Five Ways to Support Employees’ Mental Health

More than 40 million Americans suffer from mental health conditions. While the workplace is not the cause, it can be a trigger. More than 82% of workers say a mental health condition affects their performance at work, and many affirm that employment is the most stressful part of the day. Let’s discuss five ways you can improve the mental health of your employees and, consequently, improve your workforce.

1. Provide Excellent Benefits

Benefits are not only a terrific way to attract individuals to your company, but they will help improve your entire work environment. Strongly consider offering health insurance that provides coverage for mental health conditions. The cost of professional treatment is one reason many individuals suffer through mental conditions by themselves. Excellent coverage can open the possibility of treatment.

2. Create a More Relaxing Work Environment

Your work culture can affect your employees’ engagement, turnover rates, and performance. You want employees to enjoy coming to work, not dread it or experience anxiety each time they walk in the door. To improve workplace culture, you can:

• Plan regular team-building activities.
• Encourage employees to take breaks.
• Listen to and gather feedback from employees.
• Be transparent — never make employees question the security of their jobs, their departments, or the company.
• Build trust and credibility among employees.

3. Encourage a Strong Work-Life Balance

Overwhelming stress and heavy burdens at work can trigger mental health conditions and send employees spiraling downward. A strong work-life balance helps keep these feelings to a minimum. To help employees develop this, teach time-management techniques, encourage many breaks, and offer paid vacation time.

4. Offer Gym Memberships or Fitness Incentives

Exercise has been proven to drastically decrease negative mental health symptoms, and research by ADAA shows it may even be as effective as medication. Many employees do not exercise regularly due to the high cost of gym memberships and other fitness programs. To encourage physical activity, offer gym memberships to employees or work with a local gym to provide discounted memberships. Another strong way to encourage employees to be fit is to lead by example; a leadership team that incorporates fitness into their workday routine sets a tone that encourages others to do the same.

The increased creativity, performance, and focus incurred by regular exercise will help improve your company’s overall success.

5. Be Understanding

An understanding management team keeps employees happier and more satisfied in their current job positions. Individuals also feel comfortable talking to sympathetic managers and alerting them of any health conditions. As an employer, be aware of certain issues and remain flexible and easy to work with. Also, please be aware to protect an employee’s right to privacy even when your employee shares private information with you. Employees will more likely do a good job when they enjoy coming to work and feel they can trust you.

Every company should carefully consider how to improve employees’ mental health. Use the above tips to help your company begin this evaluation process. By making a few changes, you can reduce turnover and improve productivity and employee engagement.

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