HR professionals’ perceptions of workplace mental health differ by role in department

The pandemic underscored the vital role that mental health plays in employee satisfaction, job performance and retention. However, although most human resource professionals place a high value on promoting a healthy workplace, only 16% of chief HR officers rate the mental health of their organization’s workforce as very good or excellent.

Gallup recently surveyed CHIROs and a representative sample of the U.S. workforce to gauge the impact of employment on mental health. Among HR professionals, 35% reported a somewhat negative impact on their mental health, while 38% found their job’s effect on mental health somewhat positive. These findings demonstrate that those responsible for employee wellbeing also face challenges in their own roles.

When the same question was posed to employees, one-third reported that their job had a somewhat negative impact on their mental health, while 23% found it to be somewhat positive. Thirty percent of respondents said their job had no impact on their mental health. These results highlight the fact that individual experiences of mental health in the workplace may vary significantly.