Mental Health: “Not Just a Pandemic Thing” (newsletter feature)

When the World Health Organization first reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had led to a massive 25% spike in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression, companies and investors responded with new mental health policies and initiatives. Several commentators suggested this was ‘just a pandemic thing’; but in this article we explore how the latest data suggests not only that workplace mental health support is here to stay, but that it’s increasingly becoming a driver of value.

What is workplace mental health and the CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark?

Workplace mental health refers to the emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing of employees within a work environment.

Since 2020 Chronos has worked with CCLA Investment Management on its award-winning Corporate Mental Health Benchmark which evaluates how UK and global companies manage and report on workplace mental health.  We helped design and develop the Benchmark, and each year conduct the independent company assessments and analysis and co-author reporting. The results of the UK 100 benchmark were released in June 2025.

Trend 1: Corporate action on workplace mental health has increased, not receded, post-pandemic

Was it a passing fad?

Not according to recent research. An Ipsos study of 17,000 people from 16 countries  found that 52% of respondents want companies to implement mental health support.  Headspace in the US found that 67% of Human Resource leaders see mental health support as the most important offering in an Employee Assistance Programme, and the 2025 CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark of 100 UK companies found that the average company score up is to 46% this year, compared to just 35% in 2022.

Just one example of the change underway is an increase in companies using employee engagement data to inform their workplace mental health strategy. The CCLA UK benchmark saw a 12 percentage point rise this year. This is being driven by a clear business case. For example, companies with high employee engagement report 22% higher productivity  according to a Harvard Business Review study.

Other measures we are seeing put in place include more formal mental health training for line managers, and corporate targets for mental health management.

Hannah Wakelin, our Programme Manager for the Benchmark, commented, “It has taken over 50 years for economies like the UK to put the necessary foundations for physical Health & Safety in place, from hard hats and high-vis vests to risk assessments. So, it seems clear that we are still in the early days of building similar corporate infrastructure for workplace mental health.”

Trend 2: Workplaces are becoming more organic. They no longer refer to only a physical space or fixed workforce.

Across issues from climate to modern slavery we have seen in recent years how the boundaries of corporate sustainability have evolved beyond the direct operations of a company to encompass its wider value chain impacts. We are seeing a similar expansion on the issue of workplace mental health with corporate responsibility extending to cover remote working, suppliers and different interpretations of the workplace that stretch beyond the traditional office or factory floor.

One example is the rise in flexible working and the key role it has in boosting employee satisfaction and enhancing workforce retention.

Of the companies assessed in last month’s benchmark, 83% report formal commitments to flexible working. 43% (38% in 2024) explicitly link the benefits of flexible working with supporting workplace mental health. 

Research from Headspace found that 71% of employees report working outside of their expected schedule at least weekly. And as more employees work their 5-9 shift in addition to their 9-5, more require mental health support.

But perhaps most interesting is the idea that good mental health practices can be applied not just to employees but also to wider stakeholders including suppliers and customers.

The benchmark question with the single biggest rise in positive responses (i.e. a 14 percentage point rise in companies scoring maximum points) is that asking which companies are, developing formal initiatives to raise awareness of mental health that extend beyond employees and contingent workers.

In total, 49% of companies (up from 35% in 2024) now publish details of initiatives that extend beyond their workforce to customers or suppliers. For example, UK insurer Admiral Group reported on the activities of its ‘Affordability team’, which offers support to its vulnerable policyholders, “…helping customers who are struggling, as well as those dealing with other concerns such as terminal illness, loss of employment, disability, and mental health." 

Trend 3: Those companies who do mental health support well, do better.

Does mental health support add commercial value?

There is a growing body of academic evidence about the financial materiality of workplace mental health. One example is the 2024 Deloitte report, which found that every £1 invested in employee well-being, returns an average £4.70 in increased productivity and reduced attendance issues.

Another is Google’s Project Aristotle, a two-year research initiative to understand what makes teams successful (undertaken long before anyone had heard of Covid-19) and which found that the number one predictor of high-performing teams was ‘psychological safety’ i.e. the belief that when team members feel safe to take risks with each other it boosts creativity and innovation.

Axa’s Mind Health global research released in March 2025 also found that employees whose organisations provided mental health support were more likely to have better mental health than those which did not. Notably, in companies with mental health policies in place, the proportion of all people ‘struggling’ was halved (8% compared to 16%), and they were more likely to be ‘flourishing’ or getting by than those without (63% compared to 53%).

Here to stay

Five years on from the pandemic it’s clear that the explosion of interest from corporates and investors in workplace mental health support has now become a permanent fixture of sustainable business practice.  We look forward to continuing to work with clients and partners to understand what good looks like in this emerging field and analysing how better mental health strategies translate into better performance.

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To speak with our Health team about mental health in your workplace contact Hannah@chronossustainability.com

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Reading list

Five recommended reads to find out more on workplace mental health:

1.          Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace: A Practical Guide for Employers and Employees by Gill Hasson, Donna Butler. John Wiley & Sons, 2020

2.          HBR Guide to Better Mental Health at Work (Harvard Business Review Guide Series) Harvard Business Press, (2022)

3.          Thriving at Work - The Stevenson / Farmer review of mental health and employers. (2017)

4.          CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark Reports (2022 to present).

5.           Taking care of your staff’s mental health - Mind (2025)