How can firms help workers who are far from their homes and everything familiar to them cope with feelings of isolation that affect their wellbeing? This is the question GBL asked when designing a low-cost intervention to address the adverse mental health effects of social disconnection on migrant workers. The program leverages the extraordinary power of sisterhood – of women supporting women – to build meaningful connections between workers. Our study found that the program has a significant impact on mental health measures, including a 5.3% reduction in anxiety and a 5% reduction in depression. The benefits extend to firms as well, who benefit from a 6.4% increase in worker productivity, which drives a 54% ROI.
The Emotional Toll of Migration
Every year, millions of workers leave their villages for bustling metropolises like Mumbai and Bengaluru in search of better financial futures. Despite living in shared dormitories, commuting on crowded local transport, and working in busy factories, they often experience a profound sense of isolation. Many spend months, or even years, in a city without ever feeling like they really belong.
Far from their homes and families, newly arrived migrant workers have to grapple not only with the loss of their support networks, but also with the strain of a new job and a sense of cultural dislocation. Each day is a challenge as they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings with unfamiliar foods, languages and social customs. The isolation takes a toll on their mental health (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010), hindering their adjustment to city life and their integration into the labor force. The result? High rates of turnover among migrant workers as well as reduced productivity at work.
This is both a personal and an economic problem. According to the WHO, approximately twelve billion working days are lost each year to adverse mental health, as a result of lost productivity. Mental health struggles like anxiety and depression impair a worker’s ability to make decisions and focus at work, affecting their overall performance. In fact, depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1 trillion per year and this number is likely to rise to $6.1 trillion in 2030.
At GBL we have always recognized that mental health is an essential component of holistic health – one that is, unfortunately, often overlooked in the context of blue collar workers. We wondered if a structured intervention to foster friendships between workers could improve wellbeing and, in turn, impact business outcomes. This question led us to design a mental health intervention that aims to build real connection between women migrant workers.
The Study: A Structured Program to Foster Friendships
The program we designed pairs a worker who has recently migrated to the city with a more seasoned worker who lives in the same hostel and speaks the same language. Over eight weeks, the pairs attend two trainer-led sessions that help spark conversations, while also engaging in activities like rangoli-making, painting sessions, and market outings together, all designed to nurture meaningful bonds between them.
For our initial study, we recruited 1098 female migrant workers at a garment factory in Bengaluru. Junior partners were recruited within three weeks of starting work, while seniors had worked at the factory for six months or more. The participants were divided into two groups: one received the intervention with introductions, training sessions and activity prompts, while the other did not. We conducted detailed surveys at the start of the study, at two-week intervals , at the end of eight weeks and at 3-month and 6-month post the end of eight weeks.
One of the participants in the study, Kamala*, says that she was acquainted with her partner before the start of the program, but their exchanges had always been short and superficial. After the training sessions, however, she said she felt closer to her. “I now feel like I would be comfortable spending time with her and opening up to her about my worries and troubles,” Kamala says. The program creates opportunities for women to form real and lasting friendships beyond the short-term connections that new employees might otherwise experience. We discovered that many of the pairs continued to interact even after the intervention period, when they were no longer meeting in a structured way; evidence, perhaps, of how relationships born out of the program continue to grow organically.
The Effects on Wellbeing and Social Networks
The results are in and demonstrate profound impacts from this cost-effective intervention. The workers who were paired with partners experienced substantial improvements in mental health, with a 5% reduction in depression and a 5.3% reduction in anxiety.
Sunita*, a younger worker in the study, says that she enjoyed the structured conversational sessions that were part of the program. “It isn’t often that we get to sit down with someone and talk about our lives. It felt nice to be asked questions about my likes and dislikes,” she says. The intervention shows that things as simple as having someone to check in with, eat a meal with or walk to work with, can make a worker’s day a little less lonely.
The program also played a role in expanding junior workers’ social networks, connecting them to senior workers with similar cultural backgrounds, friends of seniors, as well as other hostel residents. Having very recently moved to the city, the newer migrants who received the intervention were 11.9% more likely to know other women from their seniors’ networks compared to those in the control group, and 6.5% more likely to know other women living in their hostels. The increased sense of connectedness is a clear indication that the program helps ease the sense of isolation that plagues migrant workers.
Most of the senior workers who participated in the study were especially receptive to the program. They were enthusiastic about the structured activities and, in most cases, were more likely to initiate interactions than the junior partners were. The more seasoned workers seemed to embrace the role of mentor and, as a result, gained more mental health benefits from the intervention.
An Unexpected Rise in Productivity
At the beginning of the study, we hypothesized that the intervention could increase retention of migrant workers. Instead, we observed something unexpected: 6.4% increase in productivity in workers who had been paired with partners. This is an important finding since productivity gains are often hard to come by, and are extremely profitable for firms operating in low-margin industries. It also reinforces the idea that better mental health drives performance at work – showing that mental wellbeing isn’t just an individual concern, but a business imperative.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of these results is that it wasn’t the junior workers who experienced the most marked improvements, but the seniors. In fact, productivity went up by over 12% for the senior partners. At the start of the study, we believed that the newly arrived workers would benefit the most from the intervention. The more seasoned workers, in fact, were considered a part of the project delivery apparatus. Yet, our findings suggest that the more seasoned workers, having overcome some of the initial struggles of migration themselves, are more likely to experience the mental health benefits of the intervention, leading to improved productivity.
Most of the senior workers who participated in the study were especially receptive to the program. They were enthusiastic about the structured activities and, in most cases, were more likely to initiate interactions than the junior partners were. The more seasoned workers seemed to embrace the role of mentor and, as a result, gained more mental health benefits from the intervention.
A Low-cost Solution with High Impact
We often associate mental health with clinical therapy sessions, available only to privileged white collar workers. Our program, however, shows how mental health interventions don’t have to be expensive or complex to be effective. Low-cost solutions like these can have a profound impact on worker wellbeing and are easily scalable, offering a model for other businesses or settings with resource constraints.
In addition to its impact on worker wellbeing, the intervention also has the potential to generate a 54% yield on the firm’s initial investment over time, strengthening the case for adoption at scale.
Mental health struggles pose an enormous burden for workers already under stress, yet blue collar workplaces often fail to address or even acknowledge these issues despite their impact on productivity. GBL’s program offers a simple, resource-efficient solution that goes beyond traditional approaches to mental health. It shows that prioritizing worker wellbeing can lead to meaningful change with significant benefits to firms.
*Pseudonym used to respect the individual’s privacy.
This blog was written by the Good Business Lab team, with special acknowledgment to Aneesha Bangera for her contributions as the consultant writer.