Understanding how a business can best support its employees’ mental health has evolved drastically in the past decades. Mental health is a growing workplace concern, with the related indirect impact to businesses estimated at £62.5 billion lost to poor productivity and absent employees. Fortunately, many leaders at every rung of the corporate ladder are learning how to create safe, open environments and help employees perform at their best. Many misconceptions about mental health still exist, but as those stigmas begin to fall away, companies are taking advantage of the benefits of supporting holistic employee health. When employees are healthy and engaged, they are more likely to be satisfied and productive at work. By making employee mental health a priority, managers create a supportive environment where people are able to bring their best selves to work. A strong culture and mental health focus also helps decrease employee turnover. This increase in retention saves money in onboarding costs and also adds the benefits of maintaining customer relationships and preserving institutional knowledge so corporate and industry experience is not lost because employees are unhappy with their current jobs. These are essential areas of concern for leadership teams looking to build a strong company culture, improve retention and increase revenue. Here are five ways managers can support mental health and create a safe and transparent culture: 1. Talk About Mental Health Tearing down stigmas is arguably the most important thing any manager can do to promote mental health. Leaders often encourage physical health with their teams, broadly letting people know it’s okay to take care of illnesses and needs as they arise, and they should not be afraid to do the same with mental health. 2. Offer Employee Benefits That Cover Mental Health Services As more companies become attuned to the needs and benefits of employee mental health, more benefit plans are including mental health services as an option for their employees. Managers should promote and discuss these with their team members. 3. Create Opportunities for Employees to De-stress There is a persistent belief that time away from their desk or a work task is time wasted. Studies have found the opposite to be true: relaxing, re-centring and returning to tasks improves productivity. 4. Create a Safe and Welcoming Work Environment Expectations of results are part of any job, but few things will relieve day-to-day stress in employees more than knowing it is okay for them to fail. Managers who welcome the opportunity to help employees learn from failures will encourage people to be open about areas where they feel uncertain, rather than pretending they can do everything. 5. Be an Example of Good Mental Health Leaders often fall into the trap of encouraging one behaviour and modelling something different. This is rarely more obvious than with stress relief and mental health. If a manager doesn’t take advantage of well-being benefits and recreational opportunities, then their teams will not feel empowered to do so, either. If you want further information about how managers can support their staff, or details of our training programmes please contact us on [email protected].
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