What are YOU doing in regards to mental health awareness and action?
There are so many actions that organisations can take to increase mental health awareness and make workplace improvements to contribute to better mental health. On World Mental Health Day, if you are in HR or other people professions, you might be reflecting on what you’re already doing for mental health wellness and how you can communicate this to your employees.
For example, you might be providing well-being gift cards, rolling out mental health training, signposting to Employee Assistance Programmes, you might have drop-in meditation sessions and so on. These are all great initiatives. AND, as Strengthscope Founder, and as an Occupational Psychologist, in today’s episode, I’d like to encourage you to consider the culture of your organisation and how it impacts mental health.
How big is the challenge and what impact is it having?
First some stats:
- It is estimated that 15% of UK workers have an existing mental health condition.
- Globally, around 12 billion working days — or 50 million years of work — could be lost every year to depression and anxiety.
- 89% of workers in the UK with mental health issues report it impacting their working lives.
- But only 13% of workers would be comfortable discussing a mental health issue in the workplace. Workers are actually more comfortable talking about sex and religion at work than they are talking about mental health.
So this is a big deal. And there’s no question that initiatives like providing mental health awareness training for line managers, ensuring that people can work flexibly and that they can take time out when they need to, encouraging a healthy work-life balance, and making counselling and therapy available…all of these initiatives can make a big difference.
What about culture – what role does it play?
So first of all, what is culture at work? Culture has been described as ‘the way we do things round here’ (Ben Schneider), ‘the way things work round here’ (Siobhan McHale) and ‘the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate’ (Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker). Culture is often hidden, or only partially seen (through rituals, behaviours, symbols) and becomes employees’ ‘truth’ once they are through the first few months of their tenure with a new employer as that’s typically when they become an ’insider’ and part of the culture themselves. By then, it’s hard to challenge and even hard to describe the culture that they’re working in.
So how does this relate to mental health? Well if only 13% of employees are comfortable discussing mental health at work (and we’re talking here about all employees, not just those with mental health challenges) that’s at least in part due to a lack of will or skill to do so. And that comes down to the culture set from the top of the organisation. If managers and leaders are skilled enough to talk about mental health wellness and illness and if the organisation genuinely values the mental well being of its employees (as demonstrated by the level of investment and attention given to these areas of organisational life), then the culture is better set up to support those with mental health conditions.
At the deeper cultural level, for this to feel authentic, there needs to be a genuine valuing of employees as real people with real challenges who are not cogs in a wheel but fragile, strong, powerful, messy, spiky human beings. And that valuing of humans as humans needs to show up as compassion and care right the way through the fabric of the organisation. So that the culture is human first.
So how does culture relate to the strengths approach then?
So here’s my take on how the strengths approach can be valuable in building this type of culture. When an organisation genuinely takes a human first approach, that starts with helping and supporting each and every employee to be themselves and bring themselves to work. Yes, their best selves, when they can. But also, to feel safe to the parts of themselves that they wouldn’t describe as ‘best’ when they’re experiencing mental health challenges. And to feel seen, heard and supported all of the time, regardless.
And providing employees with a framework and a language to talk about themselves in terms of what energises them, what excites and enthuses them about their work, what they love most is a great start point. As well as giving them the opportunity to talk about any risk areas – those aspects of work that might drain them, or the situations which might lead their strengths to go into overdrive.
These discussions of strengths and risks, with colleagues, teammates, line managers, can have a profound, liberating effect for many people and may well enable them to bring to conversations some of the more challenging aspects of who they are as their complete selves, as well as supporting discussions of some of their lived experience.
Of course this needs careful thought, planning and support but the net effect that we see time after time with our clients Is that allowing people the space to explore and discuss who they are at a deeper more human level, based on strengths, helps to create a human first culture where people feel genuinely valued and understood.
And the benefits of encouraging people to focus on their strengths are well documented – those workers who feel able to use their strengths more of the time report higher levels of well-being and lower stress levels, improved collaboration, problem-solving and relationships. And all of those positive outcomes can have a net positive effect on mental health wellness at work.
Strengths aren’t everything, but they are a step in the right direction
There’s so much that organisations can do to help create a more happy, mentally healthy workplace for all their employees. Introducing and embedding the strengths approach isn’t a silver bullet, but it can make a material, measurable difference in creating a more positive work culture. So I would strongly consider it as part of a package for improving well-being and mental health outcomes, particularly if you’re seeking to evolve your culture to make it a more positive workplace for all.
