5 ways to support your employees’ mental health

The previous few months have been filled with challenges. We don’t like to make use of the phrase ‘unprecedented’ – however let’s face it, corporations around the globe are determining new methods of doing enterprise. Workers are determining easy methods to work at home. Individuals are being laid off. And on prime of labor stress, enjoyable social occasions we stay up for yearly are canceled. It’s a powerful time; there is no such thing as a doubt about it.

We really feel lucky at Harbinger to have at all times been a work-from-home firm. There wasn’t as a lot pivoting to do when the pandemic hit. However that doesn’t make us resistant to the stresses of ever-changing information, well being tips, rising numbers, and lots of unpredictable days.

Managers have been involved with their workersbodily well being, however we wished to speak about easy methods to assist workers with their psychological well being throughout this troublesome time. Sadly, the stigma surrounding psychological well being points can discourage individuals from talking up and asking for assist.

Serving to handle psychological well being points within the office makes good enterprise sense as nicely. Based on the American Psychiatric Basis, American corporations lose $44 billion every year in misplaced productiveness as a consequence of melancholy.

Listed here are six methods you possibly can check-in with workers and allow them to know you help them.

  1. Assist Workers Scale back Stress — Your group is working exhausting throughout difficult instances. Reward their psychological well being with one thing enjoyable! It doesn’t must be elaborate; a small reward card, a group on-line BINGO recreation instead of a gathering, or perhaps a shock afternoon off can do quite a bit to boost individuals’s spirits.
  2. Crew Up with Professionals — At Harbinger, we provide an Worker Help Program (EAP) for anybody who needs to speak with a psychological well being skilled. It’s 100% free and confidential. You probably have a program like this in place, it’s good to remind individuals of those sources.
  3. Hold An Eye Out For Melancholy — Practice your administration employees to learn to acknowledge and intervene when an worker is depressed. For extra data, contact Psychological Well being America or the Partnership for Office Psychological Well being.
  4. Survey Your Workers — Ask your workers what causes them stress at work, after which take steps to deal with any points.
  5. Watch Individuals’s Workloads — Regulate the workloads of your workers. Additionally, in case you discover a change in individuals’s work habits, consider that any workers who’re additionally dad and mom are doubtless juggling the extra process of homeschooling their children. A little bit additional empathy can go an extended technique to present you may have their again.
  6. Make Your self Accessible — Workers have to have a secure place to vent about what’s on their thoughts.

Making your workerspsychological well being a precedence is smart for the well-being of your complete group. Psychological well being points have an effect on one in 5 individuals, so there’s a great likelihood that somebody in your group is struggling. Assist scale back the stigma by normalizing discussions about psychological well being points.