The time spent working, whether at the office or from home, has a huge impact on the mental health and wellbeing of your staff. Work can be one of the biggest stressors in life, and how employees feel when working will dramatically affect their work performance. Promoting wellness at work can help create a healthy workplace culture that enables employees to do their best.
In this blog post, we explore the benefits of boosting employee wellbeing and discuss some proactive ways employers can promote wellness at work.
The Importance of Employee Mental Health for Businesses
Promoting wellbeing at work and creating proactive options to help people care for their mental health is key to boosting performance and nurturing employee potential. Evidence shows that businesses that invest in mental wellbeing initiatives report higher employee productivity, sales, creativity, and customer satisfaction. Consequently, companies that cultivate good mental health at work are more likely to achieve their business objectives and increase cash flow.
Maintaining wellness initiatives at the workplace can also reduce the cost of absenteeism. As shown in a recent New Zealand workplace survey, 7.4 million workdays were lost in 2019 due to absenteeism, costing an estimated $1.79 billion across the country.
With greater awareness around general wellbeing, your people will be better equipped to recognise signs of low mental health at work. This, in turn, can help employees take initiative, so they can not only care for their own wellbeing and ask for support when they need it but also notice when teammates may be struggling.
Mental Health is Just as Important as Physical Health
While the impact of poor physical health is much more obvious and easier to recognise, employee mental wellbeing is just as important to consider. Balancing mental and physical wellness is a must, as both are intrinsically linked. For example, stress and anxiety can cause fatigue by reducing our ability to sleep. It can also reduce concentration at work, lower our overall resilience, and hinder our ability to handle challenges. Furthermore, general fatigue can impact our motivation and ability to maintain an active lifestyle.
Promoting Mental Health in the Workplace
As an employer, some of the vital ways you can promote employee mental health in the workplace include:
Access to Wellbeing Resources
Employers should provide employees access to resources around mental health and wellbeing. They should also ensure that all employees are aware of the clinical services available, should they require them.
Destigmatise Discussion Around Mental Health
Destigmatising mental health as a topic for discussion is another important way companies can promote mental wellbeing in the workplace. Employers can also reach out to workers behaving uncharacteristically and ask them what support they can provide them as an employer.
Have a Mental Health Policy in Place
A comprehensive and responsive mental health policy is an essential document for employers, as it enables them to support employees while also protecting their business.
Employee Satisfaction is Key to Employee Engagement
If an employee is engaged and satisfied with their job and work environment, this will reflect in their work performance. By investing in employee wellness initiatives, you can create a pleasant working environment filled with happy, satisfied staff with greater loyalty in the long term, and who doesn’t want that?
For more tips and ideas around workplace productivity, explore our blog today!
