Employees spend most of their waking hours at work, so workplaces play a critical role in their well-being. Employers also reap substantial rewards from prioritizing their mental health.
As former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams writes in Public Health Reports, “Research shows that employees in good physical, mental, and emotional health are more likely to deliver optimal performance in the workplace than employees who are not.”
Here, I explain some of the best ways to ensure your team members feel supported.
The problem of employee burnout
First and foremost, small business owners need to recognize that many of their employees are currently exhausted. According to the latest report from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 51 percent of American workers describe themselves as feeling “used up” when they clock out of work, with 45 percent saying their work leaves them feeling “emotionally drained.” Another 44 percent identify themselves as being burnt out, 30 percent of respondents said they often feel stressed on the job, and only 40 percent say they often feel fulfilled.
Moreover, the SHRM study discovered a relationship between burnout and quitting. Those respondents who characterized themselves as burnt out were almost three times more likely to be looking for a new job. Only 16 percent of those who didn’t feel burnt out were actively searching, compared to 45 percent of those who did. The lesson is clear: Employers who want to keep their employees should avoid burning them out.
Employees’ initiative also suffered when they felt burnt out. According to the SHRM study, only 40 percent of employees who felt burnt out would perform above expectations, compared to 56 percent of those who weren’t burnt out.
These numbers show how important it is for employers to help their team members reduce stress and burnout.
How employers can reduce employee burnout
The first way employers can intervene effectively is by instituting flexible work arrangements. As long as the work can get done in a flexible manner, employers should be open to these policies.
Recent studies have shown that remote work and other flexible work policies benefit employees, especially those who have high demands on their time in the workplace and with families. A study from the International Workplace Group also found that 75 percent of employees who felt burnt out experienced a significant decrease in burnout symptoms after instituting hybrid schedules.
Importantly, research also demonstrates that workplaces that empower employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance — or, since work is also a part of life, a healthy work-family balance — benefit from heightened employee engagement, boosted productivity, higher morale, and a positive workplace environment.
If that wasn’t already enough, these advantages can combine to buoy the organizations’ bottom lines. According to an international study by HR consulting firm Tower Perrin, “Companies with high levels of employee engagement improved 19.2% in operating income while companies with low levels of employee engagement declined 32.7%.”
Incorporating mental health days
Instituting mental health days is another effective way to forestall employee stress and burnout. As the Mayo Clinic has noted, mental health days enable team members to take a break from everyday responsibilities, resulting in increased morale and resilience and decreased feelings of burnout.
Think of mental health days as mini vacations. They offer an excellent way for people to recover their mental stability and return to work refreshed. The result is not only a reenergized employee but also a more positive workplace culture. According to research from investment and insurance company Voya Financial, retention rates also improve, with 68 percent of workers reporting being more likely to stay in their current position if the employer offers mental health days.
Offering mental health support and services
Given that stress and burnout can contribute to mental health challenges, providing access to mental health resources like counseling or therapy is another key way employers can support employees’ well-being. According to the aforementioned study from Voya research, 65 percent of survey respondents said they would be more likely to stay with their employer if their benefits packages included mental health support and services.
Another way we promote good mental health in our workplace is by encouraging employees to use stress management techniques. For instance, we subsidize employees’ access to a popular meditation and mindfulness app and promote healthy behaviors like attending yoga classes or exercising.
In my experience, however, one factor is even more important than company policies and initiatives.
Every employee is unique
To promote employee well-being, it’s essential to keep the individual employee in mind. While generous organizational policies lay a firm foundation, no one-size-fits-all solutions exist. Each individual is unique, and there will be times when standard approaches may not fully address the needs of certain employees. It’s important to remain flexible and think creatively when supporting your team. Sometimes, going beyond established policies to provide personalized attention can make all the difference.
Indeed, a recent study notes that a personalized approach to HR enables people to fit better into their organizations. “Personalized HRM programs can train and motivate individual employees to best align each person’s knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, and career goals with the organization’s objectives and strategic goals,” the authors explain. For this reason and others, they maintain that personalized HR management outperforms traditional approaches.
In practice, taking a personalized approach to HR means listening to employees, making time to connect with them, and seeking to understand them on a deep level. In short, it means caring about them and reassuring them that they belong.
Promoting employees’ mental health is indispensable
Mental health is no longer a taboo subject in the American workplace. Indeed, promoting employees’ good mental health has become an indispensable part of any small business’s success. The good news is that by combining humane workplace policies with a personalized approach to the human beings on our teams, companies can support their teams even while dialing up productivity.
Tiffani Martinez is the Human Resource Director at Otter PR.
Workplace mental health stock image by PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
