La salute mentale è fondamentale per la salute e il benessere delle persone, eppure i problemi di salute mentale hanno più probabilità di rimanere non diagnosticati e non trattati rispetto ai problemi di salute fisica. Con la pandemia, i conflitti internazionali, l’aumento dello stress finanziario dovuto all’inflazione e le preoccupazioni per la scarsità di cibo e carburante, la salute mentale viene messa alla prova in modi nuovi.

Ogni anno, oltre 70.000 vite vengono perse a causa di suicidi sul posto di lavoro. Ma ogni anno offre anche una speranza: la possibilità di salvare quelle vite. Trascorriamo più di un terzo della nostra vita al lavoro, pertanto le organizzazioni hanno una profonda responsabilità – e una straordinaria opportunità – nel plasmare il benessere dei dipendenti. Non si tratta solo di performance, ma di creare ambienti in cui i dipendenti si sentano sicuri, supportati e valorizzati.

La giornata internazionale della donna (IWD) è sempre stata incentrata sul tema del riconoscimento, ma nel 2026 è anche dedicata alla riflessione e alla responsabilità. Questa giornata fornisce alle aziende di tutto il mondo e al senso di responsabilita per fermarsi e porsi un interrogativo più profondo: i nostri ambienti di lavoro sono davvero adatti a soddisfare pienamente le esigenze delle donne o solo nella misura in cui ci conviene?

Workforce surveys around the world suggest that employee burnout – already a significant problem – may be getting worse. For employers, this can mean a costly drag on productivity. When workers are exhausted and emotionally distant from their jobs, they are unable to perform at their best and are more likely to make mistakes. They are also more likely to leave their jobs – draining the organisation of skills, knowledge and experience. Burnout at work can also affect all aspects of life, from health and relationships to career and finances.

Money is one of the most significant sources of personal stress. Financial stress, like all forms of excess stress, affects a person’s physical and mental health. While financial stress is a personal problem, it also impacts worker performance. Employees can be distracted and exhausted by personal financial concerns, and their money worries can lead to higher rates of illness and absenteeism.

While the delivery of employee wellbeing services is a profoundly human endeavor – people with expertise and compassion helping other people – leveraging innovative technology that is flexible, reliable, and accessible is key to delivering the greatest benefit to employers and members.

Years of experience have shown us that every customer experience is unique and that each customer is the final arbiter in everything we do. We don’t measure success by how rigidly we comply with our processes. It’s whether we make a meaningful difference to the person we’re serving. In other words, our customer experience metrics can’t be just about doing things right. They have to measure whether we’re doing the right thing.

Organisational risk management has broad applications, from mitigating financial risk to recognising and managing risks in safety, quality, health, legal liability, and the organization's impact on the environment. Risks to and from an organisation's employees fall within the scope of risk management, typically with a focus on reducing the risk of accidents, injuries, or illness and putting controls in place to prevent employee theft or fraud. Workplace safety, for example, is commonly seen as part of risk management, and that concern extends to aspects of employee health, such as fatigue, that can impact accidents and error rates.

The study measured 24,000 participants over a three-month period and was focused on employee mental health issues. The findings are part of an initiative that WPO plans to share quarterly to identify global workplace wellbeing trends.

The concept of burnout is complex and the employer’s duty of care responsibility to assess and mitigate foreseeable risk is often misunderstood, even by well-meaning responsible employers. The purpose of this paper is to provide some general guidance for employers—and in particular HR practitioners—in meeting their baseline duty of care obligations to worker burnout regardless of the sector in which they operate. The author, Lisbeth Claus, is a Professor Emerita of Management and Global Human Resources at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management of Willamette University.