“The Singapore Mental Health Study conducted between 2016 – 2018 found that 1 in 7 people in Singapore have experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime, as compared to 1 in 8 people in 2010’s Mental Health Study”. Research have shown the importance of mental wellness for longer term business sustainability. This has led to greater calls for support of employees’ mental well-being as a business case for organisational productivity.

As a result, on 17 November 2020, the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), the Singapore National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Government issued a Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at Workplaces, to support and guide individuals and employers. This guide, which is non-binding in nature, provides recommendations on policies and practices with the aim of strengthening the mental wellness ecosystem at the workplace.  

For instance, employers are recommended to provide employees with access to counselling services, or to train human resources managers to treat situations of mental distress, or conduct surveys to understand the general state of mental well-being of employees and work stressors.

Of interest, the advisory recommends to “implement and encourage take up flexible work arrangements to help employees meet both their work and personal demands” and to “establish a work-life harmony policy to provide clarity on after-hours work communication”.

For example, employers should set out clear position that for work-related messages (e.g.SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram) and emails sent after work hours, a response is not expected until the next working day, except for messages / emails marked as “urgent”.

For non-urgent messages and emails sent outside work hours, senders could include a header stating that no immediate response is expected from the recipient.

If employees are required to work after-hours, supervisors should consider giving time-off for employees to have adequate rest.

There is also a Mental Health Toolkit for Employers on return-to-work guidelines after situations of mental distress.

In support of this advisory, the Singapore National Employers Federation also conducts workplace health promotion programmes to improve the overall well-being of employees both physically and mentally. Some of these programmes include:

• Weekly virtual physical activities to encourage employees to continue to lead an active healthy lifestyle
• Customized series of virtual ergonomics workshops promoting physical well-being
• Aspiration raising virtual workshops through art therapy
• An array of weekly nutrition workshops to promote the importance of good nutrition
• Resiliency and stress management workshops to help employees stay motivated
• General mental wellness talks

In summary, a tripartite approach ranging from policies to practices and programmes is adopted to build a mental wellness ecosystem at the workplace.