Tag: mental health

• Mental Health is Wealth, So Start Saving Up Now!

  May 17, 2022

  Tags: mental health, Mental Health Awareness

  

  “Suck it up,” “cheer up,” “snap out of it,” “but you don’t look sick”- these are just some of the phras­es that well-mean­ing friends and fam­i­ly tell loved ones strug­gling with men­tal health issues. Research shows that one in five adults strug­gle with men­tal health con­di­tions.  Men­tal health strug­gles include depres­sion, bipo­lar dis­or­der, anx­i­ety, schiz­o­phre­nia, and eat­ing disorders.

  Men­tal ill­ness is also becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­mon among teenagers; stud­ies indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly one in five teens between ages twelve and eigh­teen are diag­nosed with a men­tal health dis­or­der.  These issues deeply impact day-to-day liv­ing and may also affect the abil­i­ty to relate to oth­ers.  When your men­tal health suf­fers, every­thing in your life will suf­fer as a result.

  What is Men­tal Health?

  Men­tal health includes our emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well-being.  It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps deter­mine how we han­dle stress, relate to oth­ers, and make choices.

  The fact is, a men­tal ill­ness is a dis­or­der of the brain – your body’s most impor­tant organ.   Like most dis­eases of the body, men­tal ill­ness has many caus­es – from genet­ics to oth­er bio­log­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal and social/cultural fac­tors.  And just as with most dis­eases, men­tal ill­ness­es are no one’s fault.  For many peo­ple, recov­ery – includ­ing hav­ing mean­ing­ful roles in social life, work and school – is pos­si­ble, espe­cial­ly when you start treat­ment ear­ly and play a strong role in your own recov­ery process.

  What Are the Warn­ing Signs?

  Each ill­ness has its own symp­toms, but com­mon signs of men­tal ill­ness can include the following:

  • Avoid­ing friends and social activities
  • Feel­ing exces­sive­ly sad or low
  • Feel­ing help­less or hopeless
  • Extreme mood changes
  • Think­ing of harm­ing your­self or others
  • Inabil­i­ty to per­form dai­ly tasks like tak­ing care of your kids or get­ting to work or school
  • Feel­ing numb or like noth­ing matters
  • Overuse of sub­stances like alco­hol or drugs
  • Hav­ing unex­plained aches and pains such as headaches or stom­ach aches
  • Changes in sleep­ing habits or feel­ing tired and low energy
  • Feel­ing unusu­al­ly con­fused, for­get­ful, on edge, angry, upset, wor­ried, or scared

  What Are Some Things You Can Do to Look After Your Men­tal Health?

  • Talk About Your Feel­ings – Just being lis­tened to can help you feel sup­port­ed and less alone. Talk­ing with a friend or loved one is help­ful but remem­ber, ther­a­pists are not only for those in the mid­dle of cri­sis — they’re incred­i­bly ben­e­fi­cial for peo­ple in all stages of life
  • Exer­cise reg­u­lar­ly – Exer­cise releas­es endor­phins, which have mood-boost­ing effects. Aim to exer­cise about 30+ min­utes at least five days per week
  • Eat Well – Your brain needs a mix of nutri­ents to stay healthy and func­tion well, just like the oth­er organs in your body
  • Stay Con­nect­ed with Fam­i­ly and Friends – Close, qual­i­ty rela­tion­ships are key for a hap­py, healthy life
  • Take a Break – a change of scenery or pace is good for your men­tal health
  • Get Out­side to Enjoy 15 Min­utes of Sun­shine – Sun­light syn­the­sizes Vit­a­min D which experts believe is a mood elevator
  • Send a Thank You Note – Let some­one know why you appre­ci­ate them. Writ­ten expres­sions of grat­i­tude are linked to increased happiness
  • Prac­tice For­give­ness – Peo­ple who for­give have bet­ter men­tal health and report being more sat­is­fied with their lives
  • Pur­sue Your Pas­sions – Enjoy­ing your­self can help beat stress and achiev­ing some­thing boosts your self-esteem
  • Sleep – Most adults need around 8 hours of sleep each night so try to make sure you’re get­ting enough shut-eye

  Men­tal health is undoubt­ed­ly just as inte­gral as phys­i­cal health but it’s some­thing that we often don’t pri­or­i­tize.  We all expe­ri­ence times when we feel stressed or over­whelmed but if these feel­ings per­sist, it’s time to slow down and re-eval­u­ate your men­tal wellbeing.

  Most peo­ple are afraid to ask for help, but seek­ing help is actu­al­ly a sign of strength, not weak­ness.  If you or some­one you know is strug­gling with their men­tal health, please reach out to a local men­tal health professional.

• What is Mental Health and Wellness in HR?

  May 9, 2022

  Tags: health, mental health, well-being

  

  Men­tal health and well­ness in HR are becom­ing top pri­or­i­ties for employ­ers. In fact, HR lead­ers named men­tal health and well­be­ing as their third biggest prob­lem, behind the labor short­age and retain­ing tal­ent, in the lat­est HR Exchange Net­work State of HR report. In addi­tion, those sur­veyed also said burnout was the top con­se­quence of the pan­dem­ic. “Blur­ring of work and per­son­al life” and “burnout” tied, with 28% of the vote each, as the biggest chal­lenges to employ­ee engage­ment. And 30%  of respon­dents said employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence was their top priority.

  Clear­ly, men­tal health and well­ness is relat­ed to the employ­ee expe­ri­ence, and the expec­ta­tions in the new nor­mal require HR lead­ers to pro­vide sup­port, empa­thy, and guid­ance for help­ing those who need it. To begin, they need to under­stand the nuances of men­tal health and well­ness.

  

  Defining Mental Health and Wellness

  A first step for HR lead­ers is to break­down men­tal health and well­ness to under­stand the dif­fer­ences, so they can best address “men­tal health” and “well­ness.”

  What Is Mental Health?

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines men­tal health as the emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well­be­ing of an indi­vid­ual. Obvi­ous­ly, one’s men­tal health con­tributes to how he thinks, feels, and acts, and it relates to his resilien­cy and rela­tion­ships with others.

  Con­sid­er­ing this def­i­n­i­tion, HR lead­ers can focus on insur­ance that cov­ers men­tal health con­di­tions and con­nect­ing peo­ple to appro­pri­ate spe­cial­ists just as they would for employ­ees with phys­i­cal ail­ments, for exam­ple. Tend­ing to men­tal health needs is slight­ly dif­fer­ent than those of wellness.

  What Is Wellness?

  On the oth­er hand, well­ness refers to the total­i­ty of health – both men­tal and phys­i­cal – of an employ­ee, accord­ing to the Soci­ety for Human Resource Man­age­ment. When employ­ers focus on well­ness, they are aim­ing to pro­vide employ­ees with pre­ven­ta­tive solu­tions to avoid ill­ness­es and long-term health prob­lems. For exam­ple, gym mem­ber­ships, yoga class­es, and med­i­ta­tion ses­sions are among the ways HR lead­ers may sup­port the well­ness of workers.

  Men­tal health refers to the con­di­tion of an employee’s state of mind, where­as well­ness refers to his or her gen­er­al health. Some­times, even those in HR use the word well­be­ing inter­change­ably with well­ness, but there is a dis­tinc­tion. Well­be­ing refers to job sat­is­fac­tion or one’s con­tent­ment at work. Cer­tain­ly, well­be­ing is relat­ed to men­tal health and well­ness. If employ­ees are expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, high stress, or burnout, which are asso­ci­at­ed with both men­tal health and well­ness, they may expe­ri­ence neg­a­tive feel­ings at work. There­fore, their well­be­ing also will be at risk.

  HR’s Responsibility for Mental Health and Wellness

  The pan­dem­ic revealed the need for men­tal health and well­ness pro­grams at work­places. Both mind and body need­ed sooth­ing, and HR pro­fes­sion­als took the lead in pro­vid­ing solu­tions to work­ers. More than two years after the start of the pan­dem­ic, they are con­tin­u­ing to enhance their offerings.

  Here are some rel­e­vant ben­e­fits that employ­ers may pro­vide, and HR lead­ers can consider:

  Medical Insurance that Covers Mental Health

  This first ben­e­fit is the most obvi­ous one, and it refers to the employ­er choos­ing insur­ance options that cov­er men­tal health as robust­ly as they do phys­i­cal health.

  Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines an EAP as a “vol­un­tary, work-based pro­gram that offers free and con­fi­den­tial assess­ments, short-term coun­sel­ing, refer­rals, and fol­low-up ser­vices to employ­ees who have per­son­al and/or work-relat­ed prob­lems.” These pro­grams may address stress, sub­stance abuse, or fam­i­ly dis­cord, for example.

  Mental Health First Aiders

  This is a pro­fes­sion­al who works on staff or on call for a busi­ness, so employ­ees always have some­one to sup­port them with any men­tal health con­cerns, accord­ing to verywellhealth.

  Training for Managers, Leaders, and Peers

  Some com­pa­nies are train­ing their teams to rec­og­nize poten­tial men­tal health issues in their col­leagues and to devel­op empa­thy and emo­tion­al IQ.

  Yoga, Meditation, Workshops, Zen Rooms, etc.

  These are a few exam­ples of pro­grams designed to help employ­ees relieve stress and stay focused.

  Mental Health Days

  Some com­pa­nies are includ­ing men­tal health days in their paid time off menu. This allows peo­ple the chance to stay home as they would for a sick day.

  Parameters around Work Hours/Flexibility/Respecting People’s Time

  Many employ­ers are shar­ing guide­lines about allow­ing employ­ees flex­i­bil­i­ty around when and where they work or dur­ing what hours they can com­mu­ni­cate with them about work, etc. The idea is to help peo­ple bet­ter bal­ance work and life to give them the time and space nec­es­sary to recharge.

  Why Should HR Leaders Care about Mental Health and Wellness?

  The answer about why any leader should care about employ­ees’ well­ness seems obvi­ous. It’s the right thing to do. But it also relates to busi­ness out­comes. Poor men­tal health and well­ness among employ­ees can pose grave risks to an employ­er. These are the threats:

  • Decreased Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty – Peo­ple are not as inter­est­ed in get­ting the job done if their deal­ing with men­tal health issues.
  • Res­ig­na­tion – Men­tal health and well­ness is clear­ly con­nect­ed to job sat­is­fac­tion and well­be­ing. Peo­ple might quit if they are suffering.
  • Neg­a­tive Impact on the Bot­tom Line – If employ­ees are not pro­duc­tive or engaged, the com­pa­ny will not be as suc­cess­ful. If there is much turnover, the com­pa­ny will lose mon­ey in recruit­ing, hir­ing, train­ing, and patient­ly wait­ing for new hires to get up to speed. All these con­se­quences can influ­ence rev­enue and busi­ness outcomes.

  How Work Can Affect Employee Wellness

  Employ­ees spend a large amount of time work­ing. Tox­ic work­places obvi­ous­ly can dam­age one’s men­tal state, where­as a psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly safe envi­ron­ment can moti­vate peo­ple. Any­one expe­ri­enc­ing bul­ly­ing or harass­ment at work may feel more anx­i­ety or stress. That’s undoubt­ed­ly true. But hav­ing heavy work­loads, tight dead­lines, and oth­er stress­ful per­son­al sit­u­a­tions can lead to burnout. Poten­tial­ly, these fac­tors cut into the psy­cho­log­i­cal con­tract between employ­ee and employ­er. This is con­cern­ing to HR leaders.

  The Mayo Clin­ic says job burnout is a type of work-relat­ed stress that results in a state of phys­i­cal or emo­tion­al exhaus­tion that can influ­ence an employee’s self-worth and sense of iden­ti­ty. The pan­dem­ic and con­se­quen­tial labor short­age put burnout in the spot­light and forced employ­ers to con­front it. Now, HR lead­ers are work­ing to com­bat and pre­vent burnout as part of their over­all men­tal health and well­ness strategies.

  Tak­ing steps to reduce hours and work­loads, man­ag­ing expec­ta­tions, and train­ing man­agers to be bet­ter, more empa­thet­ic lead­ers are among the ways they are address­ing the prob­lem. HR Exchange Net­work rec­og­nized this new oblig­a­tion of Human Resources in its recent tal­ent man­age­ment report:

  Com­pa­nies that show they tru­ly care about the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees will get noticed. Those who are flex­i­ble and under­stand­ing when peo­ple are hav­ing a tough time per­son­al­ly will win hearts. “Com­pa­nies need to switch their focus on engage­ment to expe­ri­ence. Maya Angelou said it the best, ‘Peo­ple for­get what you tell them. They don’t for­get how you make them feel,’ ” says Sebastien Girard, Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer at Cen­tu­ra Health.

  HR lead­ers are helm­ing efforts to address men­tal health and well­ness of employ­ees. They are con­fronting these issues to improve employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence and the work cul­ture. Employ­ers rec­og­nize the link between the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees and the suc­cess of their business.

  In addi­tion, they real­ize this is the right thing to do, which is vital at a time when employ­er brand is of the utmost impor­tance, and every­one is try­ing to bet­ter main­tain work-life bal­ance. The pan­dem­ic was the spark for employ­ers giv­ing atten­tion to these issues, but the focus on help­ing employ­ees main­tain their men­tal health and well­ness will continue.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• 6 Ways to Reduce Burnout When You’re Understaffed

  March 7, 2022

  Tags: Employee Burnout, Employee Experience, mental health, wellness

  Question

  We’ve been both super busy and under­staffed recent­ly. Is there any­thing we can do dur­ing this time to help our employ­ees avoid extra stress or burnout before we can hire more employees?

  Answer

  Yes. Here are a few things you can do to make this time run as smooth­ly and stress-free as possible:

  Remove nonessen­tial work duties: For the posi­tions that seem most stretched, make a list of tasks that could be put on hold (or per­haps reas­signed). You can invite input from employ­ees, too, but I’d rec­om­mend acknowl­edg­ing that they’re over­whelmed and say­ing that you’ll do your best to alle­vi­ate some of the pres­sure. Then hold off on nonessen­tial tasks until busi­ness slows down or you’ve increased your headcount.

  Allow for flex­i­ble sched­ul­ing: If employ­ees need to work longer hours on some days dur­ing the week, con­sid­er allow­ing them to work few­er hours on oth­er days of the week. Note that some states have dai­ly over­time, spread-of-hours, or split-shift laws.

  Bud­get for over­time: Employ­ees may need to work extra hours to keep up with the cur­rent demands of their job, so allow them to work over­time if you (and they) can swing it. If you’re pret­ty sure over­time will be nec­es­sary, inform employ­ees of that ahead of time, so they can plan accordingly.

  Ensure all equip­ment is fast and reli­able: It’s impor­tant to iden­ti­fy, trou­bleshoot, and cor­rect any slow or non­work­ing equip­ment issues (such as lap­tops, inter­net hard­ware, cash reg­is­ters, or vehi­cles). If not resolved, these issues can slow down work and add to everyone’s stress.

  Look for ways to auto­mate: Con­sid­er whether any of your employ­ees’ man­u­al and time-con­sum­ing tasks could be elim­i­nat­ed or sim­pli­fied with the use of new or dif­fer­ent technology.

  Increase safe­ty pro­to­cols: Employ­ee absences relat­ed to COVID have cre­at­ed a sig­nif­i­cant strain for many employ­ers dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Shoring up your safe­ty pro­to­cols may reduce the risk of COVID-relat­ed absences because of sick­ness or expo­sure. Depend­ing on your cir­cum­stances, exam­ples include improv­ing ven­ti­la­tion, encour­ag­ing or requir­ing vac­ci­na­tion, requir­ing employ­ees to wear masks, and allow­ing employ­ees to work remote­ly when possible.

  By Megan Lemire

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on Mineral

• What Employees Want: Well-Being Programs

  February 16, 2022

  Tags: Healthy Habits, mental health, well-being

  

  Work­place well­ness pro­grams have increased in the past sev­er­al years to pro­mote healthy diets and lifestyle, exer­cise and oth­er behav­iors such as quit­ting smok­ing.  As of 2020, most employ­ers had well­ness pro­grams of some kind, includ­ing 53% of small firms (those with 3–200 employ­ees) and 81% of large com­pa­nies.  Since employ­ees spend most of their wak­ing hours on the job, well­ness pro­grams seem to be a nat­ur­al fit to try to pro­mote healthy changes in behav­ior.  But, in 2022, employ­ees want more; many work­ers are look­ing for employ­ers who show authen­tic con­cern for their well-being.

  Well-being is about how our lives are going.  It’s not only about health and hap­pi­ness but also about liv­ing life to its fullest poten­tial.  In fact, data shows that employ­ees of all gen­er­a­tions rank “the orga­ni­za­tion cares about the employ­ees’ well-being” in their top three criteria.

  Finan­cial stress soared dur­ing the pan­dem­ic but so did reg­u­lar stress, too.  Men­tal health strug­gles such as anx­i­ety, depres­sion, and sub­stance abuse are also climb­ing.  These are expen­sive issues to ignore both in terms of the human suf­fer­ing but also the company’s bot­tom line: Depres­sion alone costs an esti­mat­ed $210.5 bil­lion per year.  These costs are due to absen­teeism (missed work days) and pre­sen­teeism (reduced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty at work) as well as direct med­ical costs (out­pa­tient and inpa­tient med­ical ser­vices and phar­ma­cy costs).

  Employ­ers must rec­og­nize the inter­re­la­tion­ship between the phys­i­cal, finan­cial, work and well-being com­po­nents of employ­ees’ lives.  For exam­ple, employ­ees who need help with their finan­cial well-being are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less like­ly to be phys­i­cal­ly healthy and more like­ly to report feel­ing stressed or anx­ious which can impact pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and job per­for­mance.  Vice Pres­i­dent for Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Fideli­ty Invest­ments in Boston, Mike Sham­rell,  rec­og­nizes the need for all dimen­sions of well­ness.  “It’s tough to be well in one area when you’re unwell in anoth­er,” he said.

  Well-being is often asso­ci­at­ed with gym mem­ber­ships and green smooth­ies but it is much more than that; it is a result of many dif­fer­ent aspects of one’s life.  Here are 5 com­mon dimen­sions of well-being that can be addressed through a work­place well­ness program:

  • Emotional/Mental Health – Under­stand­ing your feel­ings and cop­ing with stress.
  • Phys­i­cal Health – Dis­cov­er­ing how self-care can improve your life and productivity.
  • Finan­cial Health – Suc­cess­ful­ly man­ag­ing your money.
  • Social Con­nect­ed­ness – Cre­at­ing and being a part of a sup­port network.
  • Occu­pa­tion­al Well-Being– Feel­ing appre­ci­at­ed at work and sat­is­fied in your contributions.

  Great employ­ees want great employ­ers.  Com­pa­nies that want cre­ative, high-per­form­ing teams must be will­ing to sup­port work­ers both in and out of the office.  Well-being has a major influ­ence on an employee’s per­for­mance and sat­is­fac­tion; employ­ees who feel val­ued and appre­ci­at­ed are more invest­ed in their com­pa­ny in return.

• Mental Health is Wealth, So Start Saving Up Now!

  May 17, 2022

  Tags: mental health, Mental Health Awareness

  

  “Suck it up,” “cheer up,” “snap out of it,” “but you don’t look sick”- these are just some of the phras­es that well-mean­ing friends and fam­i­ly tell loved ones strug­gling with men­tal health issues. Research shows that one in five adults strug­gle with men­tal health con­di­tions.  Men­tal health strug­gles include depres­sion, bipo­lar dis­or­der, anx­i­ety, schiz­o­phre­nia, and eat­ing disorders.

  Men­tal ill­ness is also becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­mon among teenagers; stud­ies indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly one in five teens between ages twelve and eigh­teen are diag­nosed with a men­tal health dis­or­der.  These issues deeply impact day-to-day liv­ing and may also affect the abil­i­ty to relate to oth­ers.  When your men­tal health suf­fers, every­thing in your life will suf­fer as a result.

  What is Men­tal Health?

  Men­tal health includes our emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well-being.  It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps deter­mine how we han­dle stress, relate to oth­ers, and make choices.

  The fact is, a men­tal ill­ness is a dis­or­der of the brain – your body’s most impor­tant organ.   Like most dis­eases of the body, men­tal ill­ness has many caus­es – from genet­ics to oth­er bio­log­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal and social/cultural fac­tors.  And just as with most dis­eases, men­tal ill­ness­es are no one’s fault.  For many peo­ple, recov­ery – includ­ing hav­ing mean­ing­ful roles in social life, work and school – is pos­si­ble, espe­cial­ly when you start treat­ment ear­ly and play a strong role in your own recov­ery process.

  What Are the Warn­ing Signs?

  Each ill­ness has its own symp­toms, but com­mon signs of men­tal ill­ness can include the following:

  • Avoid­ing friends and social activities
  • Feel­ing exces­sive­ly sad or low
  • Feel­ing help­less or hopeless
  • Extreme mood changes
  • Think­ing of harm­ing your­self or others
  • Inabil­i­ty to per­form dai­ly tasks like tak­ing care of your kids or get­ting to work or school
  • Feel­ing numb or like noth­ing matters
  • Overuse of sub­stances like alco­hol or drugs
  • Hav­ing unex­plained aches and pains such as headaches or stom­ach aches
  • Changes in sleep­ing habits or feel­ing tired and low energy
  • Feel­ing unusu­al­ly con­fused, for­get­ful, on edge, angry, upset, wor­ried, or scared

  What Are Some Things You Can Do to Look After Your Men­tal Health?

  • Talk About Your Feel­ings – Just being lis­tened to can help you feel sup­port­ed and less alone. Talk­ing with a friend or loved one is help­ful but remem­ber, ther­a­pists are not only for those in the mid­dle of cri­sis — they’re incred­i­bly ben­e­fi­cial for peo­ple in all stages of life
  • Exer­cise reg­u­lar­ly – Exer­cise releas­es endor­phins, which have mood-boost­ing effects. Aim to exer­cise about 30+ min­utes at least five days per week
  • Eat Well – Your brain needs a mix of nutri­ents to stay healthy and func­tion well, just like the oth­er organs in your body
  • Stay Con­nect­ed with Fam­i­ly and Friends – Close, qual­i­ty rela­tion­ships are key for a hap­py, healthy life
  • Take a Break – a change of scenery or pace is good for your men­tal health
  • Get Out­side to Enjoy 15 Min­utes of Sun­shine – Sun­light syn­the­sizes Vit­a­min D which experts believe is a mood elevator
  • Send a Thank You Note – Let some­one know why you appre­ci­ate them. Writ­ten expres­sions of grat­i­tude are linked to increased happiness
  • Prac­tice For­give­ness – Peo­ple who for­give have bet­ter men­tal health and report being more sat­is­fied with their lives
  • Pur­sue Your Pas­sions – Enjoy­ing your­self can help beat stress and achiev­ing some­thing boosts your self-esteem
  • Sleep – Most adults need around 8 hours of sleep each night so try to make sure you’re get­ting enough shut-eye

  Men­tal health is undoubt­ed­ly just as inte­gral as phys­i­cal health but it’s some­thing that we often don’t pri­or­i­tize.  We all expe­ri­ence times when we feel stressed or over­whelmed but if these feel­ings per­sist, it’s time to slow down and re-eval­u­ate your men­tal wellbeing.

  Most peo­ple are afraid to ask for help, but seek­ing help is actu­al­ly a sign of strength, not weak­ness.  If you or some­one you know is strug­gling with their men­tal health, please reach out to a local men­tal health professional.

• What is Mental Health and Wellness in HR?

  May 9, 2022

  Tags: health, mental health, well-being

  

  Men­tal health and well­ness in HR are becom­ing top pri­or­i­ties for employ­ers. In fact, HR lead­ers named men­tal health and well­be­ing as their third biggest prob­lem, behind the labor short­age and retain­ing tal­ent, in the lat­est HR Exchange Net­work State of HR report. In addi­tion, those sur­veyed also said burnout was the top con­se­quence of the pan­dem­ic. “Blur­ring of work and per­son­al life” and “burnout” tied, with 28% of the vote each, as the biggest chal­lenges to employ­ee engage­ment. And 30%  of respon­dents said employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence was their top priority.

  Clear­ly, men­tal health and well­ness is relat­ed to the employ­ee expe­ri­ence, and the expec­ta­tions in the new nor­mal require HR lead­ers to pro­vide sup­port, empa­thy, and guid­ance for help­ing those who need it. To begin, they need to under­stand the nuances of men­tal health and well­ness.

  

  Defining Mental Health and Wellness

  A first step for HR lead­ers is to break­down men­tal health and well­ness to under­stand the dif­fer­ences, so they can best address “men­tal health” and “well­ness.”

  What Is Mental Health?

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines men­tal health as the emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well­be­ing of an indi­vid­ual. Obvi­ous­ly, one’s men­tal health con­tributes to how he thinks, feels, and acts, and it relates to his resilien­cy and rela­tion­ships with others.

  Con­sid­er­ing this def­i­n­i­tion, HR lead­ers can focus on insur­ance that cov­ers men­tal health con­di­tions and con­nect­ing peo­ple to appro­pri­ate spe­cial­ists just as they would for employ­ees with phys­i­cal ail­ments, for exam­ple. Tend­ing to men­tal health needs is slight­ly dif­fer­ent than those of wellness.

  What Is Wellness?

  On the oth­er hand, well­ness refers to the total­i­ty of health – both men­tal and phys­i­cal – of an employ­ee, accord­ing to the Soci­ety for Human Resource Man­age­ment. When employ­ers focus on well­ness, they are aim­ing to pro­vide employ­ees with pre­ven­ta­tive solu­tions to avoid ill­ness­es and long-term health prob­lems. For exam­ple, gym mem­ber­ships, yoga class­es, and med­i­ta­tion ses­sions are among the ways HR lead­ers may sup­port the well­ness of workers.

  Men­tal health refers to the con­di­tion of an employee’s state of mind, where­as well­ness refers to his or her gen­er­al health. Some­times, even those in HR use the word well­be­ing inter­change­ably with well­ness, but there is a dis­tinc­tion. Well­be­ing refers to job sat­is­fac­tion or one’s con­tent­ment at work. Cer­tain­ly, well­be­ing is relat­ed to men­tal health and well­ness. If employ­ees are expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, high stress, or burnout, which are asso­ci­at­ed with both men­tal health and well­ness, they may expe­ri­ence neg­a­tive feel­ings at work. There­fore, their well­be­ing also will be at risk.

  HR’s Responsibility for Mental Health and Wellness

  The pan­dem­ic revealed the need for men­tal health and well­ness pro­grams at work­places. Both mind and body need­ed sooth­ing, and HR pro­fes­sion­als took the lead in pro­vid­ing solu­tions to work­ers. More than two years after the start of the pan­dem­ic, they are con­tin­u­ing to enhance their offerings.

  Here are some rel­e­vant ben­e­fits that employ­ers may pro­vide, and HR lead­ers can consider:

  Medical Insurance that Covers Mental Health

  This first ben­e­fit is the most obvi­ous one, and it refers to the employ­er choos­ing insur­ance options that cov­er men­tal health as robust­ly as they do phys­i­cal health.

  Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines an EAP as a “vol­un­tary, work-based pro­gram that offers free and con­fi­den­tial assess­ments, short-term coun­sel­ing, refer­rals, and fol­low-up ser­vices to employ­ees who have per­son­al and/or work-relat­ed prob­lems.” These pro­grams may address stress, sub­stance abuse, or fam­i­ly dis­cord, for example.

  Mental Health First Aiders

  This is a pro­fes­sion­al who works on staff or on call for a busi­ness, so employ­ees always have some­one to sup­port them with any men­tal health con­cerns, accord­ing to verywellhealth.

  Training for Managers, Leaders, and Peers

  Some com­pa­nies are train­ing their teams to rec­og­nize poten­tial men­tal health issues in their col­leagues and to devel­op empa­thy and emo­tion­al IQ.

  Yoga, Meditation, Workshops, Zen Rooms, etc.

  These are a few exam­ples of pro­grams designed to help employ­ees relieve stress and stay focused.

  Mental Health Days

  Some com­pa­nies are includ­ing men­tal health days in their paid time off menu. This allows peo­ple the chance to stay home as they would for a sick day.

  Parameters around Work Hours/Flexibility/Respecting People’s Time

  Many employ­ers are shar­ing guide­lines about allow­ing employ­ees flex­i­bil­i­ty around when and where they work or dur­ing what hours they can com­mu­ni­cate with them about work, etc. The idea is to help peo­ple bet­ter bal­ance work and life to give them the time and space nec­es­sary to recharge.

  Why Should HR Leaders Care about Mental Health and Wellness?

  The answer about why any leader should care about employ­ees’ well­ness seems obvi­ous. It’s the right thing to do. But it also relates to busi­ness out­comes. Poor men­tal health and well­ness among employ­ees can pose grave risks to an employ­er. These are the threats:

  • Decreased Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty – Peo­ple are not as inter­est­ed in get­ting the job done if their deal­ing with men­tal health issues.
  • Res­ig­na­tion – Men­tal health and well­ness is clear­ly con­nect­ed to job sat­is­fac­tion and well­be­ing. Peo­ple might quit if they are suffering.
  • Neg­a­tive Impact on the Bot­tom Line – If employ­ees are not pro­duc­tive or engaged, the com­pa­ny will not be as suc­cess­ful. If there is much turnover, the com­pa­ny will lose mon­ey in recruit­ing, hir­ing, train­ing, and patient­ly wait­ing for new hires to get up to speed. All these con­se­quences can influ­ence rev­enue and busi­ness outcomes.

  How Work Can Affect Employee Wellness

  Employ­ees spend a large amount of time work­ing. Tox­ic work­places obvi­ous­ly can dam­age one’s men­tal state, where­as a psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly safe envi­ron­ment can moti­vate peo­ple. Any­one expe­ri­enc­ing bul­ly­ing or harass­ment at work may feel more anx­i­ety or stress. That’s undoubt­ed­ly true. But hav­ing heavy work­loads, tight dead­lines, and oth­er stress­ful per­son­al sit­u­a­tions can lead to burnout. Poten­tial­ly, these fac­tors cut into the psy­cho­log­i­cal con­tract between employ­ee and employ­er. This is con­cern­ing to HR leaders.

  The Mayo Clin­ic says job burnout is a type of work-relat­ed stress that results in a state of phys­i­cal or emo­tion­al exhaus­tion that can influ­ence an employee’s self-worth and sense of iden­ti­ty. The pan­dem­ic and con­se­quen­tial labor short­age put burnout in the spot­light and forced employ­ers to con­front it. Now, HR lead­ers are work­ing to com­bat and pre­vent burnout as part of their over­all men­tal health and well­ness strategies.

  Tak­ing steps to reduce hours and work­loads, man­ag­ing expec­ta­tions, and train­ing man­agers to be bet­ter, more empa­thet­ic lead­ers are among the ways they are address­ing the prob­lem. HR Exchange Net­work rec­og­nized this new oblig­a­tion of Human Resources in its recent tal­ent man­age­ment report:

  Com­pa­nies that show they tru­ly care about the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees will get noticed. Those who are flex­i­ble and under­stand­ing when peo­ple are hav­ing a tough time per­son­al­ly will win hearts. “Com­pa­nies need to switch their focus on engage­ment to expe­ri­ence. Maya Angelou said it the best, ‘Peo­ple for­get what you tell them. They don’t for­get how you make them feel,’ ” says Sebastien Girard, Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer at Cen­tu­ra Health.

  HR lead­ers are helm­ing efforts to address men­tal health and well­ness of employ­ees. They are con­fronting these issues to improve employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence and the work cul­ture. Employ­ers rec­og­nize the link between the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees and the suc­cess of their business.

  In addi­tion, they real­ize this is the right thing to do, which is vital at a time when employ­er brand is of the utmost impor­tance, and every­one is try­ing to bet­ter main­tain work-life bal­ance. The pan­dem­ic was the spark for employ­ers giv­ing atten­tion to these issues, but the focus on help­ing employ­ees main­tain their men­tal health and well­ness will continue.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• 6 Ways to Reduce Burnout When You’re Understaffed

  March 7, 2022

  Tags: Employee Burnout, Employee Experience, mental health, wellness

  Question

  We’ve been both super busy and under­staffed recent­ly. Is there any­thing we can do dur­ing this time to help our employ­ees avoid extra stress or burnout before we can hire more employees?

  Answer

  Yes. Here are a few things you can do to make this time run as smooth­ly and stress-free as possible:

  Remove nonessen­tial work duties: For the posi­tions that seem most stretched, make a list of tasks that could be put on hold (or per­haps reas­signed). You can invite input from employ­ees, too, but I’d rec­om­mend acknowl­edg­ing that they’re over­whelmed and say­ing that you’ll do your best to alle­vi­ate some of the pres­sure. Then hold off on nonessen­tial tasks until busi­ness slows down or you’ve increased your headcount.

  Allow for flex­i­ble sched­ul­ing: If employ­ees need to work longer hours on some days dur­ing the week, con­sid­er allow­ing them to work few­er hours on oth­er days of the week. Note that some states have dai­ly over­time, spread-of-hours, or split-shift laws.

  Bud­get for over­time: Employ­ees may need to work extra hours to keep up with the cur­rent demands of their job, so allow them to work over­time if you (and they) can swing it. If you’re pret­ty sure over­time will be nec­es­sary, inform employ­ees of that ahead of time, so they can plan accordingly.

  Ensure all equip­ment is fast and reli­able: It’s impor­tant to iden­ti­fy, trou­bleshoot, and cor­rect any slow or non­work­ing equip­ment issues (such as lap­tops, inter­net hard­ware, cash reg­is­ters, or vehi­cles). If not resolved, these issues can slow down work and add to everyone’s stress.

  Look for ways to auto­mate: Con­sid­er whether any of your employ­ees’ man­u­al and time-con­sum­ing tasks could be elim­i­nat­ed or sim­pli­fied with the use of new or dif­fer­ent technology.

  Increase safe­ty pro­to­cols: Employ­ee absences relat­ed to COVID have cre­at­ed a sig­nif­i­cant strain for many employ­ers dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Shoring up your safe­ty pro­to­cols may reduce the risk of COVID-relat­ed absences because of sick­ness or expo­sure. Depend­ing on your cir­cum­stances, exam­ples include improv­ing ven­ti­la­tion, encour­ag­ing or requir­ing vac­ci­na­tion, requir­ing employ­ees to wear masks, and allow­ing employ­ees to work remote­ly when possible.

  By Megan Lemire

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on Mineral

• What Employees Want: Well-Being Programs

  February 16, 2022

  Tags: Healthy Habits, mental health, well-being

  

  Work­place well­ness pro­grams have increased in the past sev­er­al years to pro­mote healthy diets and lifestyle, exer­cise and oth­er behav­iors such as quit­ting smok­ing.  As of 2020, most employ­ers had well­ness pro­grams of some kind, includ­ing 53% of small firms (those with 3–200 employ­ees) and 81% of large com­pa­nies.  Since employ­ees spend most of their wak­ing hours on the job, well­ness pro­grams seem to be a nat­ur­al fit to try to pro­mote healthy changes in behav­ior.  But, in 2022, employ­ees want more; many work­ers are look­ing for employ­ers who show authen­tic con­cern for their well-being.

  Well-being is about how our lives are going.  It’s not only about health and hap­pi­ness but also about liv­ing life to its fullest poten­tial.  In fact, data shows that employ­ees of all gen­er­a­tions rank “the orga­ni­za­tion cares about the employ­ees’ well-being” in their top three criteria.

  Finan­cial stress soared dur­ing the pan­dem­ic but so did reg­u­lar stress, too.  Men­tal health strug­gles such as anx­i­ety, depres­sion, and sub­stance abuse are also climb­ing.  These are expen­sive issues to ignore both in terms of the human suf­fer­ing but also the company’s bot­tom line: Depres­sion alone costs an esti­mat­ed $210.5 bil­lion per year.  These costs are due to absen­teeism (missed work days) and pre­sen­teeism (reduced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty at work) as well as direct med­ical costs (out­pa­tient and inpa­tient med­ical ser­vices and phar­ma­cy costs).

  Employ­ers must rec­og­nize the inter­re­la­tion­ship between the phys­i­cal, finan­cial, work and well-being com­po­nents of employ­ees’ lives.  For exam­ple, employ­ees who need help with their finan­cial well-being are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less like­ly to be phys­i­cal­ly healthy and more like­ly to report feel­ing stressed or anx­ious which can impact pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and job per­for­mance.  Vice Pres­i­dent for Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Fideli­ty Invest­ments in Boston, Mike Sham­rell,  rec­og­nizes the need for all dimen­sions of well­ness.  “It’s tough to be well in one area when you’re unwell in anoth­er,” he said.

  Well-being is often asso­ci­at­ed with gym mem­ber­ships and green smooth­ies but it is much more than that; it is a result of many dif­fer­ent aspects of one’s life.  Here are 5 com­mon dimen­sions of well-being that can be addressed through a work­place well­ness program:

  • Emotional/Mental Health – Under­stand­ing your feel­ings and cop­ing with stress.
  • Phys­i­cal Health – Dis­cov­er­ing how self-care can improve your life and productivity.
  • Finan­cial Health – Suc­cess­ful­ly man­ag­ing your money.
  • Social Con­nect­ed­ness – Cre­at­ing and being a part of a sup­port network.
  • Occu­pa­tion­al Well-Being– Feel­ing appre­ci­at­ed at work and sat­is­fied in your contributions.

  Great employ­ees want great employ­ers.  Com­pa­nies that want cre­ative, high-per­form­ing teams must be will­ing to sup­port work­ers both in and out of the office.  Well-being has a major influ­ence on an employee’s per­for­mance and sat­is­fac­tion; employ­ees who feel val­ued and appre­ci­at­ed are more invest­ed in their com­pa­ny in return.