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Is Hong Kong losing talent because of low mental health support?

Nearly 60% of employers and staff in Hong Kong believe the country is losing talent because of inefficiencies dealing with mental health issues in the workplace.

But around the same number of bosses feel they are taking a risk by filling a vacant role with someone suffering from mental health issues.

These figures were from a study conducted by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Joyful Mental Health Foundation, which also found 29.7% of total respondents believe those suffering from mental health problems made less reliable employees.

However, the mindset towards mental health has to change if Hong Kong wishes to fully optimise its workforce, as 37.2% of professionals surveyed said they were suffering from a loss of interest, 34.5% said they were worried, 25.7% said they were depressed, and 22.1% suffered from anger issues.

The good news is more than 90% of respondents believe there's a need to provide better mental health support, with the report suggesting companies can start by establishing a more mental-health friendly working environment and more policies to promote a healthy lifestyle for staff.

Also read: The biggest reasons for employee stress

Other suggestions include encouraging more multi-sectorial collaboration,  and setting up a monitoring standard about knowledge, attitude, and practices towards mental health and the mental health status.

"If we were more aware of the economic consequences of the impact of mental health problems on the working people, we may like to consider developing more mentally-friendly workplaces for employees," said HKU's Professor Samson Tse.

Image: Shutterstock

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