Mental Health at Work - Advice for Leaders

Global Events and Ongoing Crisis

A lot has happened these last two years in terms of global conversations and crisis. Employees are turning to company leaders to see what actions will be taken on behalf of the company. The stress of the pandemic, police brutality, and now the invasion of Ukraine. There are a million decisions a leader will have to make during this time, but how will companies and leaders prioritize employees' mental well being during these mental challenging times?

The benefits of building and maintaining a mentally healthy workplace are: 

• Decrease in work-related injuries and illnesses

• Decrease in workers' compensation claims

• Thriving workers

• Increase in productivity

• Decrease in absenteeism

• Increase in engagement and job satisfaction

• Decrease in turnover and selection costs 

• Increase in attraction of top talent

The responsibility of the leaders and companies 

Organizations and leaders set the tone and drive organizational behavior.This applies to whether or not mental health is a priority within the workplace. Is it the role of organizations and leaders to be therapists? No.

So what are the roles and responsibilities of organizations and leaders? 

The healthcare systems differ from country to country as do employee benefits. Are mental health services offered in your company’s employee contracts? Access to healthcare insurance whether private or public can help increase the chance of employees accessing mental health services in your country.  

Going along the lines of employee benefits. Do your company’s Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) offer mental health services? Employee assistance programs (EAPs) typically offer free and confidential counseling, assessments, and other services for employees. They typically offer a limited number of therapy visits per issue. EAP can assist employees with a large variety of mental and behavioural health needs including family therapy, marriage counselling, and more. EAP in terms of mental health services offered to employees can be teletherapy or in-person via third party licensed counsellors.  

Let’s look at your leaders. Leadership style can affect employees' mental and physical well-being. Great leaders have learned how to create psychologically safe spaces within their organization as well as communicate in assertive manners that are direct and respectful to employees. Great leaders are not born from the ashes of business school but require continual leadership training and development.  

Workplace Boundaries. Licensed counselor Nedra Glover Tawwab is an expert in boundary setting, she states “Boundaries are not common sense; they’re taught.” Leaders and organizations need to be aware of toxic work environments that may have emotional and mental health implications on employees such as: 

• Working long hours 

• Gossiping by several people 

• Not being paid for additional hours 

• Cliques among coworkers 

• Being mandated to complete more work in a limited time frame 

• Negative communication among peers or superiors 

• A narcissistic boss 

• Being bullied 

• Being sexually harrassed 

• Being mistreated based on race, physical ability, or sexual orientation   

Cover Days. In Diversity Factor, we have cover days, we got the practice from Simon Sinek. Basically the concept instead of using sick days to play hooky. We use authenticity and transparency instead in our team and we slack each other at the beginning of the day and say we're taking a cover day. Some days employees will not feel like working and cover days are a great way to take the day off when nothing too important is pressing. 

Check Ins. We have morning check in, but we can always check in with our CEO Helene if needed. We can use check ins to discuss tasks or discuss our emotional state. We don't need to go in depth but basically let our leader know - hey I am not okay, which helps contextualize our mental state that day. There was a company that implemented check ins for the helicopter pilots prior to flying which help reduce accidents by 70%. Applying a similar concept in your organzation is important but it is also important for leaders to be emotional intelligent in their responses towards employees and are willing to hold space for off days.