Mental Health in the Workplace: What Are The Risks and How Can You Help Your Employees?
One in five people in the US struggle with mental illness. That means within your company, 20% of your employees could be struggling with a mental illness. This is why it is important to make sure you are supporting your employees.
Risks
The first thing we are going to look at are the risks that can arise at work that can negatively affect someone’s mental health.
Excessive workload; understaffing
Inflexible Hours
Micromanaging
Underutilizing Talents
Discrimination & Exclusion
Job Insecurity
Inadequate Pay
Unfair Benefits
Poor Investment in Career Development
How You Can Help Your Employees
You are responsible for your employees’ mental health in relation to their work. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression and anxiety costs the global economy $1 Trillion a year due to a decrease in focus and productivity. However, they also found that for every $1 spent on treating common mental health, there was a $4 return in health and productivity. Let’s move on to what you can do to help.
Remove the Mental Health Stigma
Talk About It - The biggest thing you can do is to start talking about it - mental health is not a dirty word. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provides great resources on creating supportive culture in the workplace. As an organization you can learn about mental health conditions and practice using respectful language so what you’re saying doesn’t define someone by their illness. Saying something as like “He/She/They are depressed” can be hurtful, instead say “He/She/They are living with depression”. Always make sure you see the person and not their condition; their illness does not define who they are.
Redefine ‘Sick’ Days – Take a look at your PTO/Leave/Sick day policy. What does it define as a ‘sick day’? Does it include mental health in that definition? If it does not, talk with your team about adding it. Being sick doesn’t have to be just physical. You can’t always see someone’s need for a ‘sick day’. For someone who lives with anxiety and depression (or many other mental illnesses) they might not show it but on the inside, they feel like they are trapped, run down, and alone. Feeling that way gets overwhelming and makes it hard to focus on everyday tasks, let alone being productive at work. Someone might just need a day or two to do something to help them feel better. That can be anything from lying in bed all day under the covers and binging a TV show, seeing friends/family, or going on some kind of adventure to get out of their headspace and reset. Make sure your employees know that they can use their sick days when they need them, not when they are just physically ill.
Offer the Right Benefits
Employee Assistance Programs EAP – Offering the right benefits can really help your employees know that you care about their mental wellbeing. A lot of companies offer an employee assistance program (EAP) to support their employees’ mental health. It gives employees direct, confidential and free access to mental health professionals.
Paid Time Off/Leave – We are all human, including your employees, and sometimes we just need a break. We need time to work on ourselves to be able to do everyday life tasks. Being able to offer leave to your employees is also a great benefit so your employees can take that time to work on themselves and be able to know that their job will be there when they get back.
Prevent Burnout
Burnout is very common at any job level, that’s why it’s important to promote flexibility in the schedules for your employees (especially if your employees are remote). We all have lives outside of work and it can get hard to separate the two when you work from home. Taking breaks and doing things you enjoy is a great way to help prevent burnout and depression.
Microbreaks – Studies have shown that taking ‘micro-breaks’ (10 minutes) throughout the day increase productivity and boost an employee’s moods. Most employees stated they don’t take breaks out of guilt. Make sure you let your employees know that it is okay to take micro-breaks during the day. Also, acknowledge the fact that some days are harder than others and your employee might need more time off than that. You should always keep the lines of communication open with your employees. That way they know they can come to you if they do need more time. Whether it’s a day or a month, make sure you know your company’s leave policies to be able to accommodate them.
Professional Development – Create opportunities for employees to build connections with each other, such as through social events, affinity groups, and electronic message boards. Doing this helps create the sense of belonging to your company and can help prevent depression and anxiety at work.
How Skywalk Group Can Help
Skywalk Group has a team of HR consultants that can provide trainings and help you with your handbook policies to be more supportive of mental health issues. We can help design your leave policies and benefits to be more inclusive and adaptable to the needs of others, including an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Contact us to talk about how we can help.
By: Jill Gerken