3 ways to nurture your employees’ mental well-being

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3 ways to nurture your employees’ mental well-being: ‘It builds that trust in them that you have their back’

By Lindsey Leake | Fortune Magazine | May 21, 2024

Extractive Summary of the Article | Listen

Employees want healthier work environments, specifically those that prioritize their mental health.   When employees suffer, so too does business. Untreated depression, for example, has cost the U.S. economy more than $51 billion in absenteeism from work and lost productivity, according to nonprofit advocacy group Mental Health America.

But what exactly makes a workplace healthy? How can employers nurture employees’ mental well-being in ways that foster both company morale and the bottom line?

3 tips from industry experts for creating a healthy, happy workplace are:

1. Listen authentically.  Jaclyn Wainwright, cofounder and CEO of Aircare Health, urges employers to hear out their employees with compassion.  “Not many people in the workplace are taught that skill,” Wainwright said. “You can listen with your head, and you can repeat a whole bunch of processes and you can roll out or operationalize a plan. “But listening with your heart, you will get to know the others on your team. You will understand the issues they face, you will have a better dialogue and a better community, which together can solve more problems.”  Employees want to hear from you, too, establishing a dialogue, she said.  “Being ignored at work is more detrimental to one’s overall well-being than being harrassed,” Wainwright said. “For instance, if you were going to give negative feedback, that’s going to create a better outcome than, say, giving none at all.”
2. Harness the power of mentorship.  Connecting employees of all levels to one another—whether through formal or informal mentorship programs—can enhance a sense of workplace belonging, said Dr. Aditi Vyas, chief medical officer and corporate medical director of United Airlines.  “I’m a physician by trade and, usually, my mentors have always been physicians. But I always wanted a mentor that had the business acumen, the leadership acumen,” she said. “United has a program where you can have lateral mentors, vertical mentors, and then external mentors, so there’s a group of people they can partner with from other companies and learn from.”
3. Help prevent burnout.  Every job has its stressors, but when work breeds chronic stress, it can be toxic for all involved. Consider how you can keep your employees’ batteries charged, said Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace.   “Think about the physical health, mental health, financial health of a person—an environment where those are all sustainable,” he said. “As someone comes to work, they feel like they can continue to do it over and over again without burnout, without feeling like they’re not going to meet the sustainability of all those things every time.”  In addition, company leaders can help de-stigmatize discussing mental illness in the workplace by being open about their own mental health, Glass said. 

2 key takeaways from the article

1. Employees want healthier work environments, specifically those that prioritize their mental health.   When employees suffer, so too does business. Untreated depression, for example, has cost the U.S. economy more than $51 billion in absenteeism from work and lost productivity, according to nonprofit advocacy group Mental Health America.
2. But what exactly makes a workplace healthy? How can employers nurture employees’ mental well-being in ways that foster both company morale and the bottom line?  3 tips from industry experts for creating a healthy, happy workplace are: listen authentically, harness the power of mentorship, and help prevent burnout.

Full Article

(Copyright lies with the publisher)Topics:  Mental Health, Organizational Performance, Productivity