Best Tips for HR Managers to Boost Mental Health of the Employees at Work

The pandemic situation has crippled our global economy. With that, the culture of working from home emerged. It also brought us together with the help of technology. In fact, in some cases, it is believed that a remote work environment allows humanity to shine through.

But in the same situation, one can see that the anxiety ballooned by 20%. Employees often struggle with mental health issues. As they are spending their maximum time in the workplace mental health becomes the wheelhouse of the employers. Hence, it is imperative to tackle the mental health of the workers in the workplace. It requires much more than digging deep into the basic programs or policies.

Manage the mental health

In today’s scenario, managing mental health becomes one of the serious concerns for any HR professionals. According to the health insurance report, one can see that nearly 46% of the workers suffer from mental health issues. The rest struggle to maintain their well-being. Due to this, the employees are losing their morale. It is resulting in a huge loss of productivity. Employees are now struggling with substance abuse. Because of such a scenario, the human resource department of the organization is looking forward to employees’ mental health.

Most of the time, it is seen that the organizations already have different mental health programs. But until now, employees are not encouraged to go through such programs. It is the best time that they go through some of these services. For instance, in some companies, the employees can look forward to the employee assistance program that offers mental health assessments. While others can look for short-term counseling opportunities and different follow-up services. Some companies are offering the option of robust telepsychiatry for the employees. The employees can take up the options with the help of various well-being applications, including, Happyfi. It is one of the best ways to help your employees if they are going through any mental health issues.

On behalf of the HR manager, every company must introduce insurance plan coverage for mental health. Along with that, the employers must check on the employees whether they are victims of substance abuse or not. If so, the organization must offer long-term counseling treatment for the employees.

Host mental health support training

Being a human resource professional, you must be one of the experts who understand the different workspace dynamics. The workplace dynamics relate to the mental health of the employees. Every employee, including the managers, needs to complete proper training on mental health. It would reduce the stigma toward the concept of mental health issues. Along the line, it can also teach the y workers how they must connect with the right health resource during the crisis period.

The concept of mental health happens to be one of the most misunderstood problems. As human resource management offers training to the staff, it helps them to manage themselves and understand how to deal with the problem before it becomes worse.

Look out for a healthy work-life balance

For some employees, work-life starts from an early age. For them, going beyond the expectations to achieve success becomes the core problem of mental health issues. You will find the Nobel idea of working beyond expectations might provide real results, but it can also have crippling effects on the organization. Some of the top hiring websites found that 52% of employees feel burnout due to their work pressure. IT results in mental health issues. Recently stress 19 happens to be one of the natural factors of the increasing mental health problem among the employees. 27% of the employees cannot unplug from work as they were incompetent to take leaves or suffered due to the lack of boundaries.

But on the other hand, there are companies that offer flexible working schedules to their employees. They also ensure that the staff takes the needed breaks from their monotonous work life. As you take leave, it empowers you to get disconnected and concentrate on your personal needs. In addition to that, companies should also offer office holidays or casual dress code days to make the employees feel at work.

Model healthy behaviors

Just talking about mental health would not do much good. You have to speak with your actions. Model healthy behaviors in the organization so that the team members would be able to feel about the prioritization of self-care. It will also help them to set their boundaries. Most of the time, managers focus on getting the work done. It creates negligence in the well-being of the team members. Along with that, one must prioritize the staycation or having therapy only to ensure that you do not burn out.

Try to build a connection culture through check-ins

It is crucial on behalf of the manager to have a check on the reports regularly. Though it is prudent, this step gets often underutilized in the pre-pandemic scenario. As employees are now mostly working from home, therefore, it becomes difficult to notice the signs of mental health issues or struggle. As it is a fact that, nowadays, most companies overlook this aspect of the employees.

If the employees can go beyond the question of how employees are doing, then it might support the employees in the most helpful ways. As you wait for the employees to open up about any issues related to their mental health, it can help manage the situation efficiently. But make sure that the questions do not become overbearing. It might signal towards lack of trust. When your employees share the fact that they are struggling, you need to share them before coming to any conclusion. Make sure that you are compassionate while doing the same. Your employees would not share many details. It would be completely fine. But if you want to help your employees, you need to provide them a platform to speak about their mental health without any inhibition.

Flexibility while being inclusive

You need to expect that your own needs, along with your team’s needs, would keep on changing continuously, when you are going through any transition points you need to look forward to your needs and wants. It can help you solve your problems while making a mess out of the situation. Make sure that you provide your employees with the opportunity that supports mental health.

Especially, when the organization looks forward to inclusive flexibility, they would pay attention to proactive communication. The organization should not make any kind of assumption about the needs of the direct reports. As the employees require or have different needs at different points of time. Therefore taking the customized approach to address the stress of the employees would help in the long run. As a human resource manager, you must proactively offer flexibility to the employees. As you become realistic and generous, it helps you to take care of the problems of mental health more efficiently.

Apart from that, ask your team members to be understanding and patient with each other as one might require a long amount of time to adapt to each other. Trusting your employees and assuming the best from them would help you to keep the productivity of the organization consistent. As the employees would rely on the organization during this unprecedented time.

Communication is the key

Employees who complained about their managers not being communicative experienced the problem of mental health issues in a white spread. Hence it is crucial to speak to your employees and be vocal about the different organizational changes and updates. If you are going through any modification in the last hour, you must clarify it to the team so that they don’t go through the stress.

As the manager, it becomes your duty to remove all the stressors. Make sure that you set an expectation that everyone can achieve. You must put your priority on the workload according to its importance.

 Apartt from that, you must make your team aware of the different available mental health resources. The employees of the organization should be encouraged to use these resources. When it comes to mental health, employees feel a kind of inhibition. This particular attitude makes them shy away from using those available resources. Being the manager, you must share those resources with your employees so that they can use them whenever they want or require it. Sometimes stigma and shame might prevent the employees from using the resources conveniently. Hence you must normalize this problem by indulging in the needed communication.

Although it is the manager who would be on the front line when it comes to addressing the issues regarding mental health, the senior leaders of the company should also take necessary action whenever required.

Invest in proper training

If you want the organization to move forward without facing any kind of issues, you must put your priority on the preventive and proactive workplace mental health training for every working staff. This positions the company to navigate the different uncertainty among the employees. Given the situation of the pandemic, it becomes difficult to navigate the uncertainty. But people are struggling more with problems and part of the company needs to debunk the common myth about mental health while reducing the stigma. The company must also focus on building the necessary skills to have a productive conversation about the concepts of mental health at the workplace. Hence, if the company does not have the appropriate budget to invest in the training, it must be indulged in the mental health employee resource group. The budget for that would be much lower and it would also help the company to increase the awareness while offering peer support and building a community to help each other.

Modify the different practices and policies

To reduce the stress on everyone, the company must indulge in flexible and generous practices and policies in reaction to any civil unrest. The company needs to take a closer look at the different norms and rules around flexible hours. The company must offer paid time off, both paid and unpaid leaves, and even proper communication.

As the company tries to refrain from performance reviews based on opportunities, it can provide compassionate feedback to the employees.

Apart from that, ensuring accountability can also help them as a manager and promote mental health in the workplace. The process of direct employee input can help to shape new programs. It might include the remote management skill buildings for the managers that would help to enhance the well-being and mental health support of the employees. It might also increase the work flexibility of the employees and also enjoy time off whenever required.

Apart from that, if the company leaders have effective communication with the human resource department of the company, then it would be helpful to take proper action regarding this particular issue. It would also avoid the employees from shying away from the problems of mental health. Also, if the leaders can conduct productive conversations regarding behavioral health issues, then it can help the employees to gain a lot of confidence and take part in the different tasks effectively. These executives must carry on with their roles which include providing benefits to the employees, monitoring the well-being of the employees, looking forward to their mental health needs, and even managing the workplace efficiently.

Give priority to the mental health

The HR department would be the first place where the employees would go if they require any kind of assistance. But it is also important to communicate proactively if the employees require any mental health support. The HR department should start by reviewing all the companies’ Health insurance coverage. It must make it a point that the company should incorporate insurance on mental health.

Only after that, the company would be eligible to begin the mental health service promotion to the employees. As the employees receive the mental health training and certification it would create awareness among the entire workforce of the company. Other than that, the company should offer a friendly and open human resource environment where the employees feel safe and secure to discuss their issues and concerns.