The modern professional landscape is undergoing significant transformation, yet one critical issue remains persistently in the shadows: workplace mental health.

While physical health and safety form the backbone of working life, the contemporary workforce battles an invisible crisis. Against a backdrop of staff shortages, an ageing population, and rapidly evolving practices, the psychological toll on employees has reached unprecedented levels. In response, the European Commission launched the Healthy Workplaces campaign this week. This initiative assists employers in preventing, assessing, and managing psychosocial risks, aiming to shatter the pervasive silence surrounding mental health struggles in professional environments.

The true cost of psychosocial risks

The financial and human cost of ignoring occupational well-being is staggering. Across the European Union, millions of professionals navigate intensely stressful environments, often without adequate support. The statistics paint a sobering picture of the current state of affairs:

• Nearly half of all workers (45%) currently face active risks to their mental health whilst on the job, according to data from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

• Approximately 44% of the workforce reports experiencing severe time pressure or facing overwhelming task overload during their daily duties.

• Only 45% of employees state they are actively consulted by management regarding the stressful aspects of their jobs.

• Work-related depression currently costs the European Union more than €100 billion a year, a figure calculated by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) that accounts for absenteeism, reduced productivity, healthcare, and wider social costs.

William Cockburn, the executive director of EU-OSHA, highlights the direct correlation between modern employment demands and psychological strain. “We see psychosocial risks at the workplace, for example, long working hours, highly intense work, emotionally demanding tasks … and we link that to increased impact on workers’ health,” Cockburn said.

Breaking the silence and identifying hazards

Despite the immense burden these conditions place on both personnel and employers, a persistent stigma continues to slow meaningful action. The topic remains largely taboo in many corporate cultures. “Whether we're asking employers or workers, they identify a reluctance to speak openly about mental health issues as the … main obstacle to actually taking action,” he said.

To combat this, experts advocate for a fundamental shift in how psychological well-being is categorised by management. For Cockburn, mental health issues “need to be addressed like physical health issues at work”. The recommended approach is to systematically assess risks first and subsequently adapt whatever is required to minimise potential harm.

“We identify hazards like long working hours, like adverse relationships at work … to an extreme you can go to bullying and harassment, violence or threats of violence,” he added. By treating these factors as tangible occupational hazards, organisations can successfully dismantle the stigma and create safer environments for all staff.

Implementing preventative guardrails

While many still view mental health solely as a private issue, labour advocates argue that responsibility for prevention must centre on the workplace rather than the individual affected. Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), champions this structural approach to employee welfare.

“We don't wait until people have a finger chopped off before we put guardrails in place,” Lynch said. “We do a risk assessment and say what's the risk associated with the way this work is carried out and then we put the guardrails in place”.

Achieving this vital preventative care requires open dialogue, and experts universally agree that workers must be an integral part of the conversation. “Worker participation is a legal obligation under European law, but it's also a key success factor for successful interventions in health and safety at work,” said Cockburn.

A strategic investment in the future

The Healthy Workplaces campaign represents a comprehensive effort to normalise these crucial conversations and equip organisations with tools to protect their staff. Ultimately, prioritising psychological well-being is a sound strategic investment for modern businesses.

Speaking at the campaign’s launch on Tuesday, Roxana Mînzatu, executive vice-president for social rights and jobs, articulated the broad benefits of proactive corporate policies.

“When we invest in building and keeping healthy working environments, we improve not only people's well-being, we reduce sick leave and staff turnover; we improve performance, and we don't put pressure on our health systems,” said Mînzatu. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Saudi Arabia’s mega-projects present an unprecedented HSE challenge: delivering projects at an unprecedented scale and pace while maintaining consistent standards across complex, multinational workforces and supply chains

Meeting expectations of stakeholders while maintaining safe standards of operation and prioritising worker welfare on fast-moving and demanding projects can be a challenge. Dealing with variations in safety culture and behaviour as well as disparities in levels of competence of multicultural workforces, along with potential communications difficulties arising from language barriers, is an issue throughout the Gulf but is exacerbated in the case of some of these megaprojects which have seen large influxes of migrant workers. Managing and monitoring workers over large and sometimes remote areas and protecting large sites is another issue. Localisation requirements and quotas mean that training to bridge knowledge gaps of local contractors and suppliers and bring them up to international standards is required.

Training for diverse workforces

It is reported that migrant workers are 66% more likely to make mistakes due to misunderstanding instructions and four times more likely to suffer from fatal accidents. Making training programmes and technical safety content more accessible, engaging and understandable for diverse workforces is therefore critical.

Tailoring training approaches that consider workers’ specific cultural and linguistic context should be considered, along with creating interactive engaging safety programmes that leverage visual learning techniques such as pictograms, visual aids and short videos. Digital learning technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and interactive e-learning training models can also be very effective.

Jincom for example is developing training programmes with project developers in the Kingdom translating safety content into multiple languages, using minimal text and powerful visuals to communicate critical safety information, based on the philosophy that pictures speak the most universally understood language.

Digitising delivery mechanisms to enable organisations to track training comprehension and engagement, ensure consistent messaging across diverse workforces and integrate safety content with existing management platforms is also key.

Subcontractor safety and competency

At HSE KSA 2025, issues around subcontractor safety and competency were discussed, where the importance of focusing on the safety management systems and practices of subcontractors was highlighted. Key takeaways included:
• The importance of a robust procurement process, with health and safety embedded right from the start and included in the assessment criteria
• The need for uniform HSE practices across projects and locations, with a focus on self-driven safety leadership and standards rather than relying on client-dependent compliance;
• The need for main contractors and subcontractors to have their own HSE management systems
• The role of joint audits, engagement and leadership to improve overall safety culture; joint audit programmes involving the PMC, main contractor and subcontractors can be implemented to identify and address safety gaps
• The importance of evaluating subcontractors through metrics such as Lost Time Injury (LTI) rates and safety statistics, with incentives and penalties to drive continuous improvement
• The role of technology in providing accountability, real-time visibility and proactive monitoring; digital platforms can be implemented to track subcontractor safety metrics and automate alerts for proactive monitoring
• The importance of accountability and leadership and integration of HSE into business priorities.

There is also a need to address any gaps through targeted, on-the job training programmes, with specific training programmes for the main risk-associated activities – particularly in light of the issue of the new Regulation on Organising Work in High-Risk Professions. This raises the bar for workplace safety and compliance and could have a significant impact on operators of megaprojects, where work can involve elevated safety risks, such as working at height, heavy equipment operations, welding, cutting and mechanical work. Provisions of the law include the requirement for workers to pass medical fitness examinations to obtain a license in order to be able to perform high-risk roles.

Relay and Celona have formed a partnership to strengthen communications for frontline workers in industrial environments, with the aim of improving workplace safety and operational efficiency

Celona’s Orion platform combines private 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity across extensive industrial sites, enabling workers using Relay’s system for managing physical operations to stay connected in areas where conventional wireless networks may be unreliable.

Industrial sites, including refineries, factories and warehouses, often present significant connectivity challenges. Large campuses, remote locations and metal-intensive structures can weaken radio signals and limit public cellular coverage. Wi-Fi can also struggle to provide consistent connectivity across expansive indoor facilities and outdoor yards, particularly for mobile workers operating forklifts and other equipment. These gaps can disrupt communications through traditional two-way radios, increasing potential safety risks and making it difficult to maintain a complete record of operational activities.

Celona’s converged wireless platform combines enterprise-grade private 5G with Wi-Fi within an organisation’s network. Relay uses this connectivity to capture and organise spoken observations from frontline workers, converting them into actionable information within existing enterprise systems. Its approach allows workers in noisy industrial settings, including those wearing protective equipment, to communicate through familiar ruggedised push-to-talk radios rather than relying on typing into digital applications.

“Reliable connectivity is foundational to worker safety and productivity, particularly across large industrial environments where traditional wireless technologies can struggle,” said Puneet Shetty, SVP of Product and Field Engineering at Celona. “Together with Relay, we’re extending the benefits of converged wireless to frontline workers, helping maintain critical communications across even the most challenging areas of industrial facilities.”

The partnership aims to provide connectivity throughout industrial facilities while preserving a record of work carried out across operations. Relay devices have been tested on Celona’s network and are ready for deployment. The combined solution also supports real-time translation in 35 languages using AI models developed specifically for manufacturing environments. Panic alerts and location information provide additional tools for worker safety, while recorded observations, handovers and operational decisions help organisations retain information generated during each shift.

"The most important piece of equipment a frontline worker carries is the ability to reach someone. In a plant that's loud, hazardous, and spread across acres, that's the difference between a near-miss and an incident,” said Ibraheem Khalifa, Principal Product Manager, Relay. “Our partnership with Celona helps ensure frontline teams remain not just productive but also safe, no matter where in the facility they’re working.”

Relay and Celona are already being used together at customer sites in the food manufacturing sector.