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World Mental Health Day passed by recently on the 10th of October, and we thought it would be the perfect time to remind you of a couple of tips when it comes to supporting your employee’s mental health. Whether people are struggling due to pressure at work, family reasons or anything in between, it’s extremely important that the workplace is somewhere an employee can come to confide in a manager or feel safe in a supportive environment. So, here are the top ways to ensure that you are supporting your employee’s mental health…
Create a Supportive Environment
Having a supportive environment is an extremely important factor when it comes to maintaining an employee’s mental health. Knowing that they can come to work and not feel judged or misunderstood can be a really important resource. To create a supportive environment, managers and team leaders should set an example for other co-workers when it comes to mental health. Organising mental health talks, workshops and dedicated mental health ambassadors would be a great way of showing employee’s that you, as a manager, are keen to make a change. Having a number of mental health resources available around the workplace, such as charity websites, phone lines and therapy organisations that are easily reached, would also be great.
Work Together
Battling with mental health can feel extremely lonely, and ensuring that your employees know that if they’re struggling you’d be willing to work through their issues TOGETHER, is going to make a huge difference. Communicating problems effectively and efficiently, and putting plans together as to what the next steps are when it comes to their mental health struggles, will guide your employees in the correct direction. They’ll know that someone wants to listen, talk and support them. Organising weekly meetings and check-ins with someone that is struggling would keep you and your employee in touch and ensure that you’re doing the most when it comes to being available.
Adjust Your Ways of Working
When struggling with mental health problems, going to work and having to focus on clients can seem pretty daunting, especially if your thoughts are clouded and you’re struggling to stay focused. Having specific workplace adjustments in place for those struggling with their mental health, and staying flexible when it comes to certain requests, will put your employees at ease and ensure that work isn’t an added stress for them if they are already on edge. Adjustments can come in the form of extra days working from home to provide comfort, shorter working days, managing workloads throughout the team, having quiet rooms in the office, changes to break times and time off for hospital/GP appointments.
Communicate Openly
The main part of supporting an employee through their mental health problems is being completely open to communication. Showing empathy and an understanding of the problems that they are struggling with, and presenting your employees with options as to how they can receive support from work, is extremely important. Communicating through problems, solutions and just being someone that is open to listening will give your employee’s a sense of comfort and understanding that they are not struggling alone.
Mental health can be a challenging task to manage when it comes to your employees and workplace, and it’s extremely important to minimize stress, provide support systems, be open to communication and suggest guidance. If you’re needing further advice on how to support your employees with mental health struggles, drop an email to info@zest-learning.com and we will be here to help.
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