The wellbeing strategy to boost growth

The psychological wellbeing of workers as the foundation of a new industrial policy for the country. This is the belief held by Pubblica, a not-for-profit organisation which, in recent months, has tabled the proposal for a citizens’ initiative entitled “The Right to Well-being” in the Senate, backed by 70,000 signatures.

The proposal, drafted by Paride Braibanti of the University of Bergamo and Michela di Trani, director of the postgraduate school in health psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, aims to establish a national psychological network integrated into the National Health Service , and is therefore universal and permanent, operating also within theworkplaces.

Francesco Maesano, coordinator of the initiative, explains the potential benefits of the project: ‘The choice is between investing in workers’ success or paying for their failure. People’s psychological wellbeing, especially that of the workforce, should not be regarded as an expense but as the foremost priority of industrial policy, seen as a tool to revitalise growth, particularly given the negative externalities that absences from work or resignations entail in terms of the erosion of human capital.” The focus is on people leaving the labour market. “The Censis Eudaimon report found that half of all companies have seen an increase in the number of voluntary resignations, Bva Doxa reports that 49 per cent of under-34s have resigned at least once to protect their mental health, and according to Unobravo, 80 per cent of Italians have considered leaving their jobs due to stress,” explains Maesano.

Then there is the issue of indirect costs linked to the psychological distress of workers: ‘According to Istat, those suffering from anxiety and depression lose an average of 18 working days, compared with the average of five.’ This adds up to a total loss of productivity linked to untreated psychological distress amounting to several billion euros. “The OECD,” Maesano adds, “estimates that for Italia this figure stands at 63 billion per year. And every euro not invested in psychological support translates into a cost to the public system that is four to five times higher.”

The draft bill stipulates that companies and public authorities are required to ensure full cooperation with the service, by providing spaces for group or individual counselling sessions, guaranteeing complete confidentiality, and offering individual and group psychological support – for example, to prevent workplace bullying and burnout, or stress-related conditions. In practical terms, Maesano concludes, ‘the public psychology service would step in where resignation or absence rates within a company exceed the average’.