21 ways to improve mental health in the workplace

Occupational health & wellbeing

This article will look at a range of options for workplace mental health solutions ranging from more intensive to quick wins for employee wellbeing.

Mental Health in the Workplace is one of those topics or ‘buzz phrases’ that often gets bandied around.

Most of us have a general idea of what it means, and many of us can identify both good and poor practices of mental health in the workplace. However, what is sometimes lacking are actual solutions to good workplace mental well-being.
Whether you’re a manager of a large organisation, a locally run business or a charity, good mental well-being and business, go hand in hand and are a win-win all the way around.

Implementing just a few of these will see results, show your employees that you care about their mental well-being and even have positive financial implications too in terms of greater staff retention and a lower absenteeism rate. Plus happier staff work harder! So let’s look at our top 21 solutions to create a happier, mentally healthier workforce.

1. If you’re reading this during Dec, you may be trying to work out the dreaded Christmas Gift Exchange or Secret Santa. Rather than another mug or box of chocolates, why not consider some helpful books or resources. Anything from how to sleep better to how diet impacts mood can all be useful and in some cases life-changing.

2. Does your organisation have its EAP (employee assistance program) Support from financial worries to relationship issues can all be supported through a professional EAP. Organisations such as Response can provide not only mental but also physical support such as physiotherapy for those with aching backs or sore knees.

3. A wellness action plan. If a staff member has opened up about their concerns, it’s disheartening to go through the story again if they change teams or receive a new manager. A wellness action plan is like a passport. It’s a written document which outlines what workplace issues may be triggering (for example deadline stress) or what may be helpful (an extra break in the afternoon.) This document stays with the employee and allows them to share as much or as little as they like with a new manager. The mental health charity MIND has an excellent template to follow for this. https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/5760/mind-guide-for-employees-wellness-action-plans_final.pdf

4. Training Inputs. Response has some terrific workplace mental health inputs on topics such as anxiety in the workplace, having difficult conversations with employees and supporting an employee during bereavement. These can be short and bespoke to your team members and delivered online so if multiple locations want to join in they can. Ideal for a team meeting or if a particular situation has arisen in your team.

5. Visual Displays. Certain locations (the gents and ladies, the break room, etc.) are ideal to put up some eye-catching posters to encourage people to look after themselves or look out for a colleague. The organisation Mental Health First Aid England has a useful ‘triggers and signs’ factsheet which can be downloaded here https://bit.ly/3rBScIG and then printed out to hang up in appropriate localities.

6. Designate mental well-being champions or peer supporters. These are individuals in your organisation who have a particular interest in good workplace mental health. Because they are current employees they also already understand the culture of your company.

They do not need to be therapists or have any sort of degree in mental well-being. Just an interest to support colleagues and a willingness to take some basic training (similar to having a first aider on site) is all that’s required to get started. Groups such as MIND or Mental Health First Aid England https://mhfaengland.org/ or Response can support in setting up such a group within your team.

7. Host a Time to Talk Day.

The organisation Time to Talk https://timetotalkday.co.uk/ has free resources and instructions on how to host a conversation in your company.

Some organisations go all out with stands, videos, free snacks and drinks and bring speakers in to host. In other workplaces, a table with some helpful resources and a bowl of sweets to encourage people to stop and take time to talk about the topic of mental health is all that’s necessary.

8. Be aware of your ‘outsiders for example those on shift patterns or working remotely. They may not get the usual support of an office environment that other staff can benefit from. Hosting training during an evening or overnight shift can be well received because it so rarely happens. Making sure that regular weekly check-ins for those working remotely are held either as a team or a one-to-one is crucial to be able to check in and ensure those not seeing other staff as regularly still feel part of a team and not isolated.

9. Work through the Health & Safety Executive’s ‘Talking Toolkit’ which can be found online. https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/assets/docs/stress-talking-toolkit.pdf This document ensures that topics which affect everyone in the workplace such as lack of control, change, role descriptions and relationships have been thought through and discussed. Organisations such as Response can work through this with teams with your Occupational Health and HR teams to ensure that businesses are in as healthy a space as they can be.

10. Ensure that external resources are widely signposted. For many people, opening up about their mental stresses and strains can feel daunting or embarrassing no matter how much hard work you put into getting your organisation healthy. Therefore, promoting organisations such as MIND https://www.mind.org.uk/ , Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ , CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ CAP (Christians Against Poverty to support with financial difficulties) https://capuk.org/ can all be helpful for those who wish to keep this area of their life private.

11. Financial Concerns. One of the number one reasons for anxiety and stress is financial difficulties and yet it’s one of the least spoken about, especially in the workplace. With the current financial climate, having a speaker come in to share resources or a video link shared around via email for people to watch on their own time that is bespoke for your area or company can be reassuring. Organisations such as CAB https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ , CAP https://capuk.org/ or Step Change https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-advice.aspx can support your employees in this area. Caution against employees going to those who charge a fee for debt advice as this can compound the problem.

12. Having a mental well-being ‘Theme of the Month’ can be useful for those who have a specific area of concern. For example, January can be a tricky time to help with financial stresses after the Christmas credit card bills arrive, February can be a good time to speak about healthy relationships and so on. Having speakers, videos or just resources available on the theme of the month gives each business an opportunity to tackle various topics in a sensitive and useful way.

13. Ensure that colleagues know about the National Signposting Directory https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/6086/annex-g.pdf . Created by the charity MIND, this useful search engine provides a wealth of information for all sorts of concerns, signposting people to local services that could be helpful.

14. Phased returns. If a colleague or employee has been off sick, particularly if the illness was due to their mental health, it can feel challenging to return. A phased return is crucial to a successful return. Contacting the employee before their return, arranging a back-to-work meeting within the first few days (the first day is the gold standard) and ensuring that work is slowly filtered back to the staff member in addition to reduced hours can all help to make the transition as smooth as possible.

15. Lack of clarity can play a major part in disorganisation, unmet expectations and increased stress. From reviewing job descriptions to making sure they are fair and understandable, to assigning work streams to individuals on a big project, how clear are your expectations for your staff? Do they know what they are doing and why, and how does their piece of work fit into the big picture? Taking the time to ensure everyone has the clarity they need is time well spent.

16. Asking the question ‘How Do You Like To Be Line Managed’ This was one of the best questions I was ever asked by a former line manager. He went on to explain that some people like a lot of reassurance, especially at the beginning and others feel that’s micromanaging and prefer to come to their line manager only when they need to.

Understanding that one managerial size doesn’t fit all can increase good connections and relationships and decrease stress and anxiety.

17. Does your organisation have a policy on handling grief or bereavement? In addition to employees needing some time away to handle arrangements, funerals, and deal with their loss there are many other ways an organisation can support them during this unhappy time. Understanding that work is unlikely to be their main focus at the moment, reducing your managerial expectations for a while, writing a note or card, prepping the team for their return, having a training input on grief, jotting down the date of their loss and sending a supportive email at six months and one year saying you’re thinking of them, and signposting them to various grief resources are all helpful ways to ensure they feel supported.

18. Are there strong and healthy boundaries in your workplace? People generally won’t change unacceptable behaviour until that behaviour no longer works for them. Setting boundaries around things like acceptable office banter, coming in on time, meeting deadlines, etc. are vital to making sure the rest of the team feels safe and supported. Doing a ‘boundaries inventory’ which includes listing out times when you or a staff member have felt that their physical, emotional, time and mental boundaries have been violated in some way lets people see that you want their workplace to be fair and safe. This also avoids the accusation of playing favourites.

19. Review the social media set-up in the office. Do people have a group chat on Whatsapp or an Instagram account that they all follow? Social media can create a helpful supportive virtual space but can also lead to cliquish type behaviour, exclusion or even virtual bullying in the workplace. Finding out how people connect online is just as important as seeing how they connect in the office and including social media policies that outline unacceptable behaviour is helpful.

20. Most people would agree that bullying is one of the worse situations an employee can experience in the workplace.

However, what is your bullying policy?

Don’t have one? Then this is one of the first things to institute. Having a clear policy on what constitutes bullying, the process of reporting and how accusations will be resolved keeps a structure around letting unacceptable behaviour get out of hand. A large majority of bullying claims are about the line manager, so reviewing your behaviour, and taking a course on workplace bullying can help drill down into exactly how to stop this from happening.

21. Offering coaching sessions with someone outside the organisation. Many staff are managing their role but feel they could increase their performance in the right direction. Coaching can help all team members to identify their goals, set a vision, create a time frame and then meet their targets. Coaching doesn’t replace supervision or line management but enhances it.

Organisations like Response have qualified coaches who can help set a good vision for your employee’s future and boost morale.

These are just some of the ideas you may wish to consider when improving the mental well-being aspect of your organisation. For further discussions on how to take some of these ideas forward please contact info@responseoh.com