How companies have been putting a spotlight on mental health
In 2019, business owners are putting a spotlight on mental health in the workplace. The average 9 to five Monday to Friday employee spends more than 25% of their lives at work, so it’s important that they are looked after by employers. Although an increasing amount of people are coming forward to talk about mental health issues, some people still suffer in silence due to fear of judgement or stigma. Here, we’re taking a look at what companies can do to foster healthy attitudes towards mental health in the workplace.
1. Overcoming obstacles
Obstacles are bound to arise in life from time to time. Accepting and overcoming these obstacles is part of how we grow and learn as people. Heavy traffic causing you to be late for a meeting, an event falling flat, these are the things that builds stress in employees, and they’re frame of mind won’t be in a productive place. Shifting the focus from stressing your mind to focusing on the positive things you can change won’t only help you be more productive but will also leave you feeling calm and composed when it matters most.
2. Dedicated mental health support
Employees should have someone in the business that they can talk to about mental health. According to MIND, the mental health charity, more than one in five people (21 percent) have called in sick to work to avoid the stresses of the workplace, with 14 per cent resigning from their roles. Which is a large chunk of staff affecting business as a whole. Employees can feel safe in the fact that there is a neutral person within the business they can talk to about anything.
71% of employees reported that they would have the confidence to recognise signs of poor mental health, according to the mental health at work report 2018 – this is a 7% increase since 2016. 45% of employees believe that their organisation does well in supporting those with mental health issues, and although this has risen from 40% in 2016, that is still less than half of the workplace that actively feel supported in their roles. Rising from 22% in 2016 to 30% is the number of line managers who have taken part in mental health training as part of their work, which reduced figure could have a knock-on effect on the other statistics.
3. Open communication
It’s very easy to rely on technology, especially if your job involves computers, but this means that you lose out on real, face to face conversations. Getting up out of your seat and chatting to the person who you were going to email a little note to will release the necessary endorphins to relieve stress and will actually be more efficient.
Your collegues are also your team-mates; people that you can talk to and who can offer support, so it’s important to take the time to develop these relationships. Maplewave, a telco retail company in Canada, get together at the start of the day to throw personal and work problems on the table before employees offer ways to conquer them, this not only boosts teamwork and communication but also clears any problems that may get in the way of efficient work.