Introduction
Mental health issues were, and in many places, still are, taboo subjects to discuss, despite being more common than one may think. While some disorders are present from birth, others are triggered or developed due to several factors. Traumatic events like the death of a loved one, divorce, or the ending of relationships can trigger clinical depression and anxiety disorders. Going through traumatic situations like rape, shootings, and military combat will trigger personality disorders like PTSD. Work-related stress, on the other hand, is also a contributing factor to increasing mental health disorders in the workforce. Unhealthy work-life balance, toxic working environments, and lack of job security are a few of the major stressors for employees. Mental health issues in employees can negatively affect the company's productivity, working patterns, and operational capability. Unlike in other social settings, human resource professionals are some of the most competitive individuals to address and confront issues in the workplace.
Though these have existed since the dawn of time, it wasn't until recent global scientific research on the human psyche and mental health that the disorders were finally confronted and recognised as a threat to humanity. Some mental health complications, like depression and anxiety, are as common as the common cold. When nearly half of humanity is under the clutches of mental health issues, it is not surprising that they are affecting business world as well.
What are mental health problems?
Mental health issues are mild to severe disturbances in thought patterns and behaviour that result in the inability to meet the demands of everyday work and life. These can manifest in several ways and result in varying degrees of distress or behavioural changes.
This is a serious concern for business owners, managers, and, of course, human resources managers. As HR managers are responsible for hiring and managing the workforce, a disengaged workforce due to mental health complications looks to the human resources departments for help, support, and understanding.
Signs of mental health disorders
An off-seeming behaviour which leads an employee to underperform, disengage, and drift from day-to-day activities is the primary sign of several mental health illnesses. However, these social signs can also result from other factors like grief, stress, and trauma. Mental health issues can be temporary or long-standing according to the individual's capacity to cope and accept the situation and their ability to seek help.
Common mental health issues in the workforce
Here are some of the common mental health complications the modern workforce is facing.
Reasons
Although mental health issues are not exclusively triggered by workplace stress, it still is a contributing factor. Work in itself is a stressor. The need to constantly keep up with deadlines, office politics, and conflicts can all have a significant impact on the stress factors. Those who are working in jobs that have little to no job security are more susceptible to these stressors. Even Missed promotions and rumours of redundancy can trigger a chain of emotional reactions which can result in mental health disorders.
Related Blog - Leadership Behaviours for Managing Burnout
How common are the mental health disorders?
Mental health disorders are fairly common. According to HR professional Tania Angelis, one in five people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives. Nearly half of American workers surveyed are suffering from mental health issues. Forty-six per cent of the 1,400 workers surveyed in the report said they were struggling to maintain their mental well-being (Source file: Standard). In the UK, one-sixth of the working-age population experiences mental health complications at any time (Source file: Gov.uk).
How do they affect businesses?
According to the HR Magazine, every year, over 70 million working days are lost due to mental health conditions, stress, and depression. This costs the UK economy between £70 and £100 billion a year. This is a major amount of work being lost for businesses. It results in productivity loss, profit loss, and unnecessary delays in day-to-day operations of businesses.
How can HRs fight the significant issue of mental health disorders in the workplace?
1. Remove the stigma.
Even in the modern age, despite their significant prevalence, mental health issues are subject to widespread social stigma. Society is a long way from recognising mental health issues as just any other physical illness. In a professional setting like an office, the stigma of mental health issues can ruin a professional's reputation and career. As a result, even though it is common, professionals hide their mental health complications and keep on working. Despite their efforts, the symptoms can spill through other means and become unbearable. HRs can help employees by removing the social stigma in the first place. With regular training programs that create awareness of mental health issues and by holding boot camps by well-known mental health experts, charities, and speakers, HRs can effectively fight the social stigma attached to mental health issues.
2. Create a mental health framework within the organization
A highly efficient framework where employees are promptly helped with their mental health complications is the creative solution to the problem. Along with the awareness and training programs, HRs should be able to connect employees suffering from the symptoms of mental health issues with counselling organisations and clinicians. Moreover, by including these issues within the company's insurance policies, it encourages employees to seek aid when necessary without a second thought about costs and financial commitments. Moreover, keeping these confidential will encourage others from seeking help rather than ignore their own mental health.
Here are some of the mental health support programs HRs can introduce in a company
These are all effective ways to cope with employee disengagement and create a healthier, high-performing, and loyal workforce that increases company productivity.
3. Open a channel for communicating mental health
Often, employees need a warm heart and listening ears with whom they can share their struggles and fears. As HRs are rarely trained for these roles, they can provide such employees with other options. Counselling programs, both online and in traditional formats, can help with this. Connecting them with charities, organisations, and hotlines that are founded for this cause can greatly reduce the risk of mental health complications getting the best of the employees. Some apps like Happify can be cost-effective and easy to use.
4. Host mental health support training
It is not only the duty of HR to support the employees that are likely suffering from mental health issues, but the duty of society and colleagues as well. Mental health support training can be a way forward as it equips the company's employees with the adequate knowledge and resources to recognise and help their colleagues. This not only reduces the social stigma around it but also makes it easier to seek help and support.
Related Blog - Strategies for Work-Life Balance for Women in High-Stress Careers
5. Address the fear of being fired
In many countries, companies cannot fire employees for mental health complications, just like they cannot fire an employee diagnosed with cancer. Unless the complications pose a serious threat to the company's staff and operations, such acts are prohibited by law. However, this is barely communicated to employees. As keeping such complications can only lead to losses for the company, encouraging them to communicate their needs can be productive for both the company and the employees.
6. Create a healthy working environment.
Often, workplace conflicts, bullying, prejudices, and gossip can trigger emotional responses in employees. Those that have grown up in a socially hostile environment can cope better with such scenarios, while those that are experiencing them for the first time find it harder. These negative events can induce workplace stress that can spiral into other complexities like depression and anxiety. Human resources managers must be vigilant about the effects of a toxic work environment and strive to create an inclusive workplace for everyone to contribute regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, language, or geography. As human beings are social creatures, such a healthy work environment can significantly impact their personalities. By making professional relationships with colleagues, even those employees that are highly likely to develop mental health issues can steer clear of them.
7. Give importance to healthy work-life balance
In a recent Indeed survey, 52% of the survey respondents felt burnout in their careers. The survey shed light on the remote workforce's struggle to make ends meet by working extra hours and on weekends. Burnout is a direct result of poor work-life balance and has become more prevalent during the pandemic lockdowns and their aftermath. As the workforce has been spread over the internet as remote workers, hybrid workers, freelancers, and office workers, the divide can be seen among the employees at different rates. Creating a healthy work-life balance can be hard for some creative jobs where productivity is not measured in working hours. However, it is crucial for both employees and the company as it can backfire with poor productivity. HRs must be vigilant about the work-life balance of their employees.
Related Blog - Stress Management Techniques for Senior Managers
8. Create an outlet for stress.
Source: Michal Matlon Unsplash
Even with all these countermeasures, workplace stress is mostly inevitable. For this reason, having outlets for discarding stress is crucial. HRs have the authority and initiative to plan the process and execute it accordingly. This can be as simple as bringing a coffee machine to the office or as expensive as luxury vacations and international business trips. When employees are stressed out, it affects their productivity negatively. By giving space and a little help, companies can set them on track again instead of forcing them deeper into the abyss of mental health disorders.
Relaxation time: Giving simple coffee breaks, friendly meetings, birthday and festival celebrations, and volunteering for a cause can all boost employee morale and give them a chance to look at life with a fresh perspective.
Trips: Small vacations or office trips to nearby historical places, entertainment hubs, or natural destinations will allow employees to mingle with their colleagues in a nonprofessional setting. Travelling can also be refreshing to the mind and thus can change the office atmosphere.
Dinners: Company-sponsored dinners, parties, or lunches are slowly becoming popular in many companies. The standards of dinner can greatly vary from company to company. It can be as simple as an evening pizza after work or as complex as an office party in a weekend.
Sabbaticals are long breaks for employees from their work and a great opportunity to rethink their calling in life. Often, employees get into the vicious, busy work-life cycle that they forget their personalities, clarity, and meaning of life. A sabbatical can break them free from this cycle and allow them to reconsider and prioritise their lives. Employees will have a deeper sense of purpose and drive when they return to work after the sabbatical. The duration of the sabbatical can be anywhere from weeks to years, depending on the purpose. As many professionals use a sabbatical to pursue their academic goals, even 3–4 years is not uncommon.
9. Use hybrid working to avoid conflicts
One of the long-lasting effects that the pandemic brought about was the introduction and popularity of remote work on a global scale. Though it comes with its disadvantages, remote work can be beneficial as well. In particular, when coupled with regular office work in the format of hybrid working, work can have multiple positive impacts on employee health and satisfaction. It allows employees to maintain their familial and social bonds while working from their desired location. As hybrid workplaces offer remote work for select days in the week, it helps employees to catch up with their families and save time spent travelling to and from work. Above all, it gives a necessary break from the rigid office structure and helps them reinvigorate their social energy. Hybrid workplaces can also help in reducing workplace conflicts due to the reduced time spent in the companionship of other employees. All in all, hybrid working can be more beneficial to some office-oriented jobs than completely office or completely remote working.
Conclusion
Mental health is transforming from a taboo subject to a common struggle for humanity. While it is still looked down upon, it is also very concerning for businesses to address the issue and face it head-on. HRs, in addition to business owners and managers, are the most efficient individuals in a company when it comes to dealing with these issues. They can be resourceful in understanding employees as well as creating mental health frameworks to help employees fight these battles without worrying about their job security or reputation loss. By creating awareness and training programs, HRs can make talking about the issues acceptable in the workplace. By taking the initiative to talk about mental health issues, HRs can influence those who are struggling with them to open up to experts like coaches, trainers, mentors, counsellors, and medical practitioners. Minimising workplace stress and creating an outlet to mingle and build relationships with HRs can be a way to spearhead socialisation and thus help employees with stress management, which is the primary contributor to mental health disorders.
If you are a senior human resources manager searching for an online MBA program in Human Resources Management, SNATIKA is the best choice you have. Moreover, the program is just 12 months long, making it the shortest duration MBA you can pursue. Check SNATIKA for more information about the benefits.