Mental Health – An upcoming critical subject in Corporate Pakistan?

Is COVID 19 Pandemic a turning point for the workplace mental health? The short answer is ‘Yes’. The how part needs to be understood by the corporate sector in Pakistan and elsewhere who should then take a closer look at how it perceives mental health and how HR practices can help both employers and employees.

The current pandemic finds more employees struggling—and employers playing catch-up in the rush to help. It has also put a spotlight on mental health like never before, with a slew of startling statistics revealing the effects of the crisis: The majority of employees say they are dealing with some type of mental health issue as a result of the pandemic. Many are scared about their physical health, their childcare responsibilities, new realities of social distancing and remote work.

Financial stressors are sky-high, with employees worried about losing their jobs. The vast majority of employees say it’s the most stressful time of their career—even more stressful than major events like 9/11 and the 2008 Great Recession. says LuAnn Heinen, vice president of wellbeing and workforce strategy at the Business Group on Health says: “It’s difficult for the most resilient of us right now. And for those who are vulnerable in any number of ways, it’s that much more challenging.’

Where the problem lies?

A record number of employees look to their employers for help, the situation is revealing a startling fact: Many employers, in our country even after decades of business experience, were operating on adhoc basis. They did not have the benefits programs or culture in place to adequately address this, let alone mental health, but any concerns even before coronavirus.

With the pandemic putting the spotlight on a growing number of mental health conditions and how they affect employees, mental health coverage has anyways been a rising employee benefit for the last couple of years, often landing on lists of top areas of focus for employers. Still, despite a rallying cry from many senior HR professionals—and employees who increasingly asked employers for help—a lot of companies were slow to make it a priority. To me, the finance gurus are key reasons of putting the employee welfare programs on the backburner due to the so called ‘bottom-line’. Yet, we shall make an attempt to understand how can we address this grave issue: 

1. Workplace Talk

Mental health issues are still perceived with a lot of stigma, not just at workplaces but also in common society and neighborhoods. People are afraid to talk about it as they are scared they will be looked at differently by a lot of people who matter to them - their friends and colleagues may start avoiding them due to any conversations that may sound negative, depressing or critical. Therefore, they start getting into a shell to avoid being branded as negative or boring.

2. Trigger point is workplace

Some illnesses including depression, anxiety and stress disorders could definitely be triggered at the workplace. They could stem from an unsupportive work environment with no existence of Voice of Employee (VoE) Program , working with an uncooperative manager, or people practices/policies such as overworking employees, leading to exhaustion, and unfair distribution due to heavy workload. These triggers contribute to distress, giving rise to mental health issues. It is important that the managers balance the workload fairly, and that HR also has enough checks and balances to receive continuous feedback or monitoring. We all have come across cases in a few companies where employees overworked due to overtime or incentive systems in order to earn more. However, they completely neglected their health in the process and the system did not monitor or check their condition till things reached a breaking point. For example: One study shows that the divorce rate of the hospitality industry employees is quite high.  

3. The workplace contribution

Empathy is a very essential and integral part of functioning at any conscientious workplace. It is the top management team's responsibility to ensure that the welfare of the employees comes first, and they will respond by contributing with complete dedication, trusting that their welfare, reward and recognition are taken care of. This is the reason some companies have core values that make employees stick to the same workplace for their lifetime like Google, Facebook, BCG, Bain & Company which are known for their employee centric policies that bring out the best performances in employees.

4. HR has its role to play

HR practices have a great role to play to ensure the mental health of the organisation is good by way of having: 

1. A transparent, open culture and allowing fearless communication between employees and management.
2. Dedicated Prayer spaces for all faiths and religions. – this shows organisational appreciation for diversity of faith and inter-faith harmony at the workplace.  
3. Dedicated spaces for a creche, to ensure childcare and other such responsibilities are taken care of (which could be a huge cause of concern/anxiety for young parents). 
4. Introduce a culture of healthy and nutritious meals for employees, which is also a great way to ensure that the basic needs of eating right and on time are taken care of.
5. An infrastructure including facilities for employees to relax, flexible working hours for expecting mothers, recreational areas with various activities, fitness campaigns, gym, yoga classes, adventure activities, etc. help build a healthy work environment and also work on the long term, cross-functional team building and community feeling throughout the company.
6. A dedicated physiatrist or a professional counsellor onboard could be a great help where employees can book one-on-one meetings with the counsellor and seek advice. This is another way to Communicate with, counsel and support the ailing employees. 

5. Empower Employees

The Bible says: "If you give a man a fish, he will eat today, but teach a man to fish and he will eat forever."

Empower your employees with tools to identify stress triggers and they’ll have coping skills for life.

As an employer, you don’t need to go it alone or be the one actually counselling each employee or initiating lifestyle changes. The right wellness partners can devise a 360-degree approach for the office and hand-hold individuals personally. There’s much you can do as an enabler and support system to quash workplace stress. Give it a go and you’ll see what a difference little changes can make to your people! 

Last Word

WHO estimates that depression and anxiety — among the more prominent mental health issues — cost the global economy $1 trillion a year in lost productivity. 

Although the pandemic is casting a light on what needs to be done now, in a tumultuous environment, many hope the changes are here to stay even when things reopen and life gets more or less back to normal. Mental health issues and stress were already on the rise among employees before the pandemic, and they certainly won’t just disappear post-pandemic, experts say.

Learn how sometimes smaller things in our lives make huge impact and you can take some learnings on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and Evolve HR’s website.

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, At Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.