Ensuring the cultural health of your business is the most important step in ensuring the mental health of your team
It’s World Mental Health Day on 10th October, and this year’s theme is ‘mental health is a universal right’.
We couldn’t agree more. As a bijou and perfectly formed SME, we prioritise the mental welfare of our team, with mental health days, health insurance that supports our emotional well-being, and remote working tools that enable us to boundary our time and availability when we need a break, or if we just want to be left alone to crack on for a day.
We understand that mental health should be given the same billing as physical health. You wouldn’t walk past a colleague who was struggling to get up the stairs with a broken leg, so why does everyone avert their eyes and suddenly find something more important to do when we suspect someone is struggling mentally?
- Nearly 15% of us experience mental health problems in the workplace*
- Women in full-time employment are nearly twice as likely to have a common mental health problem as full-time employed men (19.8% vs 10.9%)*
- Evidence suggests that 12.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions*
Interestingly, the move towards more hybrid working post-pandemic hasn’t been the silver bullet the business community had hoped for. We’re now seeing the gargantuan impact ofpresenteeism – the cumulative effect of consistently turning up on Zoom when you should be taking a sick day – hit UK businesses.
Out of the £45bn per annum that poor mental health costs UK businesses, £29.3 of it is due to presenteeism, with 65% of HR staff report observing presenteeism in the workplace, and 81% report observing it among those who work from home.
Yet 68% of businesses think they actively promoting good mental wellbeing
WHAT’S GOING ON GUYS?
The problem isn’t mental health, it’s workplace culture
For you to take advantage of any employee benefits that exist to support your mental health, they have to first be in place, and you have to feel confident and comfortable doing so.
Creating a confident and comfortable workplace culture
Mental health might well be a universal right, but a widespread business culture that accepts, without judgment, that you might need it and also gives you easy access to it is not.
Giving your teammates an environment where they feel listened to, celebrated, valued, and respected creates a workplace in which people thrive and perform brilliantly and where challenges to any health issues can be addressed and supported. It’s also, rather handily, the key to turbo-boosting performance and profit.
We’ve put together a checklist – a culture barometer, if you will, to sense check your business against:
If the answer to most of these questions is a resounding and emphatic “hell, yeah!” then congratulations, your business is doing brilliantly in fostering the type of open and empowering culture that addresses mental health care concerns well.
If half of these questions leave you scratching your head and wondering… “What if..?” then you need some intensive culture therapy, STAT!
How does your business measure up?
Fostering an environment where your team feels empowered, autonomous, and genuinely seen as the glorious bunch of individuals they are, is the first step in addressing mental health in the workplace.
We’d love you to join us on our crusade to create better businesses across the world.
Are you ready to find your voice and make some noise?
