If you want to ensure your business succeeds, it’s crucial you take care of your employees. This means doing more than simply providing work perks and providing a generous holiday package. It also means looking after their mental health.
Mental health issues affect millions of employees. So, why is it important to take care of their mental health and how exactly can you do that as an employer? Providing resources such as a depression hotline free can be a valuable step in supporting your employees’ mental well-being .Below, you’ll discover more about managing the mental health of employees in the workplace.
Understanding the issue
According to 2019 statistics, out of every 100,000 workers, there were 1,380 cases of work-related stress, depression and anxiety. Those working within the professional sector are most affected and women are more likely to suffer work-related mental health issues.
Interestingly, small workplaces have the lowest rate of depression and mental health issues. The main causes of workplace stress, anxiety and depression rates include working to tight deadlines, being placed under too much pressure and role uncertainty. Many also suffer due to a lack of support offered by management.
These are just statistics relating to work-related anxiety, stress and depression. There are also millions of workers who suffer mental health issues outside of the workplace. Whether the issues are directly work-related or not, it’s going to have an impact on their health and productivity.
So, how can you address these issues in your employees?
Create and implement a mental health plan
The first thing you’ll want to do is create a mental health plan. This should look at past and present issues and how they can be overcome. How will employees be supported in the workplace? What changes can you make to ensure you are providing a happy and healthy workplace?
Having a plan in place can help you and other senior members of staff to better understand how to handle mental health issues when they crop up.
Ensure they are supported after an accident
If the employee has suffered an accident, it’s important to ensure they get the support they need. This includes ensuring they seek legal help as well as emotional support where needed.
Having an accident can have a significant impact on your mental health. So, it’s important to be patient with the employee and offer more flexible hours. This allows them to get the support they need, particularly if the accident was caused at work. A Safety Critical Medical will be a good way to review the employee before their return to work to alleviate any ongoing concerns. They are also helpful in better understanding their needs and how best to support them upon their return.
Provide Mental health reviews
Once you have an effective plan in place, it’s important to carry out regular mental health reviews. For employees who have been struggling, reviewing the situation helps to see whether the support you’re providing is working.
Carrying out regular reviews also shows you care and are committed to helping workers overcome the issues they are facing. It gives you the opportunity to make tweaks to the plan you created if needed.
Bring in a mental health professional
While bringing mental health professionals into the workplace isn’t cheap, it can save the business money in the long term. Mental health issues in employees leads to increased sick days and a loss of productivity. This can cost the business thousands of pounds each year. You can even partner with an external center where employees can work with professionals to assess, diagnose and treat BPD as well as other mental health issues. Making this investment into your staff also shows that you value them, which may in itself improve their outlook on working and life in general.
If you don’t want to hire someone in-house, you can offer to pay for therapy sessions as a work perk. There are a lot of mental health and wellbeing perks you can bring into the workplace.
Mental health issues are a big problem in the workplace. However, the above are some of the steps you can take to support your employees.
