven in 10 workers say their company increased its focus on mental health following COVID-19, but only 25% say it has kept that focus in the last year.
• Globally, more than half of employees have tried a technology-based mental-health service, with blue-collar workers and CEOs reporting the highest usage rates.
• Use of digital mental-health tools among U.S. employees has doubled since 2020.

Organizational leaders say they need support balancing both their own well-being and their team's emotional and functional capacity:

• More than nine in 10 leaders take advantage of mental-health support at least occasionally.
• Sixty percent of CEOs use their company's mental health benefits regularly, compared with 37% of employees.
• One in four employees lists "poor leadership and management" as a top stressor at work, with U.S. employees reporting this as an increased stressor compared to 2021 and 2020.
• More than 80% of employees believe it is the employer's responsibility to help with mental health, and 82% want their leaders to ask how they are doing and actually care about the answer.

"To attract and retain talent, it's critical that leaders destigmatize mental health from the top down and meet the growing expectations of their employees for high-quality mental health benefits," Glass said.

Read more: 

• 3 ways to support employee wellbeing and achieve mental balance
• Workplace mental health compounded by leadership gap
• 2022 Employee benefits & workplace predictions: A mental health revolution