So, you’ve got your fruit bowl in the staff room and distributed Fitbits to staff, and still not seeing any change in employee mental health? Managers are often focusing on the wrong things – and need to go beyond the fruit bowl and step counter to see meaningful improvements in wellbeing within the workplace.
Research has shown that there are many factors that contribute to the level of mental health in a workplace.
Over the past three decades, several work stress models have been developed in an attempt to deconstruct the relationship between the workplace environment and psychological wellbeing.
Whilst each of these models propose that a particular type of work ‘stress’ may lead to an increase in mental health problems, research has broadened its scope to consider the multiple factors and dynamics within a workplace which can influence mental health.
These include other potential work-related causal factors, along with individual characteristics and the impact of major life events, in addition to the relationship between home and work roles.
Harvey et.al1 outlines the work-related causal factors as:
Job design - work demands (too much work, or too little), the amount of control we have in our work environment, resources provided, the level of work engagement and exposure to potentially traumatic situations.
Team/Group factors –This includes the support available from colleagues and managers, the availability of staff and training, effective leadership, and the quality of interpersonal relationships within our team and workplace more broadly.
Broader organisational factors – This includes our organisational structure, culture of safety and support, recognition and reward of our efforts and how fairness and justice is perceived in the workplace.
In addition to the workplace factors, our own unique personality traits; any conflicting demands between work and home; and what is happening in our life at any given time (e.g. significant life events) can also influence our overall wellbeing. Examples of our individual traits and factors include:
Genetics
Personality traits and characteristics
Cognitive behavioural patterns
Resilience and coping style
History of mental health
Early life events
Lifestyle factors
Major life events such as divorce, having children, new relationship, or death of a loved one
Open communication, supportive relationships and knowing staff, underpin workplace wellbeing efforts, as what wellbeing means to each person may be very different.
There are, however, many ways you can make your workplace more mentally healthy for everyone– with some quite easy to implement. These include:
Considering the work design. This might include listening to staff and their needs relating to how they work best. This could be incorporated into regular supervision, one on one’s or one-page profiles. Consider adopting flexible working hours, monitoring workloads, and adapting them as required, and maintaining the physical environment, you might also include a nature-based scene (either real or virtual) into the environment.
Increasing awareness of mental health and building better work cultures through mandatory staff training, awareness programs and prioritisation of mental health development. Talking openly about mental health can go a long way in reducing stigma in the workplace. Implementation of a mental health strategy with zero tolerance to bullying and discrimination, and role modelling this throughout the organisation.
Building personal resilience by providing tailored and individualised training such as stress management and resilience training for those in roles with identified risks, using evidence-based cognitive behaviour therapy, providing spaces, and encouraging physical health such as gym memberships and lunchtime nature walks.
Early intervention and support of staff recovering from mental illness including encouraging staff to seek help early, implementation of mental health first aid or similar training, wellbeing checks, peer support program for staff and supervisor training on how to support team members with mental health problems.
Everyone has a role to play when it comes to mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. If you have concerns about your own, or someone else’s mental health – please seek help.
If you are curious about our training, resources, programs or wellbeing strategy development – please contact us directly for a confidential, obligation-free discussion.
1 Harvey SB, Modini M, Joyce S, et al. Occup Environ Med 2017; 74: 301–310.
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