Is Employee Mental Health just a checklist for some companies?

Mental health over the few years has drawn attention due to the number of losses that we have seen. These losses are not just personal but also economical. A recent study found that 65 % employees are currently stressed which has caused a loss of more than $300 million per year. Some of the reasons that accounted for this loss are absenteeism, staff turnover, diminished productivity, and even medical costs- all these further linked to employee’s mental health.?Keeping this in mind, many organizations have taken actions to address the mental health needs of employees.

Organizations can choose from various wellbeing initiatives depending on,

1.?????The demographics of employees (age, background, nationality)

2.?????The number of employees

3.?????The work environment

4.?????The current state of employees towards mental health

5.?????The need of the organization

6.?????The work structure of the organization

7.?????The cost budgeted for employee wellbeing

8.?????The intended outcome and impact

The pandemic has increased the need to address mental health as it inevitably impacts productivity and performance. A recent study found that 40 % of employees feel hopeless, suffer from a burnout, and are exhausted due to the continuous changes brought in by COVID-19. Many companies like Akamai, Barclays, Ernst & Young LLP, Microsoft, Google, and Unilever have taken drastic steps to destigmatize mental health and improve wellbeing.

Now, reflect on your organization and ask: “What are we doing to better our employees mental health?”

Despite these efforts, there are still organizations that treat mental health as a “good to have”. This approach is usually seen in places where employee’s mental health only starts to matter when occasions like The World Mental Health Day approach. They initiate actions to put a check in the box and follow the trend. These are often short lived and have no lasting impact on employees.

This attitude exists because of stigmatizing mental health and favoring work productivity over personhood. This influences the culture to become toxic and believes in hard work at the cost of self. During budgeting, mental health takes up the last slot or no slot at all. This makes it difficult to implement interventions or invite consultants to deliver quality and long-lasting work.

The question here arises:

“What is stopping us from investing in people who invest themselves in our business?”

“How can we include mental wellbeing needs when we design our policies and during budgeting?”

“What is the loss we are enduring by not addressing employee wellbeing needs?”

“What interventions can we implement to transform our wellbeing culture?”

We will leave you with these questions to ponder on so that you can assess where your organization is at. However, if you rightly decide to invest in your employee’s wellbeing then you can check out our corporate solutions that will transform your organization.

At Poorna Wellbeing we are passionate to enable ‘Root to Shoot Transformation’ in Leaders and Organizations. We are on a mission to create Conscious Achievers and Leaders through our holistic Leadership Coaching practice, Corporate Training workshops and Self-Mastery Interventions.

Reach out to us at: [email protected] | Website: https://poornawellbeing.com/