As investors, we want the companies in which we invest to be successful. A universal problem for companies is how to support and nurture a workforce to protect its mental health.
According to the Global Health Data Exchange, approximately 15% of the world’s working population experience a mental disorder at any given time. We believe that the stark human and economic costs associated with poor mental health represent a substantial obstacle to companies’ success. Put simply, employers are losing billions of pounds because employees are less productive, off sick or leaving work all together.
The social and economic challenges faced in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and during the cost-of-living crisis are having wide-ranging implications for the population’s mental and physical health, lending a greater level of urgency to the campaign.
With the support of Chronos Sustainability, and an Expert Advisory Panel including Paul Farmer (former CEO of the charity Mind), Lord Dennis Stevenson, the Principles for Responsible Investment and others, CCLA has spent the past two years building and refining a set of assessment criteria. In Q1 2022, we used these criteria to evaluate and score the 100 largest UK-listed companies with more than 10,000 employees on their public disclosures. On 26 May 2022, the CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark UK 100 was launched. We didn’t stop there, on 10 October 2022, we launched the CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark Global 100 and in June 2024 we launched the third iteration of the UK benchmark.
Our award winning corporate mental health benchmarks are the culmination of sustained collaboration with workplace mental health experts, data providers, charities and UK-listed and global companies. As responsible investors, we want our companies to be successful and to make a positive difference in their sphere of influence. Successful companies safeguard staff mental health because in doing so they also safeguard their economic success.
The benchmark is now starting to serve as an important engagement tool and accountability mechanism for a growing global coalition of investors and asset owners. As of May 2024, we have a coalition of investors representing $9.4 trillion of assets. On behalf of our founding signatories, we wrote to all company CEOs in both the UK and global benchmarks to ensure that they optimise their organisation’s performance by eliminating avoidable costs associated with mental ill-health and taking concerted efforts to create the working conditions under which every individual can thrive.
See our previous work
Why is mental health an investor concern?
Few would disagree that companies have a moral duty to provide their workers with a psychologically safe place of work. Watch Elizabeth Sheldon, COO, and Amy Browne, Stewardship Lead, explain why investors should be concerned about mental health.
Why should employers address mental health in the workplace?
Despite increasingly frequent discussion in everyday life, one of the biggest obstacles to good workforce mental health is a reluctance to talk about it. Stigma around mental ill-health is real, and it persists.
The Marmot Review and The Stevenson / Farmer review highlight how ‘Good work’ – including autonomy, equality, fair pay, work–life balance, professional progression and the absence of bullying and harassment – can promote and enhance mental and physical health. It can optimise workforce productivity, help to maintain high morale and minimise absenteeism and tension between colleagues. It can also provide economic security, social connection, opportunity and a sense of purpose.
On the other hand, discrimination and poor working conditions can result in stress and limits the ability of individuals to get on and thrive in work (ISO).
In the UK, private sector employers lose £43–46 billion each year to poor workplace mental health, from a combination of sickness absence, presenteeism, and costs associated with workforce turnover. Mental ill health is unquestionably a business risk and should be managed as such.
‘Good health and wellbeing: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’; this is the United Nation’s third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Although the emphasis is on physical health, the third progress assessment relates to, ‘non-communicable diseases, mental health and environmental risks.’
The SDGs were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty and ensure a better planet for future generations. Importantly, it is recognised that action in each of these areas is interlinked. The mission cannot and will not be realised unless we take mental health – as part of the 17-piece SDG jigsaw – seriously. Achieving the SDGs requires a cohesive effort by governments, the private sector, civil society and citizens alike. Employers must do their bit.
What have we found?
Business concern around workplace mental health is growing, thanks not only to a growing body of evidence on the financial costs associated with poor health, but also greater awareness by the public and investors. The CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmarks provide a window into how more than 200 of the world's largest listed companies approach and manage workplace mental health, based on their published information.
Fully integrating mental health into business strategies and reporting cycles takes time and each company is at a different stage in its own journey. Where disclosure on workplace mental health is absent, investors are unable to assess the effectiveness of a company’s management controls or its performance relative to peers. The results of the CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmarks show that while encouraging progress is being made, there is much work still to be done.
Key findings from the 2024 UK 100 report
Workplace mental health remains an important business concern for UK companies.
93% of companies continue to acknowledge mental health as an important business issue.
A growing number of UK companies recognise the link between financial wellness and mental health.
Almost half (49%) of companies, compared to 43% in 2023, recognise the link between fair pay and financial security, and mental health.
Fewer than half of UK company CEOs champion mental health.
Just 42% of companies publish evidence of a statement from the CEO on promoting workplace mental health.
Many UK companies fail to equip line managers to manage workplace mental health.
Just 44% of companies report the provision of mental health training to line managers.
Only a third of UK companies are using employee feedback to inform their mental health programmes.
While employee surveys are widely used (by 97% of companies in this sample), just 33% of companies report using employee responses to understand workplace mental health and to inform their mental health programmes.
UK companies are investing in mental health services and awareness-raising activities, although many are yet to monitor their uptake or impact.
Only 29% report on the uptake of their mental health initiatives and programmes, and just 14% appear to use key performance indicators to measure the impact of their mental health approaches.
Looking ahead
As well as being a moral imperative, we believe that workplace mental health is potentially material to long-term value creation. As such, we will continue to support companies to promote mental health in the workplace and to provide transparent reporting on the steps the companies take to manage effectively the business risks and opportunities presented by workplace mental health.
The CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmarks are an essential step towards better understanding the performance of companies on workplace mental health. They offer a clear framework for companies to structure their management and disclosures on mental health and provide investors with a tool to consider workplace mental health when forming investment views on companies and sectors across global capital markets.
We are committed to the following.
1. Repeat the UK 100 and Global 100+ corporate mental health benchmarks in 2025
We will conduct the fourth iteration of the UK 100 and Global 100+ benchmarks in 2025. We expect to cover similar scopes of companies and broadly use the same methodology as in 2024 to allow for year-on-year comparison.
We will write to all companies in early 2025 to confirm their inclusion in the 2025 benchmark cycle. We will share with them the benchmark criteria and the timeline for the company assessments and publication of the report.
2. Continue to build investor support for the global investor statement on workplace mental health
In June 2022, we started to build support for the global investor statement on workplace mental health (see below). The statement outlines what investors expect of companies to ensure that business performance is optimised, through both a healthy and productive workforce and the elimination of unnecessary costs associated with poor mental health. It calls on investors to encourage companies to develop and implement effective management systems and processes on workplace mental health, and to report annually on their workplace mental health strategies and performance.
We will continue to build this coalition.
