Employee mental health is often underrated. If you are an employer who is not yet implementing a paid mental health program for your employees, it’s time for you to include it in your annual company budget for employees. The very fact that employees are not just workers should be a basis on treating them well as human beings. Because if you don’t invest in their well-being, they won’t keep your company’s cash flowing.
When employers take care of employees’ mental health, it actually does the company a favor. Human resource is the hardest asset to find when it comes to running a company. When there is a good mental health program for them, chances are, they will be happier to serve the business better and make it thrive. In this blog, we’ll be talking about the principles of a good employee mental health program, the benefits of having one, incorporating mental health into everyday worklife, and how you can get a good employee mental health program.
Principles of A Good Employee Mental Health Program (and Benefits!)
An employee mental health program is a professional training program for employees. It is for the benefit of their mental well-being. This is done in businesses and other workplaces because it has been found out that mental health decline in employees affects business performance. Poor mental health and stress can impact an employee’s productivity, efficiency engagement, rapport with colleagues and customers.
According to the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, a good mental health program must have six principles. Though this is a general mental health program, these principles are for businesses, too. These are the following:
- Addressing the mental health stigma
Most employees are also afraid of talking about their mental health because of the stigma that continues to subside. These workers do not know about what is mental health. Some of them may know a little bit about it but still refuse to speak up because of fear of discrimination. The World Health Organization say that stigma stops people from getting the help they need. That’s why there should be strong mental health programs even in the workplace.
- Involve the stakeholders for mental health programs
When it comes to the workplace, the stakeholders are usually the ones in charge of the team. There must be a tight-knit relationship between team leaders among its members so they could back each other up when it comes to their mental health. Involving them in leading their team towards mental health wellness will increase their leadership and people skills.
- Implement a mental health process (sharing, validating, problem solving)
Building employee mental health to improve workplace engagement will include teaching them a mental health process. This is a healthy way of communication that refrains conflict and incorporate healthy working relationship with employees and employers alike. In each team, they should be trained to be a support system to one another. To do this, employees must learn to share their thoughts, validate their emotions, and establish strategic solving in work matters. This can be taught in a good mental health program.
- Integrate the program to fit for employee’s family members
Mental health can be affected even in outside work settings. Particularly, the family members of employees play a vital role in their mental health. If the employee is undergoing some sort of stress in the household, they are most likely to perform poorly at work. It is important that an employee mental health program would provide psychological help and benefits to employees suffering from external or non-work-related stressors. If the employee mental health program is in a form of a seminar, employees should be informed of tips to lessen family stressors at home.
- Make the company community open for mental health talks
Mental health stigma can be eradicated in the workplace if the workplace itself promotes healthy mental health talks. If the whole company is oriented with the importance of mental health, the people part of it will begin to be open about their own mental health. They will also be sensitive to the mental health of others as well. It’s what we call “community resilience”. A company that invests in its community for mental health is a resilient company.
- Implement a mental health intervention in times of crisis
Like the pandemic, employees are forced to work from home. Some are even working onsite, adjusting to the hybrid workforce. A lot of the employees are stressed because of the changes and not all of them are well-adjusted. Additionally, there may be some other factors that are affecting the mental health of your employees. These are financial, emotional, and relational problems that may impact work performance. It is a need that companies should invest in employee mental health well-being when it comes to crisis management.
Incorporating Mental Health into Worklife
Done conducting mental health seminars for every team? It’s time to put the tips in action. These are easy ways to improve mental health in the workplace:
- Sharing Session – encourage each other to talk about their feelings and emotions during team sessions (virtual or face-to-face) prior to starting training or the agenda of the meeting. The phrase “how are you?” will help out in engaging a conversation with people. Team leaders or managers can facilitate this sharing session.
- Have a monthly team building – a common term for co-worker getaways is “outing.” Team building activities can provide work and life balance. This can improve the mental health of the employees as well as strengthen team relationships. Since it’s still restricted to hold company outings, employers or team leaders can create fun activities that can be held in Zoom or other apps.
- Create a group chat for every team – group chats don’t have to always be work-related. Employers or team leaders can encourage the employees to share how’s their day, what they’re cooking, or send photos of their garden. Make sure that constant communication is visible among employees.
Training For Employees Online
We care about your employees as much as you do. For employee mental health training online, you can access our services.