How to support the mental wellbeing of your employees
While these statistics are alarming, the tide is turning on mental wellbeing in the workplace. Employers are realising the damage being caused by the 24/7 always-on culture, which is not only triggering mass burnout but also leading to increased anxiety as the pressure and demands on workers continue to mount.
For organisations looking to support their employees’ mental health more effectively, here are three important areas to begin with:
1. Educate your team
It’s only in recent years that conversations around mental wellbeing have become more embedded into workplace culture. In order to support your team’s mental wellbeing, you’ll therefore need to start by making sure that everyone knows what mental wellbeing really means.
This education can be conducted in a variety of ways. Many organisations have begun to implement wellbeing weeks – a specific time each year to introduce these topics and explain how employees can take more responsibility for their own mental health and wellness as well as supporting others. These events can encompass talks from external speakers or can showcase stories from within the company, highlighting the fact that poor mental health can affect anyone, regardless of job title.
Alongside this, putting in place more regular interventions to provide mental health and wellbeing support throughout the year will help to embed the company’s commitment to this culture shift. This can simply be a case of including a reminder of wellbeing benefits in a weekly email or sharing articles internally about best practice for reducing stress.
We have also seen a large increase in Mental Health First Aid training over the last two years, where organisations arrange for employees to qualify as mental health first aiders. This teaches them how to spot the signs of mental health issues at work and empowers them to help others, further adding to the employees’ education on this issue.
2. Establish a culture of wellbeing
There’s a variety of ways to align company culture with employee wellbeing beyond one-off wellbeing weeks. These can be simple initiatives such as encouraging people to take breaks during the day, ensuring people fully utilise their holiday across the year, providing healthy food options to staff, investing in tech to help productivity, and promoting events like ‘bring your dog to work day’, which has a proven positive impact on mental wellbeing.
Some organisations are beginning to rely on dedicated wellbeing teams made up of internal champions to manage these initiatives and to take responsibility for ensuring the business actively considers the wellbeing of its staff, in addition to raising awareness of mental health more generally. These teams are a great way to reinforce important messages around mental health and also empower employees to make changes with help from their peers.
To have the greatest impact on an organisation’s culture, however, it is vital that leaders set a strong example. If senior people in a company encourage authentic discussion on mental health, it will be much easier to create a culture that feels safe and welcoming for all employees, so they feel able to speak up and can get the help they need.
3. Create an environment where people feel physically and mentally well
The physical space that we work in everyday can also have a huge impact on our mental health. Managing a team through a stressful project in a dimly-lit cramped room is not conducive to a healthy mindset. In this situation, anxiety is sure to rise, only adding more stress and strain to the situation.
To create an office environment that benefits employees’ wellbeing, business leaders need to shift from space-centric thinking to people-centric thinking. This could mean creating quiet spaces for people to focus on tasks or creating break-out spaces where colleagues can catch up and collaborate. These areas can even be a break from work altogether; some companies have created ‘calm rooms’ that are specifically designed to provide spaces where employees can relax during the workday.
Another part of people-centric thinking is considering how employees can benefit by not being in the office at all. Allowing people to work from home more often or adopt more flexible working patterns will let them cut down on commuting hours and create a healthier work-life balance. For some, this could enable them to attend exercise classes without having to worry about traffic; for others, it will give them the flexibility to collect their children from school.
If you’re looking for to support your employees’ mental health but are stuck on how to start, get in touch with us today.
“Many organisations have begun to implement wellbeing weeks – a specific time each year to explain how employees can take responsibility for their own mental health and wellness as well as supporting others”