Mental Health

Much like our physical health, we all have mental health and part of your duty of care is to support the wellbeing of your people. Mental Health has become more prevalent in recent years with many high profile people speaking out about their own challenges and encouraging others to do the same. The stigma that once surrounded this topic is slowly disappearing and as an employer, you need to think about how well you support your people’s mental wellbeing. Below are some ideas on how you can support your team:

• Create space for people to talk about how they feel. 121 conversations and team meetings are a great way to do this. If you hold regular team meetings think about what they are like; crammed with information? or space for connection as a team.
• Focus on work-life balance. Technology means the lines between work and home have become blurred. Do you expect that your employees will respond to emails out of hours? If you do, you might want to change that expectation and allow for a clearer line between the two. There is a difference between being ‘on call’ (in a structured way) and just staying connected all the time. Be the role model for this, turn off your phone when you leave work, avoid  sending emails out of hours or contacting staff unless a real emergency.
• Think about workload. Do you give your team a reasonable workload or are you piling on the pressure. Jobs are often busier and that creates little space for reflection, creativity and self care.
• Think about how you can encourage self care. Could you partner with a local gym and get discount? Could you invite a massage therapist to site to give massages? There are lots of ways you can give people options around self care.
• Reflect on your policies, are they the best they can be to support your employees. Often we get caught up in legislation and focus on the minimum we need to do to be compliant. But that doesn’t mean you cant go beyond that and offer more.
• Think about offering an Employee Assistance Program so employees can get independent advice when they need it.
• Offer charity days, get the team together to do something to enhance the community. A beach clean, sponsored walk, volunteering at a local dog shelter on company time. This brings a sense of team and collaboration.

There is so much you can do to enhance the mental well being of your team and yourself. You can read more about this in the recent guide published by the CIPD in partnership with MIND.

https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/mental-health-at-work-1_tcm18-10567.pdf

If you would like to discuss this or any other people matter please contact us.