Promoting holistic wellbeing and a culture of health has always been a fundamental business priority for leading CEOs. The difference now is that everyone—the public, employees, and potential talent—is watching. Plus, helping build resilience and support immunity, critical components for holistic wellness and pandemic fighting, is front and center. These strategies aren’t just essential for employee health, but also healthy bottom lines.
Mental health refers to a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The way a person thinks feels, and acts is subjective.
It is the responsibility of the company to promote positive and mental health in the workplace to improve the mental health of its employees. Organizations must implement mental health awareness programs.
IMPACT OF WELLNESS PROGRAMS AT WORKPLACE
Working from home has thrown up new health challenges in the last year, whether it was a physical disease, increased fatigue and worry, or another ailment. Leaders aiming to build a work atmosphere favorable to high engagement have faced numerous challenges as a result of the pandemic. Leaders, on the other hand, are leveraging these issues as a springboard for creating new and better workplaces.
They’re doing this in a variety of ways, including revised holistic benefit offers. Employees’ stated requirements and the underlying determinants of their engagement, wellbeing, and work performance have a high correlation
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO PROMOTE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING?
HR can aid in the development of positive behavior by establishing clear expectations for managers. They can align policies and procedures to ensure that mental health is a top priority. Outline the possible dangers of not implementing projects in your business cases, such as the financial impact of growing sick pay, wasted time, and high staff turnover.
The moral ramifications of preserving employees’ mental health should also be considered in your argument. When employees are provided empathy and support, they are more likely to feel linked to the company.
Get them to talk about it: Simply establishing an Employee Assistance Program will not suffice; only continuous communication and involvement with employees will demonstrate that the organization cares about mental health. Talking about mental illness can also help to lessen stigma. It can make it easier for employees to speak up when they’re hurting. Invite guest speakers to speak about their mental health journeys. Encourage senior leaders to speak out about their own experiences to help start the conversation. People in this situation benefit greatly from having someone to talk to, especially if they are afraid of the consequences. Treat people who are struggling with mental health with compassion and understanding. If you can, try to discover answers to their difficulties, or simply lend an ear if that’s all they need.
Promote wellbeing: Companies should take proactive measures to guarantee that they do not engage in any business practices that are harmful to their employees’ mental health. The workplace should actively encourage positive wellbeing
rather than reacting to bad mental health. Communication of a compelling vision, learning opportunities, meaningful work, and a sense of shared purpose are all examples of this.
Prioritize mental health in the workplace: Mental health in the workplace is a complex topic that touches on many facets of good HR management and spans all stages of the employee life cycle. Leadership actions, culture change, policy creation, worker and management training, and more could all be part of a wellness strategy. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to do everything at once, so prioritizing and concentration will be required.
Providing the correct resources: Even while you can teach people a lot about mental health, it’s vital to remember that mental health illnesses can only be treated and diagnosed by experts. It involves a great deal of intricacy. Attempting to take care of it yourself may cause more harm than good. An HR department, on the other hand, can supply staff with the appropriate resources.
TO SUM IT UP
You, as the company’s employer/HR, are in a unique position. You’re familiar with the majority of the company’s procedures. And your staff is frequently the point of contact between employers and management. As a result, when it comes to employee health and safety, HR plays a critical role.
