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What exactly is one truly unrepeatable element regarding the top Employee Mental Health Interventions organisations that ensures they stand out from the competition?

It might not be feasible for your company to hire a full-time clinical psychologist. But that doesn’t mean you can’t help. Managers themselves can do a lot to help employees facing challenges and normalise talking about mental health in the workplace. The barriers that prevent people with mental health conditions from finding and keeping paid work include low expectations of people’s own ability to cope with work, reflecting low expectations in society in general of the abilities of people with mental health conditions (self-stigmatisation). Employer action on mental health is intrinsically measurable. Increased transparency will go a long way to generating a culture of measurement and will enable the development of voluntary ranking schemes to help drive accountability and further improvement. Paying attention to positive leadership and management styles, and stimulating a supportive atmosphere among employees, are actionable strategies for addressing employee mental health. Supporting mental wellness is now more important than ever. A 2020 report by the American Psychological Association found that stress levels are at an all-time high, significant enough to be considered a national mental health crisis. Those companies that aren’t working to solve the problem are likely contributing to it. According to studies, persons in the United States will spend anywhere between a quarter to a third of their lives at work. On a typical day, we devote more of our waking hours at the workplace than at home or with loved ones. As a result, we must maintain optimum mental stability both at work and at home.



Having open and honest discussions about mental health removes the stigma of what is usually a hidden issue. Managing mental health in the workplace is something managers and leaders should be trained for, so they can signs in employees who may be struggling, and create effective strategies for helping them. To promote mental well-being at work, employees should encourage employers to offer stress management education and mental health programs that meet their needs and interests. Employees should also understand policies around how to take a mental health break from work in case the need arises. There are a range of personal, workplace and societal factors that need to be factored into the debate on workplace mental health. Each organization, employee and situation is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Employers should determine what solutions best fit your organization’s and employee’s needs through analysis. Organisations can make sure their employee benefits package provides support for workplace wellbeing support today.

Offering A Tailored Approach

Stigmas are often subtle or used casually in conversation at work, which makes them difficult to perceive. For instance, most employees have, at one point or another, heard a co-worker refer to a mental health condition negatively or in the wrong context. In fact, even the term "mental health" all too often has a negative connotation. This stigmatization creates a work environment in which mental health is not openly discussed, for fear of judgment. Some larger companies offer services like counselling to employees, free-of-charge. This is often run by an outside company that supplies face-to-face or telephone counselling sessions. All conversations or calls are confidential. Your employer can't ask the counselling company what you talk about or how often. Talk therapy is a remedy for a reason. One of the most important steps you can take as an employer is to communicate with your staff at all levels, as people. Promote positive discussion around mental health and depression and let them know that it's okay to be not okay. Globally, an estimated 264 million people suffer from depression, one of the leading causes of disability, with many of these people also suffering from symptoms of anxiety. A recent WHO-led study estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year in lost productivity. Mental health problems should be supported in the same, honest and consistent way that physical health problems are. Similarly to any change that happens within organizations, discussions around Wellbeing for HR need planning and implementing properly.

Tackling the mental health at work problem before it actually becomes a problem seems like a natural approach to take. For instance, organizations can offer their employees easy access to self-help solutions such as meditation and yoga. There are numerous digital wellness services available, similar to gym subscriptions, that make it easy to incorporate them into an existing employee wellness program. Mental health is something we all possess. When it is good, we have a sense of purpose and direction and feel that we can cope with whatever life (and work) throws at us. But just as our physical health fluctuates, so too our mental health goes through ups and downs. Raising awareness of potential mental health issues in the workplace is part of fostering an inclusive workplace, where people feel able to bring their whole selves to work. The UK has made significant progress in opening up conversations around mental health and wellbeing and in attempting to reduce the stigma it invokes. However, this progress appears to be occurring at a slower rate in the workplace, compared to conversations occurring in public spaces more generally. It’s important to note that someone experiences a mental illness, not that they’re suffering from a mental illness. You, hopefully, wouldn’t say that someone is suffering from diabetes, but rather, that they have diabetes. To say that someone is suffering from mental illness stigmatizes it further and makes it seem as though it’s the entirety of who they are, which is not the case. If you are feeling signs of stress at work, it is important to talk to someone, for example your manager. If you talk to them as soon as possible, it will give them the chance to help and stop the situation getting worse. An opinion on employers duty of care mental health is undoubtebly to be had in every workplace in the country.

Keep An Eye Out For Depression

Work is a key factor in supporting and protecting mental health. The workplace mental health and wellbeing survey identified that 86% of all respondents believed that their job and being at work was important to protecting and maintaining their mental health. Employers play an important role in determining the conditions that impact a mental health-friendly workplace. While employers cannot realistically shape factors like urbanization or malnutrition, many characteristics are amenable to modification. Mental health awareness and support is not just in the hands of the employer, employees need to do their part in making their needs known. There are several things that employees can do to promote a supportive organizational culture and destigmatize mental health. All HR professionals are on a mission to reduce absenteeism. It costs money, has a negative impact on team performance and reduces productivity. If companies support their employees’ wellness, they’re more likely to be engaged and less likely to be off sick too. When having mental health conversations with team members at work, don’t assume mental illness or stress means they can’t do their job. Even though it may not be easy to become an employee-centric company addressing workplace wellbeing ideas it is of utmost importance in this day and age.

Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. For that reason, when striving to improve mental wellbeing in your office, you need to take into consideration a range of aspects and components. Every organisation is different, however there are many steps, most of them free, that can improve mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. The key is to be adaptable, flexible, and experiment with different ideas until you find a tailored strategy that can evolve as your staff and organisation change too. There are numerous surveys that show that work-related bullying is widespread. The YouGov poll, for example, found that almost three in 10 people (29%) had been bullied at work and that 36% of the victims left their job as a result. The highest prevalence was among women (34% compared with 23% for men) and workers aged between 40 and 59. Improving mental health and wellbeing is a global challenge and it’s every bit as important inside the workplace as it is outside of it. In fact, it could be affecting more people than you realise; research suggests 77% of employees have experienced symptoms of poor mental health at some stage in their lives. When it comes to mental health, you should treat each employee flexibly and don’t assume all symptoms are the same for everyone. Different staff will react in different ways to situations. You also need to be honest and clear with staff if there are specific concerns, and ensure confidentiality to build trust. Don't forget to send out proper internal communications around managing employees with mental health issues in your organisation.

Be Well At Work

If an employee’s anxiety is affecting their day-to-day work, as an employer you’re required by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to make reasonable adjustments for them, as far as is deemed practical. We’re all different. It’s much healthier to accept that you’re unique than to wish you were more like someone else. Working environments that pose risks for mental wellbeing put high demands on a person without giving them sufficient control and support to manage those demands. A perceived imbalance between the effort required and the rewards of the job can lead to stress. A sense of injustice and unfairness arising from management processes or personal relationships can also increase stress and risks to mental health. You can check out more details on the topic of Employee Mental Health Interventions at this World Health Organisation entry.

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