Pay attention to the needs of you and your staff after COVID-19

Something one of my clients said to me the other day struck a chord about the state of our society's mental health coming out of the crisis. In a health setting my client told me that if they were to list 10 people who were most likely to commit suicide the one that had actually just done this would have been number 10. They really could bot believe this tragedy could happen to a person, that on the outside, seemed so grounded and happy.

Many of us go through life wearing a mask. We go into work clothed in the armour we need to deal with criticism. Our weapons are strength, patience, empathy, forgiveness and the ability to turn the other cheek. After COVID-19 there will be hundreds of thousands of us who feel different and our mental health may not be in great shape. How is your mental health right now? How many staff are you responsible for? Is it your task to check how each of your staff members are feeling? How are you going to do this? How do you know your staff will be telling you how they really feel? With so much uncertainty and insecurity you may find that your staff will return giving the impression of good mental health, even when this may be far from the truth. How safe is their job? Bills need to be paid and recession is looming. Change is coming. Your employees will need to be ready.

Getting on as normal shouldn't be the 'new normal'. Redundancies may have been made. Directors - leaders and mentors - could be missing from the roll call. The way your Company operates could well need to be very different. All of this can lead to anxiety and raised stressed levels for all staff members so if you haven't done this already, now is the time put the mental health of you and your employees to the top of the list. By doing this you and they will have the spare capacity and motivation to return with added productivity, a feeling that someone cares and good morale. I know, from many years experience, that when money is tight, the first things to be cut are advertising, training and mental health services. The mental health of your staff is not a luxury.

Are you a mental health professional? If you are not then be careful how you deal with your most precious asset, your staff. Get someone in who understands mental health needs and can work with you to ensure a tailor-made programme works with your particular culture.

Put yourself in the shoes of each of your staff members and think about what the past two months have been like for them. What can you give them to make them feel valued and understood? How can you motivate them and show them that at your company, the boss is on top of creating a mentally healthy working environment?

You may be experiencing a loss of revenue and be itching to grab those phones and begin doing business straight away. If your office resembles the waiting room of Samaritans or the Citizens Advice Bureau then some work needs to be done first. In your region there will be a good selection of mental health providers. Each one of them may well be diversifying and looking to work with organisations to get them mentally fit for the future. The likelihood is they will also be competitively priced. Even one, two hour workshop for your staff or half a day doing one to ones can reap huge benefits. More than rushing to make that first sale can ever do.

Have a think about how you are going to be that Company who listened to the needs of their staff who went home to tell their families that they are in the best job ever and are raring to go.

Sally Nilsson is a Human Givens Therapist. She is currently working online with clients and will soon be returning to face to face consultations as well at her therapy room at Tillow Barn, Brockham, Surrey. Sally is keen to work with individuals and groups to improve mental health in the workplace. www.freshstart.me.uk