We do talk about productivity, we do talk about performance appraisal and bonus, and we also talk about organizational goals to achieve. But sometimes we don’t speak enough about the mental health of employees. The mental health of employees and organizational health are connected. The culture of the organization and employees’ experiences do affect organizational health.
Not to forget, employees give a significant contribution of time and effort from their life for the organization. Employees’ strengths can provide tremendous results, and their weaknesses can affect organizations adversely. It becomes crucial to work on organizational health for the growth of organizations and employees too.
According to the survey conducted by Harvard Business School, 94% of professionals spend 50 hours a week.
Therefore, considering mental health should become a priority. Following reasons affect employees’ mental health:
– Long working hours
– Heavy workload
– Stress
The result would be less productivity, increased absenteeism. At some point, organizations have to work on it. As Shannon Purser indeed said,
“Mental health affects every aspect of your life. It’s not just this neat little issue you can put into a box.”
As the whole world is passing through the same phase, it’s high time we take action. All organizations have to understand – why mental health matters? Let me share one of the inspiring initiatives taken by Dupont. They developed one program for employees named “ICU – Identifying, Connecting & Understanding.” This educational campaign’s purpose was to support employees who are in distress. After this initiative, a large number of organizations started working on the mental health of their employees. Let’s find out some steps:
Critical Steps you should take to support the Mental Health of your Employees
1 Communication
Having a conversation about work and personal conversation has an impact on employees’ mindset. Give your employees training on how to be social. Make sure to increase engagement among employees. You can organize activities for them. Through communication, you would know if the employee is facing mental distress in work life or personal life. Connecting with them and communicating with them is the key to understanding them well.
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2 Create Awareness
The working environment plays a crucial role in employees’ mental health. Create an environment that inspires employees to work with mindfulness. Please encourage them to talk about the issues they are facing in work life. Observe their behavior and working pattern. If they are facing any problems, their work pattern might get changed. You can even create awareness programs for them where they can freely talk about the challenges.
3 Management and Resources
The organization’s success is connected with employees and effective management. Make sure to have sound management. The management team should be supporting the employees in task management and the deadline. If the employees lack resources to work effectively, provide them with resources on time. Manageable goals will not create pressure on employees. Follow the best practices for communication and management.
4 Educate Employees
If your organization is giving the training to get the best output from employees. Then organizations should consider providing training for mental health awareness as well. Teach them how to identify mental health, how to offer support. Please encourage them to have open discussions. Educate them with training and tools. Here is the platform where you can get tools for mental health.
How, as an individual, can you maintain your mental health?
Yes, good organizations will take all possible steps for employees’ mental health. Mental health should be an on-going goal for any organization.
But as an individual, you can do a lot for yourself. Let’s work on doable steps to care about our mental health:
1 Always follow a balanced diet for a healthy body and mind.
2 Learn work-life balance. – Don’t let your work disturb your personal life. Leave work at work. This way, your stress will be reduced.
3 Never ignore mental health issues. Be mindful.
4 It’s good to take a day off to refresh your mind. Don’t bury yourself with the workload.
5 Go for a walk, exercise. Take care of yourself.
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Feeling depressed, having anxiety, and having a negative outlook towards life – can damage your career and health. Along with organization, it’s your duty as well to work on mental health.
It’s simple; if organizational health is fit and sound, employees’ mental health will be best. Being open about mental health is the key to resolve it. Fred Rogers rightly said,
“Anything that is human is mentionable, and Anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.”
