Never Not Creative and The Mentally Healthy Change Group have launched the fourth Mentally Healthy survey to understand the mental wellbeing of people working in the media, marketing, and creative sectors in 2024.
Organisers want this year’s survey to be the biggest version of the biennial project yet, aiming for more than 2,000 respondents from Australia while rolling the survey out across the US, New Zealand, and the UK.
The 2024 survey, which takes 20-25 minutes to complete, will continue to track many of the mental health trends observed in earlier editions to provide a useful snapshot of the industry’s progress.
It will feature a new focus on how workplace expectations, roles, and working models (such as hybrid and remote) are impacting the industry’s mental health. It will also include questions around the awareness and implementation of psychosocial hazard legislation and guidance which came into effect in Australia in 2023 and applies to all businesses.
Andy Wright, co-chair of The Mentally Healthy Change Group and founder of Never Not Creative, said as AI becomes a prevalent factor across the business and with increased scrutiny on cost and budget, humans and their skills are the industry’s “one true differentiator”, but he questioned if the industry is doing enough to make sure its people feel empowered.
He said the survey has become a benchmark for the industry’s performance in how people are being treated. He noted that it has helped to spark big conversations and tangible changes in the industry.
“But the job is by no means done, so it is important we keep the spotlight shining brightly here. The more responses we get, the better our understanding will be of where the opportunities and barriers to improvement are.”
Kate Holland, co-chair of The Mentally Healthy Change Group, said the post-Covid workplace is “still in a state of flux”, and the industry is beginning to see the long-term impact of practices like remote and hybrid working on people.
“No one professes to have the perfect answer, so it’s important we examine how and who these different models are working for.”
She said that with a big and robust data set, these areas can be examined and understood, urging members of the industry to take part.
The findings from the research will be shared widely with the industry in June, and will inform ongoing and new initiatives by Never Not Creative and The Mentally Healthy Change Group, aimed at promoting mental health within the workplace.
Previous surveys have highlighted the necessity for such research, revealing significant gaps in mental wellbeing between different agency types and generational attitudes towards mental health.
The last report in 2022 surveyed 1,400 employees across the media, marketing and creative industry. Among the findings was a 33% improvement from 2020 both on how seriously employees feel their organisation is taking mental health and how effective staff feel their company is at addressing the mental wellbeing of staff.
The report also found 63% of the industry ranked their company’s effectiveness as fair to high. Meanwhile, staff in companies who had signed up to the Industry Minimum Standards for Mental Health showed a considerably higher effectiveness with over 82% ranking effectiveness as fair to high.
Results from Mentally Healthy 2022 also showed a further reduction in stigma with 49% of industry people believing people would not be treated differently if they disclosed a mental illness in our industry, a 24% improvement from 2020.
The survey is available here and will remain open until midnight, 3 May. Participation is anonymous, and respondents have the option to leave their organisation’s name in the final question, though this is not mandatory.
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