The Importance of Mental Health in the Workplace
Understanding Mental Health
Mental health refers to our emotional, psychological, and social well-being and affects how we think, feel, and act. It also impacts our ability to handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. With this article, we're going to dive into how work relates to mental health for Mental Health Awareness Month.
The Workplace’s Impact on Mental Health
Many things affect our mental health, our relationships, and our environment, and this is no different with the workplace, especially considering how much time we spend there (approximately 1/3 of our lives).
Answer the following questions as "yes" or "no" to see if your workplace is encouraging mental health.
Do employees feel comfortable talking to their supervisors about their stress?
Do employees feel safe using sick days to care for their mental health?
Do employees feel comfortable seeking/receiving treatment for their mental health, without judgment from their management team or colleagues?
While all of these should be a yes, Mental Health America’s (MHA) 2019 Work Health Report, shows that 69 percent of employees reported that it was safer to remain silent about their stress. Similarly, over half reported they were afraid to take a day off to attend to their mental health.
Why Employee Mental Health Matters
The importance of employee health cannot be emphasized enough; it goes beyond smooth day-to-day operations. For a business to succeed, its people need to be mentally and physically healthy — after all, it’s hard to be productive when you’re not well.
Taking care of your employees’ health in the workplace is not only beneficial to them, but also beneficial to the business as it creates an effective, efficient, and understanding working environment. Employee health and productivity go hand in hand - a mentally and physically healthy individual is more optimistic, creative, and motivated.
Taking care of your employees’ well-being means:
Employees feel valued and appreciated
Increased morale and employee satisfaction
High levels of employee engagement
Increased employee retention
Positive work culture
Healthy relationships between staff
Understanding poor mental health
Although the terms ‘poor mental health’ and 'mental illness' are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Individuals can experience poor mental health and not be diagnosed with a mental illness.
Anyone can experience poor mental at any given time for various durations and to various degrees. Mental health issues may lead to feelings of burnout, added stress, and more. These symptoms not only affect the individual but those around them such as family, friends, coworkers, and even the organization.
Impacts to Self
Burnout
Added stress
Changes in mood
Poor performance (ability and effectiveness)
Experience
Impacts to Others (Peers, Bosses, Loved Ones)
Communication issues
Team conflict
Negative work experience
Ability to connect
Impacts to Business
Customer experience
An employee’s ability to perform directly impacts the customer
Performance
Turnover
Excessive absences
Reputation - with talent and customers
The cost of Ignoring Mental Health in the Workplace
While we believe wanting the best for your people is cause enough to invest in mental health, we recognize some people need a quantitative incentive. For the money-conscious businessperson, it’s important to understand how much ignoring employee health costs. According to Headspace, not focusing on employees’ mental health costs businesses in the U.S. $153 billion. The reputational consequences of not investing in mental health also persist. In fact, according to a Gallup survey, employees of all generations rank "the organization cares about employees' wellbeing" in their top three criteria.
Prioritizing employee health is no longer a nice to have a bonus, it is a must-have. The secret to attracting, engaging, and retaining the right talent is Employee Experience (EX) and a crucial component of EX is a workplace that promotes Employee Mental Health.
At ConnectUs we aim to improve the relationships people have at work because of how critical they are to one's wellbeing. Although technology like ours is helpful in streamlining a positive EX, there are steps leaders can already be taking to promote mental health at work.