After more than a year of navigating the impacts of COVID-19 from the lockdowns and homeschooling, to job insecurity and financial concerns, pandemic life has meant a level of unease for everyone.
It’s no surprise that 52 percent of Canadian employees are worried about their stress and mental well-being. With unprecedented disruptions, uncertainty, and devastation, the need for workforce mental health support has become more urgent than ever. And while 2021 offers hope for a return to normal (or close to it), there is still an overwhelming need to support employees struggling with anxiety, depression, substance use, loneliness, concerns for their children’s mental health, and rising stress.
The best strategies to help you and your employees cope
The iHealthOX team has identified some of the main mental health concerns HR leaders have reported managing this year, along with strategies to help you and your employees cope.
1. Help employees manage stress and transitions
One of the most powerful methodologies to support employees is with a tool called change management that helps employers, managers, and employees navigate transitions at work in a more mentally healthy way.
This tool focuses on three important steps to help employees move through times of change:
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- Intervene appropriately when employees experience emotional distress or mental health crises.
- Model self-care behaviours. This will encourage others to prioritize their health and wellness.
- Promote psychological safety in the workplace and on teams.
2. Dismantle barriers to workplace mental healthcare
As the first step, evaluate your organization’s current health and wellness benefits and your employees’ engagement levels with the mental health support it provides. A major roadblock to workplace mental healthcare, such as EAPS, is that the services don’t work well for employees. If this is the case for your organization, survey your employees to find out why they aren’t accessing their mental health benefits (e.g. lack of awareness, concerns about confidentiality, or a complicated enrolment process). This formal feedback will help you build key criteria to consider when choosing a mental health solution.
3. Create a mentally healthy workplace culture
A responsibility for employers today is creating a healthy workplace culture that is safe, inclusive, empathetic and supports employees’ mental health.
How leaders can accomplish this:
- Regular communication from leaders that helps fosters a safe, inclusive, supportive culture and reduces mental health-related stigma.
- Focus on empowering employees with mental health tools and resources to take care of themselves and their families. This begins with access to effective and inclusive mental health solutions through the benefits program and it may also include flexible schedules, and paid mental health days.
- Provide managers with mental health training (e.g. How to recognize stress).
- Create and commit to a psychologically safe workplace (e.g. destigmatize mental health and substance use disorders).
4. Navigate the intersection between mental health challenges and productivity
Mental unwellness has an impact on a business’ bottom line and productivity. It’s hard to promote productivity without addressing the root causes of your employees’ performance challenges.
For example, if someone who is dealing with depression struggles to complete work, drafting a plan to help them finish work faster may not help. If, on the other hand, the manager provides support and resources to help them address their depression by referring the employee to appropriate mental health services, they’ll be more likely to get the help they need to resolve the underlying problems that affect their productivity and engagement at work.
Performance reviews are not the right forum to address the mental health issues. It’s key that leaders tackle mental health and productivity concerns in the right order to ensure employees’ personal needs are respected and valued, while also maintaining the responsibility to the team and workplace.
Learn how iHealthOX can help you increase your employees’ access to mental health support, decrease your health spend and deliver better health outcomes.
Article sources:
CTV News: Survey shows 52% of Canadians feel anxious about return to ‘normal’ after COVID-19
CAMH: Mental Health in Canada: COVID-19 and Beyond
Human Resource Executive: How HR leaders can stay ahead on mental health support
Forbes: Managing Mental Health In the Workforce: A New Role for HR Professionals
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