May marks mental health awareness month and I want to take the opportunity to speak about the growing pandemic of those struggling with mental health within their professional environment.

I once worked for an organisation where we were not allowed to say we were stressed! A lot has changed in the last 20 years in the conversation we have about mental health. However, there are increased challenges, uncertainty, and technological advances that make it harder for us to switch off our fight or flight responses which lead to feeling stressed or anxious.

A report released in 2021 states that nearly 60% of employees are feeling anxious and low, with 1 in 4 reporting that while they didn’t have an official diagnosis they had ‘clinically relevant’ symptoms. Within those surveyed, 21% reported that poor mental health impacts their productivity.

Although there are external factors that contribute to the overall mental health of an employee, it’s a major requirement that workplaces start addressing how they are contributing to the declining mental health of their teams and look to facilitate a healthier, open environment to support wellbeing.

It’s essential that employers realise that there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to managing your teams and their mental health. For example, 28% of employees say they thrive on deadlines and pressure, whereas for 35% they deem it unhelpful and negative. Therefore, taking a total ‘stress-free’ approach to refining your response to mental health won’t necessarily work for all your employees.

The top 3 causes of stress in the workplace are identified as:
Workload – 76%
Lack of control – 35%
Lack of support – 26%

As part of the management team or board the well-being of your team should be part of your KPIs. On a base level, happy staff are more creative and motivated in line with the company’s vision, whereas staff who feel like the environment is conducive to stress and feel overwhelmed mentally are unlikely to be positive about the company at all. This creates a heavy, negative feel with a lasting impact.

Although the topic of mental health seems to be spoken about more openly than ever, there is no denying there is still a stigma attached, no more so than when discussing it at work. Currently 74% of women in a workplace seek support for their mental health versus just 25% of men, we know that male suicide from mental health is too high, so we know we need to do something to get more men talking.

I’ve compiled six ways that you can overhaul the wellbeing of your team and the environment in which they work in:

1. Appoint and train a mental health advocate – Now this won’t be someone who will be operating as therapist, but someone who champions mental health in the workplace on behalf of employees. A mental health advocate will ensure that action points are seen through and help implement change as well as providing resources.

• Breaks – Taking a break during the work is essential for both mental and physical self. Breaks should be taken away from the desk, where work topics are off limit. This allows the brain some downtime and the body to stretch out from being in a sitting position for most of the day. Taking breaks increases brain power, creativity, and productivity as well the overall health your teams. Encourage all breaks to be taken.

• Mental health tool kit – Mental health tool kits are a vital part of an employee feeling seen and supported. A whole team one that they have access too, or ideally, personal ones for ease of access. Everything in a mental health tool kit is designed to relive stress, anxiety and overwhelm. Include items such as: Noise cancelling headphones, mindful colouring, journal, a reading book, acupressure rings, silly putty, green tea, and favoured snacks.These tools are particularly recommended by experts, and they suggest being aware of signs of stress and overwhelm before it hits and reaching for the tool kit to bring relief before moving forward with the task.
  
  

• Allocate wellness hours – Wellness hours must be seen as investment for all companies. Each employee should be allocated wellness hours, or a whole day per month. The idea is that it reduces employee absence and makes the employee feel supported through work-related stress. This means additional time within each working month that an employee takes off in addition to their scheduled days off. This is a great bridge step for companies that don’t yet feel convinced to trial a 4-day working week.

• Encourage play and fun – Work environments can often become stagnant or hold an air of stress and tension. Having downtime that is actively fun is brilliant for employee well-being. Creating environments or situations where they can be relaxed, and laugh is fantastic for stress. This could be as simple as taking time out to watch a sporting tournament as a team, like the watching the world cup in the staff room. It could be getting everyone outside once a week for a team game, or even just putting games in the staff room and creating fun ongoing tournaments of a classic board game. The idea is that you encourage team bonding and stress reducing situations to better enable a healthy, supportive, and productive environment.

• Create safe spaces
  As an employer it is your responsibility to ensure that your staff feel safe within their environment and when it comes to talking to management about their mental health. Being open about the way you are approaching mental health in the workplace and being understanding and discreet when approached is key to making lasting change. As well as creating a safe environment to encourage staff members to be open with you, also create physical safe spaces. A small room made calming and equipped with access to guided meditations or music is a fantastic way to encourage your teams to be proactive in managing their mental health.

Evidence suggests that 12.7% of sick days in the UK can be attributed mental health, therefore actively dealing with the growing issue of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace will play a huge role in reducing absence, improving staff happiness and subsequently productivity, staff turnover and company reputation.

As a transformational leadership coach, I am aware that with change comes cost, which is why I make these realistic recommendations alongside executive and management level training. It means that companies can invest in their people for long lasting change and lead the way in their industry. If you’re ready to lead the change, get in contact with me.