WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM IN RIVERS STATE
Authors: Goodness Chiamaka Enebong, Williams, David Oluwatobi
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17379951
Published: October 2025
Abstract
<p><em>Promoting mental health in the workplace is essential not only for employee well-being but also for organizational effectiveness, thus, several strategies must be employed to help the workers. The study investigated the role of workplace mental health strategies in reducing workers’ absenteeism in Rivers State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 64,691 civil servants in Rivers State with a sample size of 437 selected using the multi-stage sampling procedure. A purposive sampling technique was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled: “Workplace strategies in enhancing employee productivity questionnaire (WSEEPQ)” with a reliability coefficient of 0.87. Data were analyzed with the aid of Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS V-27) using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation (SD) as well as regression statistics set at 0.05 alpha level. The result of the study showed that, mental health strategies adopted contributed 83.8% of the variance in the employees’ productivity (R2 = 0.838, r = 0.94), and it contributed 79.6% of the variance in the employees’ absenteeism (R2 = 0.796, r = 0.89). More than three quarter (79.5% and 75.7%) of the respondents were absent for 6-10 days and 11 days in a month respectively sometimes. The reasons given were ill-health (85.1%), sick child (71.6%), poor salary (71.3%), family responsibility (70.8%), ownership of private business (69.2%), work-related stress (64.3%) and parental responsibility (61.00%). It was concluded that, the role of workplace mental health strategies in enhancing employee productivity in Rivers State is enormous as it can reduce absenteeism and boost workers’ morale. It was recommended among others that, the government should adopt and implement mental health strategies for civil servants and make the adoption of such strategies a continuous activity</em></p>
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