London, 17th of April, 2019,, Europe鈥檚 fastest growing employee experience platform has today partnered with, SaaS marketing platform, to examine the status of mental wellbeing in the country according to online searches. The findings represent what UK citizens have searched online most often between January 2015 and February 2019. Results reveal a strong link between mental wellbeing and the workplace.
Mental wellbeing is often described as one鈥檚 mental state – how they are feeling and can cope with day-to-day life. Over the last few years the concept has gained traction. Yet, the average person won鈥檛 speak about it openly. On this basis, Perkbox has set off to commission a research in partnership with SEMrush, to uncover how people feel; as reflected by their online searches.
The findings reveal that amongst the most popular terms searched related to UK mental wellbeing was 鈥�presenteeism,鈥� with searches increasing by 113.5 percent on average yearly, from January 2015 to February 2019. A particularly significant increase was felt from 2017 (1,500 monthly average searches) to 2018 (2,242 monthly average searches). On the flipside, 鈥�absenteeism鈥� decreased on average in 2018. However, search听volumes听were higher for 鈥榓bsenteeism鈥� than 鈥榩resenteeism鈥� every year.
Search volumes for 鈥�January Blues鈥� have also increased steadily year-on-year with a whopping increase from 2018 to 2019 (423 percent on average). This is despite the increasing popularity of 鈥榥o policing company cultures鈥� in the workplace, where employees decide more freely things like the holidays they take, and where/when they decide to work. Arguably, these should have helped tackle early signs of stress and seasonal disorders like January Blues.
On a more positive note, the average yearly search volume for the term听鈥荣迟谤别蝉蝉鈥� has been decreasing year-on-year. For the keyword 鈥�depression,听search volumes also decreased significantly in 2016 and 2018. However, in 2019 this figure rose by 5.4 percent and the search volume for both keywords is still incredibly high (average yearly in 2019: 122,500). So, whilst we鈥檙e seeing progress, people still seem to be resorting to the internet to resolve or consult about mental wellbeing issues.
Hannah Sims, Product Manager at听听says:听鈥淭hese findings evidence just how important it is to properly cater for the needs of your employees – physically, financially and emotionally. Its effects are truly felt on the wellbeing of individuals, inside and outside of work. It鈥檚 a huge responsibility that we must learn to own as employers. Whilst it鈥檚 all very well to put together initiatives, if we鈥檙e not owning the responsibility fully, i.e.coupling the initiatives with good management – for example in the case of unlimited holidays – little will be achieved to help improve people鈥檚 mental health.鈥�
