With financial worries affecting mental health and workplace performance, you can play a supportive role in helping employees to talk about and overcome some of their financial stress. Discussing money worries with employers is a conversation many employees are reluctant to have. Your workplace may have many people bottling up their financial difficulties yet they may be unaware of the health services and resources they have access to as part of their benefits package.
Understanding the landscape of mental health within a company is essential in providing the most valuable mental health support for employees. Creating a positive culture and adopting strong employee-manager relationships will help to build a better environment and boost job satisfaction.
You can support employee mental health by:
Talking about mental health as part of regular manager one-to-ones. With such widespread mental health challenges facing workplaces, from the stress of a pandemic to the isolation and loneliness of working remotely from home, having open and honest conversations about mental health is important. So, talking to staff can be invaluable. And remember to ask your employees the simple but powerful question; ‘are you OK?’ Asking this question twice can open up conversations about how somebody is really feeling.
Promoting clear pathways to support and regularly reminding people how to access them. Six in ten workers (62%) say that their stress is caused by work[1] – so it’s understandable that a lot of employees may struggle to speak up within the environment that they feel is causing them stress, for fear of judgement. This is where signposting to content where people can find help, and through engaging with confidential and impartial health specialists as part of an Employee Assistant Programme, or helpline can support.
Providing flexibility on working hours and location. We all acknowledge that the workplace has changed from what it was just a few years ago. Today, employees expect more from their employer when it comes to tailoring the work environment to their individual needs. Employees want flexibility over how and when they work. By offering employees a better work-life balance that suits them as an individual, you’ll be delivering just that.
Sharing resources and information that offer helpful guidance around mental health. HR teams can play a leading role in communicating any available mental health resources or signposting for employees. Whether it’s distributed by emails, social media, leaflets, or during meetings; getting guidance in front of employees can really help make it so much easier for somebody to reach out for support when they need it – and be more confident to do so.
Training champions, advocates, and first aiders to offer peer support. As more and more employees struggle with mental health, it’s important to banish the stigma surrounding the topic. By empowering individuals within your workplace through mental health training you can provide leaders, managers – any individual – with the necessary skills to hold difficult conversations about mental health at work.
Monitor changes in performance, how employees are feeling and productivity so you can improve. By asking employees the right questions, you can look at how people are feeling through feedback obtained through regular pulse surveys. These can be short and direct to build a picture of workforce wellbeing. Surveys can be easy to set up and distribute, using free online survey tools. This way you can also prompt employees to find out if you’re providing the right health and wellbeing support for them and if all employees know how to access and use them.
Ultimately, the best way to put employee mental health first is to listen. What are their daily struggles? How can you help to improve their work-life balance? You can take a positive step by helping to make conversations around money as easy as possible to have in the workplace and direct employees to expert support when it’s needed.