Mental Health in the Workplace – How Can We Help?

“It is a weird time right now…”

We hear this a lot lately – from rising prices of just about everything, to an over-capacity healthcare system, to the continued and lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a stressful time for all of us. 

In fact, according to the Canadian Institute of Health Information, Canadians are increasingly reporting poor mental health as a result of some of these challenges. 

Furthermore, many Canadians do not have access to the mental health help that they need. 

What does this mean for our workplaces?

Now, perhaps more than ever before, it is becoming harder for people to show up at work at their best.

In fact, 35% of employed Canadians indicate they are burned out. From a business perspective, this results in increased absenteeism, decreased productivity and increased health costs. 

So, what can leaders do to help?

This is a hard question to answer…

Life is stressful. And, it can be hard to address challenges whose causes may not be rooted in the workplace. However, there are some things we can do to help.

Research shows that leaders can act as critical resources for employees, affecting work outcomes as well as employee mental health. Furthermore, the influence of leadership on employee mental health outcomes may be particularly pronounced during times of uncertainty or when fear is high – which, many would argue, is right now. 

Here are some strategies leaders can implement to help improve workplace mental health: 

• Adopting relations-oriented leadership styles which prioritize quality leader-employee interactions and involve showing consideration, respect, and support for employees. These styles involve: 
• Listening, understanding, and participation
• Supportive attitude toward team members
• Showing empathy and focus on well-being
• Building trust, loyalty, and team climate
• Creating a safe space for staff to authentically voice concerns regarding the workplace and actioning feedback when appropriate. This can involve things like regular one-on-one check-ins with direct reports and regular, anonymous employee feedback surveys.
  
• Allowing flexible work environments and encouraging staff to build schedules that best allow them to balance work and life. This can include offering flexible, hybrid work opportunities and reinforcing that everyone has the freedom to take time for health appointments, family commitments and more.
  
• Having manageable workloads to reduce burnout. With the COVID-19 pandemic blurring lines between work and home, it is important that staff are able to draw a firm line between their work and personal lives.
• Involving staff in decision-making where appropriate to increase buy-in to organizational strategy and direction.
• Recognizing and rewarding success as research shows that acknowledgement goes a long way in rewarding behaviour change, helping teams to feel supported, motivated and happy.
• Creating a workplace mental health policy that builds awareness for available resources, health benefits, approved mental health days and more. In fact, only 4% of Canadians have workplace policies that have adapted with new COVID-19 mental health supports. 

Workplace mental health can often be a tricky subject, because we want to do our best to support our colleagues, but may find it a challenge to make a real impact. While we may not be able to solve everything, we can always try our best to make our environments as safe, inclusive, and enjoyable as possible – even talking about it makes a difference!

To learn more on Leadership Development at MacPhie, please see here.

This blog was inspired by fantastic research conducted by Rory MacLeod during his time at the University of Ottawa.