Stress in workplaces is an obvious factor, but it can lead to anxiety and depression if properly not taken care of. A declination in productivity rate is observed due to stress. People suffering from work stress cannot fully concentrate on the work, and a substantial behavioral change can occur with their colleagues. That’s why the organization has started addressing mental health in the workplace, mainly; in challenging situations, employees get freaked out, and their work efficiency gets affected.
Mental Health Landscape
According to Mental Health America, more than 300 million people worldwide are dealing with depression. The highest rate of workplace stress is primarily seen in the manufacturing industries like retails, food, and beverages.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) came into action to look after the mental health of employees. But, unfortunately, this stress factor does not spare the personal lives; about 83 percent of men and 72 percent of women have reported this.
The most common factors on why employees don’t seek help for mental health care are:
- Cost of the treatment.
- Concerned about other people who make find out the employees is suffering from mental health.
- Scared of taking opinions from therapists.
Employees often think that they can pass the phase; most of them do not go to therapists due to this cost factor. However, according to the Journal of Occupation and Environmental Medicine, depression is one of the most expensive health conditions that workers suffer from. So it is better to eliminate the problem before getting worst.
Instead, employees follow the most common methods for coping up with work stress.
- They try to escape reality by getting more sleep.
- Use of illegal drugs and consumption of alcohol.
- They think that taking caffeine will enhance their productivity.
- Smoking frequently.
How can organizations address mental health in the workplace?
The organization can’t look at the face of employees and identify who is suffering and who is not. The most important key factor is that the employee should open up without fear. It will affect not only the employee but also the whole organization. After setting up a culture that supports mental health, workers are more than twice as likely to say they love their jobs. Thorough research has shown the main three factors, which are:
Signal that matters: Employees often end up thinking that opening up might take away all their opportunities, get in the way of promotion, and generally be seen as a sign of weakness.
“Once we normalize mental health
the way we normalize an MRI for your tweaked
knee or any other medical treatment,
that’s when you start to see stigma come down.
When you fight stigma, you can save lives.”
Jerome Adams
Leaders of organizations should talk about their own experiences and their struggles before setting up the organization. It will motivate employees; they will get the courage to fight with the challenging situations. And most importantly, leaders should talk in such a way so that employees feel safe to talk about their mental health. A study has shown that in 2018, only 14% of the employees had heard a leader talking about the importance of mental health. Just to make it easier, only one in every ten employees has heard.
Awareness through training: Training classes about mental health should be introduced for the employees. So that the employees can understand the signs of depression and anxiety, it will act as the first step in knowing what exactly they are dealing with.
This training also helps the employees to explore the boundaries between the responsibilities of line managers. The study has shown that employees are getting more aware and implementing those lessons in their personal lives. This mental health issue can be eradicated by empathy, support, and kindness. A sudden decrease of stress factors is being noticed after implementing these things.
Improvement of online tools: Organizations were providing mental health officials in the office itself. But due to this COVID-19, an inevitable spike in mental health deterioration is observed. That’s why online classes are introduced. The mental health officials are available 24/7 and can solve as many problems as they can. For example, at Accenture UK, all employees were permitted access to the ”Big White Wall,” a private professionally managed chat environment.
Not every organization helps its employees. It has been observed that a company that does not care for the employees has the highest rate of losing employees more often. It is one thing for an employee to seek support; it’s another for the company to hand over the responsibility and those resources to employees. More frequent classes on mental health are needed for the betterment of the organizations and their employees.
A recently launched website called Mental Health at Work is full of exciting new resources. Smaller organizations use this website for providing in-house support to their employees. From this single website, employees can find out the answer to every question they have, whether it be about mental health or any other topic.
People photo created by yanalya – www.freepik.com
Conclusion
Sometimes employees entirely rely on online sources. Information provided through this online site is authentic; however, they should also seek professional help. After all, the employee should figure out what needs can be fulfilled online and what to get from a medical professional. For example, observations have been made on employees who already managed their mental health and don’t consider that an essential factor in their physical health.
Organizations like American Express, Barclays, CHG Health Care, Netflix, Philip Ginter, and many more have already introduced platforms to reduce their employees’ workloads. Not only that, they have taken care of the mental health of employees.
Work environment emotional health promotion is critical to individuals and companies. The proof is evident that changes should be made and that mental health is a genuine concern in the workplace.
“There’s no such thing
as overall health
without mental health.”
Paul Gionfriddo
