Poor mental health can significantly affect workers’ productivity, communications, and performance. As such, companies must create a working environment that will allow them to thrive physically and mentally. Here are some amazing ways to improve employees’ mental wellness:
Appreciate and Reward Good Performance
You can never go wrong with showing appreciation to employees for good performance. Not only will this give a solid boost in productivity, but it will also significantly improve their mental health. Remember: employee recognition positively impacts job satisfaction, leading to better well-being.
It doesn’t matter if your staff closed a big client deal or simply spoke up about unrealistic workloads. What matters is rewarding their accomplishments, big or small, to establish gratitude and promote a positive mindset in the workspace. You could give them a simple ‘thank you’ card or hold an intimate workplace party to celebrate their wins.
Improve Corporate Wellness Program
Employees would often neglect their well-being to complete work quotas and requirements. This is a big no-no since doing so will only reap detrimental effects in the long run. To counter this from happening, you should aim to improve your corporate wellness program. Clue: an excellent wellness program urges the workers to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
You could start by offering quick yoga sessions daily to keep the staff on their feet. Another idea would be to create a station where they can borrow bikes to travel to and from work instead of taking the bus. These will improve employees’ physical health and double as relaxing activities needed for mental wellness.
Provide Time Off for Vacations
It’s important for your team to build a personality outside their computers and focus on self-care. Doing so will lessen feelings of dissatisfaction and burnout and provide them time for recreation. This is needed to achieve a great work-life balance, a critical factor in improving employees’ mental health and well-being.
To contribute to this, you can encourage PTOs and provide your team with well-deserved vacations. Consider it a reward for their achievements and successes. This will also benefit the company since proper work-life balance means greater employee contentment and performance.
Switch to a Flexible Work Schedule
The rise of the gig economy made it clear that allowing employees to handle their time provides more benefits than drawbacks. One of these is the significant improvement in mental well-being, mainly due to their better work-life balance. It’s the main reason why more and more companies are transitioning into a remote work culture.
Workers with free reign over their schedules are happier and experience less burnout. They can take necessary work breaks and spend more time doing what they love. As a bonus, remote employees don’t have to deal with long commutes and other job-related worries. These enable your staff to refresh their mental resources and approach activities more optimistically.
Foster Workplace Camaraderie
Yet another way to improve employees’ mental health is by creating a workspace supportive of relationships. You’re sure to see a smile plastered on your staff’s faces more often if they have a great set of work friends. Not only will this upgrade the work culture to another level, but it will also increase overall productivity.
You could create engaging business events to allow employees to connect with each other. Pairing them to work on specific projects can also help foster workplace camaraderie. Through this, they can form effective support systems with which they can share successes and worries. This will forge a solid bond and a sense of social belongingness, thus raising workers’ mental well-being.
Have Regular Mental Health Checks
Having regular mental health checks gives you a clear idea of your staff’s current well-being. Each meeting provides you a chance to gauge their struggles and stress levels. In turn, you can make the right move to address issues contributing to their worries.
You can create a safe, intimate space where employees can open up about their problems and emotional difficulties. At the same time, they are also free to talk about the reasons for their burnout and what steps can be taken to reduce it. Remember: you don’t have to force your team to disclose their situations. Instead, your support and understanding are enough to lighten their load.
Set Up Mental Health Awareness Policies
Setting up mental health awareness policies is a must-do for every company, whether a startup or an established enterprise. Remember, employees are the backbone of an organization, so they always have to be in tip-top shape. It’s crucial to inform them how to take care of their well-being properly, their mental state included.
For instance, you can hold seminars to educate your employees about depression, anxiety, or any mental health disorder common in the workplace. You can also implement policies that won’t look kindly to discrimination, harassment, and bullying of those struggling with these issues. These will lead to employees’ mindful behavior and more mental health awareness.
The Bottom Line
There are several ways to keep employees’ mental health at an all-time high. These mainly involve creating the appropriate working environment that is mindful of their physical and psychological wellness. Remember: a happy worker is a productive worker. As such, you should consider prioritizing your staff’s mental health as a long-term business investment. Doing so will reduce absenteeism, boost company morale, and increase job satisfaction.
