Nina Nair, SVP and HRD head, [24]7.ai, India and Americas explains that a company’s philosophy should be around building a strong belief system around holistic wellness programs. These should help and sensitise employees, provide easy access to solutions for common mental health symptoms such as anxiety, and stress, managing relationships, and also encourage employees to be more inclusive by understanding others who are experiencing difficulties.
Mental health is a critically important part of the workplace experience and is increasingly being recognised as a foundation for building a healthy, engaged workforce. Encouraging managers and employees to talk about emotional wellness at the workplace eliminates the stigma surrounding conversations about mental health.
While 71 per cent of employers in a survey reported supporting mental wellness for their frontline employees as either very important or important, only 27 per cent of frontline employees considered the support they received was good. Employees want supportive workplaces, and this requires a cultural change. Positive, supportive workplace practices, boost employees’ mental and physical well-being, the company’s morale, and consequently its bottom line.
A company’s philosophy should be around building a strong belief system around holistic wellness programs. These should help and sensitise employees, provide easy access to solutions for common mental health symptoms such as anxiety, and stress, managing relationships, and also encourage employees to be more inclusive by understanding others who are experiencing difficulties. Some of the initiatives that companies can take to promote mental wellbeing of their employees are :
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Sensitisation programs: Awareness and acceptance are key elements of mental health. Educating people about mental wellness and the fact that it’s okay to not be okay is essential. To help employees become more aware of mental health challenges and more sensitive to dealing with others with mental health challenges, companies should offer mental health awareness programs and seminars.
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Counselling: Having trained counselors on campus or even virtually to help employees have someone to speak to when they need, to address, guide and help them overcome their angst.
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Mind to heart talk shows: Counselors or experts could be invited to discuss common work issues such as stress, anxiety, burnout, work-life balance, relationship management, and sensitise employees to solutions.
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Peak season preparedness: There are certain periods of the year when it is peak time of year for businesses. For example, Contact centers experience high voice and chat volumes during the festive or holiday season. As the work volumes expand, helping employees cope with this situation better becomes essential. Companies should have a team of experts to reach out, identify and address these issues with talks, or one-to-one contact as required. Employees can even benefit from online programs to manage stress.
The mind is a complex set of faculties and it can have shifts suddenly or over time, it is important therefore that there is a process for organisations to regularly check in with their employees.