For Harvard Business Review
Photo: Evgeniy Shvets/Stocksy
Summary.
New research by the mental health organization Sapien Labs shows that half of young people worldwide have experienced mental health decline and a deterioration of their “social self” in the wake of the pandemic. In this article, the author provides concrete actions companies can take to better connect and support young employees, including making onboarding more of a community-building exercise, supporting young talent with coaching, and trading screen time for connection time.
Amidst rising inflation, crippling student debt, unaffordable housing, rounds of layoffs, a lingering pandemic, and a looming recession, many young workers have reached a breaking point. New data from Sapien Labs’ Mental Health Million Project, which surveyed 48,000 young adults age 18–24 across 34 nations, reveals that mental health struggles among younger generations have accelerated and worsened throughout the pandemic. Data published in Sapien Labs’ May 2022 Rapid Report, “The Deteriorating Social Self in Younger Generations,” shows that nearly half of young adults experienced mental health decline during the pandemic’s second year, and that the ability to relate to and interact with others has been seriously impaired in over half of young adults across the world.
