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Employee Mental Health

Connect with an account specialist today to review examples of successful employee health initiatives in a live session or learn methodology and gain insights.
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Employee Mental Health Insights

LocalMasters offers a platform and provides strategic insights for your success. Connect with us today for a free personal consultation or if you are interested in implementing employee mental health initiatives into your workplace. If you need more information first, below are some frequently asked questions about employee mental health in the workplace so you have a better understanding of what it is and how it can benefit your work environment.

Fundamentals

Objectives

Implementation

Tracking

Management

Reference

Methodology
For Success

Step 1

Defining Employee Mental Health

Step 2

Importance of Employee Mental Health

Step 3

Implementing Employee Mental Health Initiatives

Step 4

Measuring Employee Mental Health Improvements

Step 5

Sustaining Employee Mental Health Efforts

Fundamentals

Fundamentals

What is Employee Mental Health in the Workplace?

Gaining awareness is by far one of the biggest keys, essentially, for everything in mental health.  Why? Well, if we are working on something, and we have no idea what it looks like, it will be challenging to improve.  Top talent want to work for organizations that provide an opportunity to elevate their career. They want to enjoy what they do, have longevity, and feel like their work matters. So what must organizations do? They must help manage and provide opportunity for the mental well being of their employees, as well as promoting staying healthy physically.  According to Mental Health America, which is the United State’s leading non-profit dedicated to promoting mental health, even before COVID-19, the prevalence of mental illness among adults was increasing.  In 2017-2018, 19 percent of adults experienced a mental illness, an increase of 1.5 million people over last year’s dataset. These numbers are likely to continue trending in this direction, so it’s imperative that organizations recognize this issue and take action, if they are interested in retaining their high performers in addition to attracting top talent.

An Overlooked Issue

Managing mental health has traditionally taken a backseat in most companies’ health and wellness programs.  Which is why gaining awareness and taking action is so important.  Organizations that provide mental health mentoring see a dramatic rise in employee retention, employee engagement, workplace satisfaction, productivity, reduced absenteeism and much more.  Companies need to push past stigma and traditionally held beliefs that discussing mental health concerns with employees has been considered taboo. To stay relevant, organizations must adapt to the changing times. Health is the new wealth to today’s workforce. While compensation remains an important factor, if workers aren’t healthy enough to enjoy it – it won’t matter. 

Critically Relevant

The ongoing global pandemic has served as a wakeup call to everyone. Having to live in a seemingly endless state of disruption, uneasiness and grief can test anyone’s mental health. Consequently, due to the enormity of it’s impact in numerous facets, it has elevated employee mental health to the top of many employers’ list of concerns and priorities.

It’s Impact on Business

While many employers have previously offered mental health service benefits, they are now ramping up those offerings by making access to them simpler and more efficient, increasing education and promoting information about mental health, and training managers to discuss with their teams about the resources available. Organizations have seen an increase in insurance claims for treatment of substance use disorders by their clients’ employees and their families, as well as those seeking mental health treatment.

Objectives

Objectives

A Communication Focus?

Managers and leadership need to approach mental health issues in a manner that is professional and appropriate. A large component to this approach is for management to be trained and notified to understand how to recognize the signs from their staff. They need to be aware of what signals to watch out for, so when they see them, they can appropriately guide an employee to the resources that might help. It’s important that leadership’s role here is not to judge or provide their own advice on what to do, rather, serve as a guide for their employees for taking next steps. Some common signs of distress include significant changes in behavior, mood, productivity or engagement. Some common side effects in the workplace of note might be increased absences or call offs, elevated levels of anger, frustration and irritability, or loss of focus.

Develop Openness?

Organizations need to clarify with leadership on what to say to their employees, when they’ve identified potential issues related to mental health. A good rule of thumb is to ask open-ended questions and develop listening skills for insights with how employees respond.  Using objective, observable behavior when beginning conversations is also recommended, such as “after the conference, I noticed you were upset” or “I’ve observed that you’ve been distracted and not able to focus lately.” Follow this up with empathy. “This has caused me some concern. How might I be of help, is there anything I can do?” At this point, you may then provide them with resources such as helpful information describing services available for them.

Resist Passivity?

Oftentimes these situations require swift action. Ignoring warning signs or brushing them aside can lead to potentially harmful and even devastating consequences. Additionally, by being proactive about providing information to staff regarding mental health resources availability can make a huge difference. It’s good to use empathy here as well, if in a leadership position. Modeling self-care, for example, can be a great way to emulate what companies would like to see from their employees.

Steer Towards Being Considerate?

A great way to demonstrate that you care about your employees is to build in more flexibility for them. Considering the numerous stressors that all workforces are under due to the global pandemic, this is a great opportunity for employers to amend and adjust policy. While it may not be reasonable for everything to change, being open to making changes to some policies can do wonders for worker’s morale and engagement. Your staff will appreciate the changes and additional options.

Implementation

Implementation

The Importance of Alignment?

Companies that find ways to adapt and meet the current needs of viewing mental health as a collective priority, versus viewing it as a challenge by individuals will be the ones forging ahead towards greater levels of success. Organizations need to realize that they cannot afford to compartmentalize mental health as something employees must deal with on their own. While self care is effective, it cannot be the sole approach that a lot of today’s companies are still choosing how to handle things. To pull off such a massive shift as changing company culture, leadership and employees have to be aligned. It needs to be an all hands on deck approach, not just something mentioned in a town hall meeting, then leadership leaves it up to the employees to take care of. It involves active, leading by example actions and behaviors from leadership in order to achieve real progress. Executive leadership needs to train management in having difficult conversations and building supportive workplaces. Managers are usually able to recognize warning signs and behavior changes in their staff. New health policy, resources and practices must be continually communicated, not just mentioned once during a yearly training seminar.

Enhance Interconnectedness?

Employees’ needs are changing and evolving. Organizations need to keep their finger on the pulse and transition with the changes. Developing a culture of connection should be a priority. Leadership plays a key role here again, in modeling through action what this looks like. Routine check-ins where managers take the time to listen and converse with their staff is more important than ever. Fostering a culture with numerous company-wide connection events, either in the office or virtually, push staff and managers to deeper connection conversations. A good example of this is combining check-in language of “how are you?” with the follow up “what can I do to help?”.

Promote Creativity?

The ongoing global pandemic has without question made almost every facet of doing business more challenging. Budgets might be slashed even more than before, identifying your team’s needs is changing dramatically and in real time. Research your organization’s options. Do what you can to be open to new experiences and opportunities to get the message out. Are you holding monthly competitions with prizes? Are you promoting meet-ups and other social events – more so than before? What about support groups? Speakers? Look into what your company is doing to promote the mental health of your staff. Have you considered launching mental health management through a mentoring program? What creative initiative can your organization come up with to get the word out and promote awareness?

What are the Benefits of Employee Mental Health?

    • Return on Investment – The World Health Organization estimates that mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression cost the global economy one trillion dollars per year in lost productivity. However, they also discovered that for every dollar spent on treating traditional mental health concerns, there is a return of four dollars found in increased health and productivity. 

    • Productivity Boost – Recent research has indicated that 85 percent of workers treated for depression deliver improved work performance. This treatment also shows a dramatic reduction in call outs and missing time from work. Interpersonal relationships inside teams also see a rise in improvement, as teams discover noticeable improvement in communication and responsiveness. 

    • Retain Your Talent – An noticeable trend in surveys nationwide, even before the pandemic started, have pointed toward the effects mental health have had on employment status.  More and more workers are admitting that they have left a job at some point in their careers due at least in part to their mental health. Organizations need to provide the resources and care necessary in order to keep their talent.  

    • Healthcare Cost Reduction – Data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveals rates of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are twice as high in adults with significant mental illness.  This link between physical and mental health has caused employers to start offering comprehensive programs for the prevention and treatment of mental illness. This data also casts a spotlight on another trend, that the cost of not doing anything is higher than investing in evidence based prevention and treatment.

Tracking

Tracking

Is Improving Employee Mental Health Working?

In order to analyze the overall mental health of a workforce, you need data. Measuring something like mental health can be a challenging task to take on, but the ongoing global pandemic has caused organizations to take more action and develop new methods for tracking and measuring it.

What Tools Are Used to Track Employee Mental Health?

Companies and businesses are discovering more and more ways that their workforce’s mental state is affecting all facets of their operations. Recently, there have been some advances with how to obtain data and metrics in order to obtain a proper assessment of an organization’s mental health overall.  It’s what businesses choose to do with it that makes the difference. Here’s some examples of some tracking tools when it comes to employee mental health:

 

  • One-On-One Meetings – this may seem pretty obvious, but management still has trouble finding time to schedule regular meetings with their line level staff. Now more than ever, managers need to be checking in with their employees. It’s not uncommon for an average employee to go almost a full week without speaking to their manager! Meeting your people in person is a surefire method to determine how they are, and picking up on tell-tale indicators that they may be suffering. 

 

  • HR Presence – similarly to the previous method, having the human resources department can also conduct and support meetings with individuals to help them with their mental well being. 

 

    • Access to Resources – if your organization offers resources to help employees with their mental health, such as access to therapy or mental health subscription apps – tracking the usage and participation of these resources will give you an idea of how effective they are. 
    • Surveys and Pulse Data – surveys are a great way to touch base with your workforce. Just be careful what you are asking, as mental health information is protected. Ask your hr team how to craft proper surveys and frequent “check in” questionnaires to help guide your mental health initiatives at the workplace

Management

Management

What’s the Key to a Sustainable Employee Mental Health Program?

Your employees need help with managing their work life balance. Now, mix in a global pandemic and you have an ongoing mental health crisis and challenge that all workforces continue to experience. So what can management do to support employee mental health? 

 

  • Help Normalize the Challenge – managers are influential and can have an enormous impact by leading by example. A terrific way they can help drive their organization’s employee mental health initiative in a positive direction? Be vulnerable and employ empathy when it comes to struggles with mental health. Stigmas still exist, so managers who help their employees feel less pressure for coming forward with their struggles goes a long way. Being honest about your own struggles will transform the dynamic in your company culture when it comes to the traditional beliefs and stigmas mental health has been suppressed by. 

 

  • Be The Change You Want to See – Management must model the behavior they want to see from their employees. It’s one thing to deliver speeches and say nice platitudes like “we support mental health at this organization.” It’s another to be an advocate and have the courage to inform your staff that you are taking your own mental health seriously, and are performing actions to better yourself and your own well being. Sharing this information will have a big positive impact, if employees see this behavior coming from their leadership.  

 

  • Learn How To Check In – most people just casually say “how are you?” without actually expecting a true response at the workplace. Move past using this as afirmational and informal chit chat, and steer towards being present with your employees. Learn how to really ask “how are you?” by being open to hearing them, and listening. This can be challenging to incorporate at first, but once a culture of checking in gains traction it can be a strong asset to build compassion and care when it comes to employee mental health. 

 

  • Deliberate Communication – employee mental health communication should be clear, and it should not be difficult for employees to reach out for help if they need it. How easy is it for your employees to obtain contact information for seeking out mental health professionals? Information should be readily available, and management needs to be out in the open and upfront with it’s accessibility and visibility. 

How Serious is the Investment?

Employees will only buy into your organization’s commitment to mental health if they can see the effort and offerings made available to them. Oftentimes, a company will announce they are “supporting mental health” and then fall short with following through. If you are planning to address the needs for employee mental health, make sure your plan is concrete and action is taken.

Reference

Reference

Employee Mental Health Trends Gaining Attention in 2022

The world has gone through a major change in the past two years. From the COVID-19 pandemic, to global lockdown, remote working, economic recession, all these factors will continue to have an impact on the future of the sales industry, and what customer training programs will look like in 2022 and coming years. 

Here are a few trends that companies should pay attention to while rethinking, updating, and developing their employee mental health strategies and initiatives. Mental Health America’s Mind the Workplace 2021 Report has provided a sobering yet informative snapshot of where to focus efforts for employee mental health and wellbeing:

  1. Stress in the Workplace – Stress, while not a new trend when it comes to issues that affect employee health, is an enormous concern. It’s the level to which it has increased in such a short period of time that has thrust its importance into the spotlight. A staggering 9 out of 10 employees reported that their workplace stress affects their mental health in 2021. Add that 3 out of 5 employees are not receiving adequate support from leadership to help them manage their stress? You have a crisis. What can your organization do to provide much needed support, help and answers when it comes to employee’s stress levels? 

 

  1. Burnout – employee burnout is not just a buzz phrase any longer, it’s a real threat to productivity and team cohesion as well as a serious health risk for employees. In 2021, 4 out 5 employees reported feeling emotionally drained from their work, which leads to burnout. When an employee experiences burnout, they are exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally. It can be a tough situation to recover from. Most employees end up looking for alternate job options rather than stick with their current work environment. Employers would be wise to listen to feedback on what changes can be made in order to stem the tide of ever-increasing rate of burnout that is occurring.  

 

  1. Workspace Issues – While there has been a spike in remote working due to the global pandemic, many businesses have implemented “back to work” initiatives, often placing incredible amounts of stress and anxiety on their workforce. Currently, 65% of employees find it challenging to concentrate due to their work environment, versus 46% just several years prior. Compounding the unsafe work environment issue, only 5% of employees strongly agreed that their employer provides a safe environment for employees who live with mental illness. The stigma of those that suffer from mental health issues is still very prevalent, and needs to be actively addressed going forward. Companies that are open to change and willing to provide safety and resources for their employees are going to sustain a positive, happy and caring workplace. That is what keeps employees long term. 

Exemplary Corporate Social Responsibility Programs

  • LEGO – the LEGO corporation has routinely been awarded top honors for their CSR program. They have events called RE:CODE where LEGO education products to “host hundreds of children who participate in activities that deepen learning on real-world themes while helping to boost 21st century skills.” The events involve STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) based activities that promote learning while having fun – and also sustainability lessons. 

 

  • The Lavazza Group, makers of coffee products, have gained notoriety for their sustainability efforts. One of their initiatives called the Farmer Field School is located in Vietnam which helps improve irrigation, lowers emissions, and assists climate change management. 

 

  • The Juntos shoe company has a great CSR initiative that helps unrepresented youth. For every pair of shoes sold, Juntos provides a backpack filled with school supplies to a child in Ecuador. Every backpack contains a year’s worth of supplies. The company chose Ecuador because they sell a specific shoe design found in that country, and wanted to give back to the place that inspired their company. 

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