Did you know that you spend over 50% of your waking hours at work? There is so many other parts of our lives that need to be worked on outside of work to be fully fulfilled. Because many of us don’t take the time to work on those other slices of the pie our mental health can suffer.
Here at Language Marketplace our President & CEO is an advocate for ending the stigma surrounding mental health and helping people get the support they need. This means that we embody a culture that puts mental health as a top priority in our workplace. We know how important it is to pay attention to mental health in the workplace and wanted to share some of our top tips to help you build a work environment that is safe for everyone.
Education & Training
This is the number one thing you must do in your workplace. Educating everyone on mental health is what will help create success in your business, increase productivity, and help employees feel healthy and supported.
Look for resources on what type of training and education to offer your employees here:
https://www.camh.ca/en/driving-change/about-camh/workplace-education-and-consulting
Early Intervention/Prevention
When your employees and you have proper training about mental health, you will be able to identify the early stages of someone heading down a not so good path. By identifying these issues quickly, you can help get that person back on track. This also helps to implement strategies to help with mental health related concerns.
One step you can take to help with better mental health in the workplace is to help your employees have a good work life balance. This could mean introducing a work from home policy, extra curricular activities that employees can participate in like a soft ball team, offer flex hours or increase the lunch hour so they can fit in an activity they love.
Small changes such as the ones above can make a world of a difference for a lot of employees.
Reduce Stigma
By providing your employees with the knowledge they need to help with prevention, early intervention and overall facts about mental health, you are actively helping to reduce the stigma around mental health.
It is easy for us to pass judgement on someone is suffering from mental health when we don’t truly understand as much as we can about mental health as an illness and how it affects all of us. When we begin to break down how it affects us, symptoms and why some are more susceptible than others and potential triggers for people, it becomes easier to resonate with. Ultimately this allows us to reduce the stigma and focus more on lifting each other up during tough times.
Improve Productivity
Who doesn’t want their employees to be more productive? This is such a great result simply from educating your employees and creating a safe place for all.
When you allow your employees to work in an optimal way for themselves, they will automatically be more productive. Sure, some might prefer working from home and others may enjoy working in the office, but what about coming in at 11am and working later instead? By allowing this flexibility there is less stress placed on the individual making it easier for them to deal with whatever hardships come up.
Of course, less stress means more productivity!
Create A Better Culture
Adding in educationabout mental health, a safe place for employees to be themselves and the flexibility to that works for them, is ultimately creating a great culture.
You show employees it’s okay to lean into how they feel, ask for help, and focus on work life balance and not just work. This safe environment is key for many individuals to thrive in. By now you should know that if your employees are thriving so is your business.
Appropriate Workplace Accommodations
Remember that no matter how much education and training you provide your employees; you will always be faced with some individuals that require special accommodations for their mental health illness. Be mindful of how they are feeling and create accommodations by working with them not against them.
This could mean that you need to find a compromise on a solution, while remembering that the same solution won’t work for everyone.
Overall, providing education and training to your employees on mental health will help bring your company more productivity and a better culture, all while helping reduce the stigma of mental health.