The pressures put on employees as a result of COVID-19 are enormous. Right now, the focus on mental health issues is at the forefront of many HR departments’ agendas. Workers have been thrust into remote working situations and the impetus for businesses to provide support, and to encourage a healthier climate in the workplace is huge.
From improving communication to providing mental health first aid training, here are a few ways – during the Coronavirus crisis and beyond – that you can engage with the issue, and help to improve the mental health of your workforce.
Give employees a voice during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Make sure employees have an online forum to provide feedback about their roles, and an anonymous means to report any complaints or issues. Broiling tensions and unresolved issues can weigh on a person’s mental health, and make them feel trapped in a job, as they weigh the pressures of staying with the pressure of having to look for a new role. Often, interviewing for a new job is the last thing someone with unresolved mental health issues wants to do, and so they will stick it out in their role – but to the detriment of themselves and the business.
If you want people to be happier in their jobs, they need a way to deal with issues that make them unhappy. This could take a number of forms – from a box or online form for anonymous feedback, to a third party representative, to simply making managers and supervisors more open and available for discussions. What’s important is that the message that you are listening and that you care is transmitted throughout the business and that you inculcate a positive climate that encourages people to speak out.
Provide mental health first aid training
The greatest barrier to improving mental health is the fact that it’s often invisible. Conditions including stress, anxiety and depression can often be covered up, with many people suffering in silence, unwilling to open up to or burden those around them. This means that the problems are not resolved, and continue to weigh on the person over a long period, affecting their general health and their performance at work.
Mental health training is an increasingly popular option for workplaces of all stripes, with 1 in 100 employees now holding some form of qualification. While the training varies depending on the classification, all forms help employees to recognise mental health problems among colleagues, and provide some kind of support. By teaching about the underlying causes of a range of mental health issues, they also help to engender empathy, and create a more supportive work environment.
This training also extends to managers and supervisors, with specific courses to help with the management of mental health. These include a deeper insight into a range of conditions, the ability to provide direct support where needed, and the ability to implement positive mental health policies. A round of training can be the start of root and branch reform, transforming your workplace culture and providing an immediate boost to an untold number of people.
Incentivize holidays and downtime
The pressures of work can often mean that people do not use up all of their allotted holiday time, as they feel that the time spent away simply means doing more work before they leave, or after they come back. The same is sometimes true of lunch breaks, where employees either feel obligated to work through their lunches, or simply eat at their desks and don’t take the time to mentally detach themselves from work.
Enforcing a ‘no lunch at desks’ rule may seem a bit extreme, but it has health & safety as well as mental health benefits, with desks and computers being breeding grounds for bacteria. If you do go down this route, you should make sure there is at least a space for people to eat that’s away from the bustle of work – you don’t want to simply force people into nearby cafes for lunch, and increase the monetary pressure on them instead.
The same can be said of holidays, which people often save up with an eye to going somewhere nice, only to find they cannot afford it. Wages are an issue here, and greater financial security always helps to improve mental health. But it may also be an idea to incentivize staycations and encourage people to take some time at home. Implementing a ‘duvet day’ system as is widely used in Australia – allowing people to take a day or two off without any notice each year – could be a great way to improve mental health by letting people stay at home when they aren’t feeling right.
Encourage a positive culture
A negative, exclusionary work culture – be it laddish banter or excessive competition – can be detrimental to mental health and the attractiveness and diversity of your business. Rather than waiting for issues to escalate to HR, laying down some ground rules and being clear about boundaries can save you time and anguish.
Inclusivity or sensitivity training is one way to approach this, and is often effective, but can also be seen as overbearing. A more nuanced approach may be to increase oversight and subtly break up cliques, such as by encouraging collaboration or changing the dynamics of your workspace. You should also look at more fundamental issues, such as how you delegate and reward work, and whether people feel empowered to speak out about problems.
Ultimately, you want to engender positivity as a culture and create a workplace in which people fundamentally enjoy each other’s company, and recognize each other’s boundaries. Rather than preaching, lecturing and hectoring, this most often comes from leading by example. By prioritizing and rewarding certain qualities in your workforce – and treating any breaches of protocol seriously – there won’t be any illusions as to what is and isn’t acceptable.