Support for employee mental health remains a top priority with many workers today, according to a new survey conducted by food service provider Sodexo Canada.

The survey showed 49 per cent of employees valued mental-health benefits from their employers. However, only 26 per cent believed their workplace offered adequate support.

“Mental health is a No. 1 priority but also trend in terms of benefits; in terms of what is the most common need for people to get support on,” Marie-Agnès Mazas, vice-president of human resources at Sodexo Canada, told PeopleNX in an interview.

“Mental health is a big part of that brain health, but more widely, the brain health is really becoming more than just an HR issue.”

Brain health disorders are expected to cost the world economy $5 trillion per year and could more than triple to $16 trillion by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum in a 2024 report.

Gap between what employees want and what is offered

Punctuating this gap in expectations and delivery of benefits is that 50 per cent of employees surveyed wanted employers to improve mental health offerings, the survey found.

The survey was conducted online by Leger with 715 Canadian adult workers participating between June 12 to 14. It is a follow-up to a previous Sodexo Canada survey that showed a high level of wellness in today’s workplace for 58 per cent of employees. However, it also showed nearly half of workers surveyed felt burnout and a low level (21 per cent) in workplaces were fully engaged.

For Mazas, talking to members of the six generations present in the workplace gave her a clear view of what those workers value the most.

“When I talk to younger generations in our own workplace, I see that very clearly," she said. "They are much better at articulating it than me as a more senior person. They are very straightforward in their expectation for their workplace.”

Those younger workers (31 per cent of those aged 18 to 34) also want improvements in areas such as better food nutrition inside the office.

How to combat rising disengagement

By listening to the needs of these workers and addressing them adequately, it would help to mitigate the level of disengagement, Mazas said, an issue projected to cost around $8.8 trillion each year, according to a Gallup study.

“I think because the expectations are higher, there is a challenge for employers and workplaces to keep people engaged throughout their employment," she said. "We see very easily and frequently a fatigue and disengagement, and it comes in different forms, but for our employees to stay really connected to us as an employer, we’ve got to do much better at being accurate to their needs.”

Thirty-nine per cent of employees identified purpose and meaning as a top priority, and 31 per cent said their workplace supports it well.

Disengagement, Mazas said, arises "when we take things for granted, when we don’t look at things seriously, and when we don’t meet their needs. We’ve got to do a better job at being more early and more proactive.”

“That sense of belonging: that engagement, that purpose is really very important today,” she continued.

But there were some bright spots identified in the survey: 33 per cent support social connection in the workplace, which can be enhanced by improving the physical features of the workplace, for example.

Sodexo is "really lucky" with its Montreal office, Mazas said. "It’s very bright and with plants, and it’s very welcoming environment. You see it every single time someone enters that office. ‘Wow, that’s nice.’ "

To her, "the design, the food, the nutrition: all these elements are so critical, not only to attract people into the office because that’s a challenge after so many years of distance working.”

Sodexo Canada is a food services provider with nearly 6,000 employees that was founded in Marseille, France in 1966.

Lessons for HR

For HR professionals, it’s important to realize that the best way to support an employee’s brain health, and therefore mental health, is by adopting a wide-ranging view of the benefit and wellness strategy, according to Mazas.

“It’s interesting as an HR professional for me to understand," she said. "It’s a holistic approach but it it’s about workload, it’s about workplace culture; it’s about leadership, it’s about nutrition, it’s about the actual space that you work in, on top of the daily employee experience.”