Overview
Why should people care about workplace mental health?
How to get started:
Frequently Asked Questions
Case examples
Overview
Workplace mental health is everything at work that helps or hinders our mental health. The World Health Organization (WHO) groups workplace mental health activities into 3 categories:
Healthy work where employees flourish
Eliminating/limiting exposure to harmful work factors
Supporting people with mental health problems to participate in work
The common “go to” for people when they think workplace mental health is a workplace that supports people with mental health problems. But that is only part of the story: healthy work creates healthy people. A comprehensive workplace mental health strategy prevents exposures to harmful elements of work, creates healthy work, and helps those needing assistance to work and return to work.
Common workplace activities across the workplace mental health spectrum include:
Healthy work where employees flourish
Co-created worker-centric job design & flexible work options
Great person-job fit and ability to adjust/switch jobs as needed.
Transformative or servant leadership
Clear job demands
Learning and development
Recognition
Health promotion, extended health benefits, EAP programs
Eliminating/limiting exposure to harmful work factors
Top leadership buy in to preventing work-related stress
Identifying & addressing potentially harmful work factors
Leadership training
Teaching job-specific skills (psych “PPE”)
Peer support, employee resource groups, mentors
Supporting people affected with poor mental health to participate in work
Stigma reduction programs (mental health awareness)
Sick leave policies/benefits
RTW/stay at coordinators, disability management, job accommodation
Access to enhanced treatment options (counselling, occupational therapy, extended health drug coverage, etc.)
Why should people care about workplace mental health?
- Employees expect employers to support mental health by talking openly about it not shutting down conversations about mental health.
- Unhealthy work environments can create unhealthy employees. Long working hours, high job demands, low job control, poor leadership, and exposure to bullying, harassment, and trauma place employees at higher risk of burnout, injury, accidents, and physical/mental health problems. Unhealthy employees are less creative, less productive, and less engaged.
- Mental health workers’ compensation claims and disability claims are the longest and most costly of claims. Over half of disability claims are due to mental health problems. Workplaces with poor workplace mental health have more and longer claims.
- Employees will leave an environment with poor workplace mental health. They will leave where they feel their wellbeing is threatened and take their talent elsewhere.
- Marginalized and equity deserving groups are more at risk for mental health problems and experience different risks at work than other groups.
- Bullying, harassment, and other harmful behaviours are more prevalent in environments with poor workplace mental health.
What do you stand to lose by not looking into workplace mental health more? Ask these 20 questions to get perspective on what you may lose by not taking workplace mental health seriously.
How to get started:
The perfect starting place is where you are now. Not starting means actually loosing ground. Please contact me to talk about how you can get started. How you move forward depends on the size and complexity of your organization and what strengths you have that can be leveraged. For example, you may already have a head start in an occupational health and safety committee or a diversity, equity, and inclusion advisory committee or have employee engagement survey results to digest. By taking an inventory of strengths you may be further ahead than you think!
In general, good workplace mental health programs have leadership commitment, collaborate with employees at all levels of the organization, customized to the organization’s needs, and are measured for success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is workplace mental health holding hands and singing kum-bye-ya?
No. Workplace mental health is:
- Acknowledging all workers can be affected by poor mental health and poor mental health can be created or made worse by work factors.
- Taking action to eliminate or limit factors at work that impact mental health and be sensitive and supportive to people experiencing mental health problems.
Will paying attention to workplace mental health decrease productivity?
No. If staff are healthier, more creative, and less stressed, they will be more productive.
Can I expect workers to become more resilient and resistant to mental health problems?
No. Research done in Canada clearly shows work-related factors cause burnout and it is not a problem of individual vulnerability. Yes, workers have a responsibility to manage their health but the predominant approach to expecting workers to be more resilience is not working. 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a mental health or addictions problem in any given year, more than 500,000 Canadians will miss work this week due to a mental health problem, and mental health disability claims are rising.
Is workplace mental health expensive?
No. Workplace mental health actions are not expensive – it is often re-arranging work factors to work better. Investing in training that is show by research to help workplace mental health is actually quite inexpensive and supports managers and front line employees. Return on investment has been shown to vary from 1:2 to 1:8, depending on organizations’ business operations, existing profitability, and sustained commitment.
Will decreasing job demands lessen productivity?
Perhaps in the short-term. However, will ignoring high job demands and stressful work conditions create a more sustainable and profitable business in a time of skilled labour shortages? The WHO, Australia, EU, UK, the US Surgeon General, and International Labour Organization all recommend taking action on workplace mental health. In Canada there is a patchwork of workplace regulations but each jurisdiction is inching closer to requiring businesses to pay attention to workplace mental health.
Does a talking about mental health at work intrude into people’s private lives?
No. As organizations we need to identify that workplace mental health is important, we care not to harm mental health, and we support people if they have a mental health problem by providing job resources to help them recover as soon as possible.
What could happen if we ignore workplace mental health?
Conditions you fear or presently experience will continue their trajectory: turnover, presenteeism (present at work but decreased effectiveness due to ill-health), and disability leave will continue to increase. Deloitte found these numbers to stabilize or improve slightly in organizations with greater than 2 years sustained commitment to workplace mental health. Organizations also risk reputational and legal risk with inaction. Dr. Martin Shain in his report, the Perfect Legal Storm, details these trends. As well, the Canada Labour Code and numerous provincial statutes require assessment of workplace psychosocial factors which are risks for violence and harassment – a systematic approach to psychological health and safety will satisfy this requirement.
Can we provide mental-health enhancing programs focused on our employees?
Not exclusively. A recent review of many workplace mental health studies showed programs focused on employees to help offset or compensate for work strain did not help. Programs of mindfulness, workplace exercise, or mental health education did not improve health.
Experts, including the WHO, recommend reducing job demands, increase job resources, and creating supports for employees.
Case examples
As I workplace health consultant I can help you navigate a workplace mental health strategy that meets your needs. Below are some brief examples of what could be.
Small business example:
- Owner invites middle managers, supervisors, and front line employees together.
- Together they talk about:
- What gets in the way of this being the best place to work?
- What workplace factors/events could or do create strain.
- Brainstorm potential solutions such as changing workflows or staff assignments, streamlining communication, aligning vendors to our needs, education, or additional training or tech solutions.
- How they can try out some solutions and measure if they work.
- Loop back together to review measurements and how it worked and determine what’s next.
Medium-sized business example:
- Top management – the CEO, President, General Manager – whomever calls the shots invites senior leaders to get together with a sample of leaders and workers from all levels and diverse departments to:
- Create a shared commitment to improving workplace mental health, defining what that means for them as a group.
- Committing resources to the following steps of the process: time, training, and communication.
- Together talking about:
- What does a great day at work look like? What creates work where we thrive?
- What are the problems we face?
- How can we gather more information about what might be driving these problems? What tools might we use in what combination such as surveys or focus groups?
- What data/metrics help us understand the problem and could be measured to help us know we are improving (e.g. disability claims data, sick time, or turnover)?
- Action planning to determine what activities will be done and how change will be managed to maximize impact.
- Creating feedback and evaluation loops to determine if changes are helpful and what can be improved.
All organizations can be helped by integrating recognized psychological health and safety management systems such as CSA z1003 the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace into your business processes.
Lewis Health Management Consulting 