Employee mental health is important and should be a focus for your organization as you look to build sustainable success. While some leaders may worry that prioritizing employee mental health could lead to distractions and conflict with achieving financial goals, this could not be further from the truth.
Looking out for your employees and letting them know you care about their well-being actually can enhance innovation, performance and retention. The key is to find a balance of working towards building a culture that supports mental health and keeping business success in mind.
5 Tips to Support Mental Health and Focus on Business Goals
Here are five tips to help you get started.
Tip #1: Set realistic expectations
When setting goals, make sure your expectations are reasonable. Excessive workloads and unmanageable schedules can burn employees out. While you want employees to achieve high performance, it needs to be sustainable.
Evaluate workloads regularly, set clear priorities and allow employees to speak up if there are challenges. Well-rested and well-balanced employees deliver better results than those who are stretched too thin.
Tip #2: Normalize conversations about mental health
Create an environment at the workplace where talking about mental health challenges isn’t considered a stigma but is something that is supported by leadership. Managers can set the tone by encouraging employees to seek support when needed, sharing available resources.
Being open and available to support employees when needed will help them avoid hiding their struggles, which in turn helps them to be more focused and productive at work.
Tip #3: Provide support and resources
As mentioned earlier, make sure to provide support and resources to employees who need them but also make sure employees know where they can go and what assistance programs they have access to as part of their benefits.
These resources are a great way to provide help to employees and can lead to lower healthcare costs, decreased absenteeism as well as improved employee engagement in the long run.
Tip #4: Train managers to spot signs of struggle
The best way to prevent burnout is by spotting signs of struggle early on and being there to offer support. Managers should be trained to recognize signs of mental health struggles and know how to appropriately respond.
Managers should also encourage healthy behaviors by setting an example – taking breaks, setting boundaries, taking time off and support the whole team’s well-being.
Tip #5: Measure impact and adapt
As you work through mental health initiatives, assess your programs, gather feedback and make improvements along the way. Pay attention to employee satisfaction and signs like turnover and absenteeism, while continuing to shape programs that support wellness goals.
Being able to adapt and change accordingly will help your business succeed and keep your employees happy.
