Belinda Mackay
A Business NZ survey in 2021 revealed that 23 percent of respondents had taken non-sick-related leave (defined as anxiety/depression or other mental health issues) in the past year.
This figure is probably unsurprising to many given the long periods of lockdowns, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and general uncertainty surrounding that time. What may surprise you though is that this figure did not include negative feelings and stress that people had because of working from home, and it did not include the feelings of business owners! It’s fair to say this figure, around the mental health of employees and employers, would be significantly higher.
The survey also revealed that 64 percent of employers were reporting increased stress levels within their organisation, because of increased workloads, and outside of the organisation, because of increased living costs.
Fast forward to 2022, it is guaranteed that this figure will be higher.
We still have an incredibly tight labour market and even though inflation is expected to be peaking now, it is forecast to remain well above the RBNZ target until at least December 2023. Long story short, things aren’t going to get easier any time soon. It will take a lot of that often-overused word, mental “resilience”, for us all to get through the next period.
So, what as business owners should we do regarding our mental health and the mental health of our employees? Some will probably fall back on the old Kiwi attitude of “harden up” but is that really the best approach? Because here’s the thing — every employee and employer matters. From a purely financial point of view, it is worth taking the time and making the effort, even when it feels like we just can’t fit that in, to check in on ourselves and our staff.
Why? Apart from potential impacts on the relationships and team culture within your organisation, it is expensive to replace people who leave — and that is assuming you can find a replacement easily. It’s expensive to have employees on extended sick/stress leave. And it’s expensive to our community not to have yourself, or your staff, functioning to the best of your or their ability.
While there is much less stigma aound mental health these days thanks to people like Sir John Kirwan and locally, Mates of Tairawhiti, there is still stigma. We say that it is OK to talk about these things, but is it really? I don’t know about you but I’ve been there, I’ve got the T-shirt, but I also know what works for me and what doesn’t. I learnt from experience what triggers mental health issues and how to manage that.
At the Chamber of Commerce, we believe the mental health of all in business, as part of our People platform, does matter — which is why we are holding an event around mental health on June 29, 5.30pm at Wainui Surf Club. We’ve been able to secure the services of Francois Barton, the executive director of the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum.
Francois has developed a guide to give leaders and organisations the tools to consider what work-related harm is happening in their businesses, along with the tools to help protect people from those risks. He will talk through how employers and business leaders can support their workers, in our current times, as well as run break-out workshops so we can leave with real, practical skills to help our staff and ourselves.
Some of our Chamber members will also speak about the great work they’re doing to support mental health, with the purpose being to encourage us all to think about how we can help each other in this space.
We’d like to acknowledge the help of Eastland Group in helping us hold this event. We do expect that it will fill quickly, so my advice to Chamber members would be to pre-register early by contacting
I personally believe this workshop will be invaluable to businesses that want to ensure they have the tools and skills to deal with their mental health and of those they employ.
To go back to that term resilience, I read a quote recently that said “resilience isn’t a single skill — it’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms” and if we, as business leaders, are serious about this then Francois Barton’s workshop is a good place to start.
I hope to see you there!
■ Belinda Mackay is president of the Gisborne Tairawhiti Chamber of Commerce.