Are you seeing red? Why tuning into red flags and reacting with prevention is critical for a mentally fit workforce.

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Thank God It’s Monday!', the newsletter designed to get you moving from awareness to action on all things mental fitness & wellbeing.

In the UK, we lose 15.4m days to work-related stress, depression or anxiety each year. Yet nearly?80%?of UK adults feel uncomfortable discussing their mental health with their employer.?

This is a conundrum for employers, and better understanding the needs of employees and how best to support workplace wellbeing and mental health is an important conversation that needs to be front and centre of the company agenda.

Mental health is not simply the absence of a mental illness. It's a state of wellbeing in which every individual can realise their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community (WHO).

The Mental Health Foundation states that good mental health is characterised by a person’s ability to fulfil a number of key functions and activities, including:?

• The ability to learn
• The ability to feel, express and manage a range of positive and negative emotions
• The ability to form and maintain good relationships with others
• The ability to cope with and manage change and uncertainty

Yet mental health and ill health can be confusing, as the terms are used by different people in varying ways. There is stigma and baggage that accompanies mental health, and this is linked to the fact that mental health is often (and incorrectly) synonymous with mental ‘illness’. It is also misleading in its terminology as it doesn't?encompass a range of complex human processes, feelings and behaviours.??

There is a wide spectrum of mental health difficulties ranging from severe mental illness to general psychological or emotional difficulties. Each of us has a unique experience with our mental health, and the ultimate responsibility lies with us as an individual to prioritise our mental wellness in the same way we understand we have to for our physical wellness. But when working for an organisation, there is a need to make preventative support available to empower people to build their mental strength and resilience rather than wait until a problem occurs.

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What's in a name?

When it comes to mental health, the terminology matters quite a lot. The stigma, negativity and misunderstanding that surround mental health have led organisations to tweak the language they use when talking about mental health in the workplace. Examples include psychological health and safety, emotional wellbeing, mental wellness and mental wellbeing. Feeling mentally well is closely correlated to how mentally fit we are, and mental fitness is something we talk about a lot at?fifty50.

Let's keep in mind that our mental health is dynamic. We are all on a spectrum, a sliding scale where we can sit anywhere from 0-10 on any given day.?Personally, when noting my personal mental ‘form’, I consider 0-1 to be rock bottom, 2-4 the red zone, 5-7 the amber zone and 8-10 the green zone.?

None of us is immune to feeling mentally unhealthy or mentally unfit.?

It’s also impossible to stay consistently in the same space every single day for life. By becoming conscious of where you are and recognising your red flags, you can begin to take preventative action to protect your mind and mental fitness.

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Are you seeing red?

A coach I once had used to say, ‘notice what you notice’. Recognising when you feel you are starting to struggle is an important awareness to create. Becoming conscious of the habits and behaviours we adopt enables us to tune into our red flags and take action early on.

The problem is that for many of us, especially those juggling many roles, self-care and wellbeing are often the first things to go. The coaching or therapy session gets cancelled, the early night is forgotten, and the healthy meal is left uncooked.?

Tiredness and stress dismantle our wellbeing. When we feel tired, when we’re experiencing stress, our thinking is warped, and we make poor decisions. Rest and recovery are critical to keep moving forwards positively and to sustain energy and performance. By not allowing our body and mind to recharge, we find ourselves in a vicious cycle that is difficult to break until we break.

Have you tried noting down your warning signs and tuning into your red flags? Recently we ran a mental fitness webinar with?Genus PLC,?and when we asked their 130 global attendees what their ‘tell’ was, that indicates when they feel they are struggling. Here are some of the most popular answers:?

• When I start overthinking things
• When I stop seeing my friends
• When I snap at my partner over small things
• When I cry for no reason
• When I shout at the car in front of me
• When I overeat
• When I realise I haven’t laughed in a long time
• When I don’t sleep well
• When I stop regular exercise

Your red flags will be unique to you. You know when you’re veering off track (or feel like you're careering two-wheeled down a steep mountain!). It’s time to become conscious of your red flags, get to know them, and tune into them as they happen. Once you can spot them more quickly,?there is more time to take preventative action. Red flags are signals to slow down and take action in real-time.?

It's time to get fit, mentally fit...

When we talk about mental fitness at fifty50, we are referring to our ability to know how to handle life’s ups and downs, to be able to control our thinking and regulate our emotions. When we are mentally fit, we are able to think more clearly, generate more ideas, feel more creative and sustain longer, more intense periods of high performance at work. We are also able to bounce back more quickly, dust ourselves off and move forwards in a positive way.

A busy mind that is occupied with negative thoughts, worries and stresses is not a healthy mind. It doesn’t mean you’re mentally ill, but it should ring an alarm bell to you that you need to do something differently.

For those who lift weights or do any form of strength training to support their physical fitness, it can help to think of the mind in the same way. By seeing our mind as?a muscle that we need to work out in order to strengthen it, we know that there are set exercises we can undertake that will enable us to build mental strength.?Just as we can support our physical health by getting the right amount of sleep, exercise and a nutritious diet, our minds need investment too.

Being mentally fit is about being able to show up as your full, authentic self. To be productive, fulfilled and resilient.

I pitched our mental fitness coaching programme to?Glencore?last week, where I met a progressive business head who talked openly about the need to prioritise mental fitness within his team. He talked not only about wanting to avoid burnout but, most importantly, about equipping his team with skills and tools to sustain their high-performance culture. He talked about the importance of 'a massage for the brain', which I love. Without a focus on our mental wellbeing and focus on how to build mental fitness, there is no way people can sustain high levels of productivity and ensure their resilience is topped up. It was one of the most refreshing conversations I’ve had, and I love how progressive the HR team are there.

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...and it's time to react with prevention

Mental illness diagnoses and treatment are best supported via GP and specialist psychotherapist intervention. If you offer Private Medical Insurance to your people, this often includes provision for private mental healthcare.?In addition, many companies provide access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) where a fixed number of short telephone therapy sessions are available for employees who need support. All of these services are what we categorise as reactive support; support that it's once the employee has acknowledged there is a problem and has put their hand up to ask for help - ie when there is a real problem. They also require quite a lot of bravery to access, and we have seen first-hand at?fifty50, that unclear signposting, poor quality service or lots of paperwork to access can act as a huge barrier to entry. EAPs often have very low engagement; less than 10% of a workforce typically access the service.

Such reactive services are geared to those in the 0-4 zones - ie those struggling or those in crisis, or those who have already hit rock bottom. It’s a costly and risky approach to rely solely on reactive solutions. As I recently shared, one HRD calculated that mental health-related sick days cost her business c￡100k per month.

Introducing preventative measures is critical to tackling the rising costs of workplace mental health. Deloitte has reported that the?cost of poor mental health to employers has risen to?￡56bn?in 2020-21, up 28% from 2019. They also calculate a significant ROI on taking preventative action such as coaching, which is over 5x investment.?

The stigma associated with asking for help within the workplace is very real, and as the opening stats suggest, we haven't quite figured out how to best support people before the crash and burn hits.??

Surely investing in helping people to move from survive to thrive is the key, and equipping them with the tools and skills to navigate their own mental health journey is not only preventative but empowering. This is exactly what we do at fifty50.?

What do you have to lose? Quite possibly, your people if they’re left without preventative support.

fifty50’s flexible mental fitness coaching packages start from ￡995 + VAT per month. If you want to explore how we can support you through workshops, webinars, wellbeing training for managers & more, we'd love to show you how we work with companies, including?B-Corp?Octopus,?YM&U Group,?Guinness Global Investors?and?Triple Point.

Schedule a call with me today to explore preventative support and our mental fitness programme.

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Reflections:

• When was the last time you asked how your team members are doing, really???
• Have you asked for feedback on how they would like to be supported around mental health?
• Do you know which employees are struggling?
• Are you laser-focused on supporting those in need, neglecting high performers on a pathway to burnout or diminishing levels of productivity?
• Have you calculated the cost attributed to mental health related sick leave?
• Have you calculated the cost of losing talent vs. investing in preventative support?