As the HR department of your company, it’s your job to ensure that employees are happy and healthy. This means keeping tabs on how the business is doing, but also understanding what makes individual employees tick. And more importantly: what makes them stressed out? If you can understand why someone might be feeling stressed out, then you can help them work through those challenges and prevent them from becoming problems for your company.
Listen to Employee Feedback in Employee Surveys
Employee surveys are one of the best ways to get employees to talk about their emotional health. And when you ask questions about employee mental health, you’ll see that it doesn’t have to be a sob story or a feel-good session. It can be as simple as asking people if they’re satisfied at work and how they’d rate their managers on a scale from 1 to 10. The responses will give you an idea of how your company is doing in terms of employee satisfaction and where improvements need to be made.
You can also create surveys based on other questions related specifically to mental health:
- Do you feel like management listens when you have concerns?
- Do coworkers treat each other with respect and kindness?
- Are there times when you’ve felt overwhelmed by stress at work recently?
Share What’s Working and What’s Not
When you share your wins, people will understand that you are working towards the greater good. They will be able to see that the company cares about their mental health and is willing to help them find ways to improve it. When there are challenges, it’s essential for everyone in the organization to know what those are so they can be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible.
When discussing successes, try not to focus on what went right but instead think about why it worked out so well in order for future efforts of similar nature to be more successful going forward. For example: “This process worked because we took time during our weekly meetings (the first Thursday) before each project started; we made sure everyone was familiar with what needed doing by when.” Or: “We were able to finish this project ahead of schedule because we kept ourselves accountable by updating our status reports every Monday morning.”
Better Communication
The first step to improving communication about mental health is making sure every employee knows that it’s okay to talk about mental health and that there are resources available for them if they need help. This might include information on how your company deals with mental health issues or a list of relevant articles or videos you can share with employees if they want more info on the subject. It’s also helpful to have clear guidelines in place so people know what’s expected of them when they see something that looks out of the ordinary—and what their options are if they’re struggling themselves.
Provide Resources for Employees Who Need Help
As a company, you can provide resources for your employees who need help. That might mean providing information about how to get that help or even having some of the recommended mental health resources already available in your office. You may also want to include information about how to get help for their families and friends as well. This way, employees won’t feel like they have to go through their entire support system before getting the help they need—they can just pick up the phone and call HR instead!
Create a Positive Company Culture and Recognize Wins
One of the best ways to help employees take care of themselves and their mental health is to create a positive company culture. This can be achieved through recognition, celebration, and support.
- Recognize Employees for Their Contributions
Make sure your employees know that you appreciate them and all they do for the company by recognizing accomplishments in front of others. As a manager, this might mean giving out monthly awards or bonuses at staff meetings or sending customized emails thanking them for their hard work on projects throughout the week. As an employee, remember that recognition does not need to be grandiose—it can be as simple as high-fiving another team member for doing something well!
- Create A Supportive Culture
Creating a supportive work environment is another way you can encourage employees’ mental health by creating an open dialogue about it within your company culture. Whether it’s encouraging people to talk openly about their struggles with mental health or offering buddy systems where coworkers check in on each other when they don’t feel like coming to work one day; these small changes could make all the difference in someone’s life!
Improve Work-Life Balance by Checking Back In With Employees
To better understand how your employees are feeling, you should check back in with them frequently and ask questions that are relevant to their personal well-being. The key is to listen and not make assumptions. You might be surprised by what you hear!
You can use this information to help create a healthy work environment for your team members. For example, if they mention feeling overwhelmed by the workload, consider delegating tasks or offering advice on how they could better prioritize their time at work. Or if an employee tells you that he or she is having trouble sleeping at night due to stress over an upcoming deadline (or other reasons), offer extra flexibility in schedule planning so that he/she doesn’t feel rushed or pressured into working late nights just for a deadline alone.
Conclusion
In today’s workplace, employees are more aware of the importance of mental health. They’re also more willing to talk about it—and that means it’s time for HR leaders to step up and make a change in their own organizations. These six strategies will help you do just that by creating an environment where employees feel supported and encouraged to reach their full potential.
