Surviving to Thriving: Tackling Workforce Mental Health and Well-Being

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Discovering new ways to improve employee well-being and reduce attrition sits firmly at the top of corporate agendas. As hybrid work is clearly here to stay, organizations must focus on adapting their business models to establish and maintain a culture of care, enabling them to be sustainable and resilient in the long term.

In the previous installment of this HSW series, Surviving to Thriving: Foundational Steps to Support a Thriving Business, we addressed combatting workforce attrition and strategies to overcome safety obstacles while building trust among employees. Maintaining a strong workforce also requires developing a robust mental health awareness and support initiative.

There are a few initial questions organizations must ask themselves before getting their comprehensive well-being program off the ground:

1. How will we clearly define our mental health and well-being strategy and deliver it consistently across our organization?
2. How will we focus on actual organizational psychosocial risk management, as opposed to individual resilience initiatives?
3. How will we achieve effective communication and engagement across our organization?
4. How will we manage the residual mental health impact of COVID-19 and implement measures to cope with the pandemic, particularly in relation to individuals working from home?
5. How will we measure the effectiveness of our strategies to promote mental health and well-being?

Start with strategy

The biggest challenge your organization will face is defining a mental health and well-being strategy. This is particularly acute for organizations with a diverse workforce. Well-being is not the same for everyone and it is important to recognize the diverse needs of your people.

Psychosocial risk management

The pandemic has added to a growing organizational focus on improving psychological health and safety, particularly in how to address the work-related causes of mental ill-health. Clearly distinguish the differences between personal wellness and workplace well-being. Workers and specialists alike have indicated that personal wellness activities, like yoga and meditation apps, do little to mitigate real psychosocial risk. Instead, leadership should focus on how to address work-related causes of ill-health from the source of stress.

Engagement

One size does not fit all when it comes to engaging with your employees. Diverse workforces require a mix of communications channels. Although employees are now adept at video calls, making a connection when people are not in the same room is still challenging. Finding common ground is vital and providing a mix of scheduled in-person work and team building events can be a great place to start.

Pandemic impact

Not surprisingly, the pandemic has taken a toll on employees’ mental health. However, the shift to flexible working, despite its benefits, has not been smooth sailing for everyone. People tend to log longer hours from home, causing the lines between work and home life to blur. There is no longer a clear division between personal time and professional responsibilities. For some, working from home has created new stressors that returning to an in-person work environment alone won’t solve.
There are also occupational health implications that have never before been considered. For example, employers have little to no control of their employees’ work-from-home set-up and are finding an increase in ergonomic injuries amongst their employees.

Management Support

The conversation around the role of team leaders has shifted in recent years. Previously, supervisors and managers were asked to avoid addressing people’s mental well-being. Today, those conversations are more actively encouraged. The importance of upskilling, educating, and empowering managers so that they are able to facilitate and navigate these types of conversations, catering to different communications styles and skills, is a vital piece of the puzzle.

Measuring effectiveness

Measuring the impact of mental health initiatives remains a universal challenge. Framing mental health assistance in the right way can foster trust and encourage participation. The introduction of employee assistance programs (EAPs) alone is not a solution if employees do not use it. Therefore, active promotion of the benefits of the EAP is critical and making its use by employees quantifiable is an important metric, be it the number of inquiries or referrals, and/or registrations for webinars.

Collaborating with others responsible for managing your organization’s mental health, engagement, and well-being is a way to gain reassurance that your entire workforce is moving from survival mode to thriving.

Read BSI’s recent prioritizing people round table How Organizations are Tackling Mental Health and Well-being to learn what key leaders from several large, complex organizations have to say surrounding this important topic. Xavier Alcaraz’s continuing HSW series, including Surviving To Thriving: Foundational Steps to Support a Thriving Business and Tech Fusion: Future of Health, Safety, and Well-Being is Now, addresses the future of worker health and safety. Follow along with these and other EHS topics that should be at the top of your list at BSI’s Experts Corner.

For more insight into the residual challenges companies are facing created by the pandemic, take a look at BSI’s Prioritizing People initiative.