It’s
Mental Health Awareness week, a campaign that I support and promote as much as
possible and in this post, I’d like to talk about stress, something we all feel
in varying degrees in our daily lives and something I am struggling through as
I type!
What with the social expectations of being professionally successful, having
a large income, a beautiful house, eating healthily, spending at least an hour
in the gym every day, having a busy social life, making time to see your family
and ensuring the kids aren’t malnourished, neglected and make it to all their
extracurriculars every week, life can be pretty intense.
Stress and Mental Health in The Workplace
In
this post, I want to raise awareness of stress and mental health in the
workplace, as Mind.org.uk say, “Prioritising the mental health of your staff
needs to be core business in your organisation”.
Research
conducted by Mind shows that:
·
More than
one in five employees agreed that they had called in sick to avoid work when
asked how workplace stress had affected them.
·
14 per
cent agreed that they had resigned and 42 per cent had considered resigning
when asked how workplace stress had affected them.
·
30 per
cent of staff disagreed with the statement ‘I would feel able to talk openly
with my line manager if I was feeling stressed’.
·
56 per
cent of employers said they would like to do more to improve staff
well being but don't feel they have the right training or guidance.
I know that when I was an employee, I could
certainly agree with several of these statements. But it doesn’t have to be
that way for your business and
employees!
What can you do?
There
are so many resources available to you from Mind.org.uk, who have a wide
selection of training programmes such as:
- Mental Health Awareness training
- Managing Mental Health at Work training
- Customer Support and Mental Health training
- Emotional Intelligence and Resilience training
They
will soon be launching their e-learning platform specifically focusing on
mental health awareness at work and can even arrange training sessions for your
employees at your office.
The
Mental Health Foundation have a large selection of publications, papers and
reports which can be ordered in hard copy or printed as a PDF, on subjects such
as:
- How to manage and reduce stress
- Added Value: Mental Health as a Workplace Asset
- Managing Mental Health in the Workplace
- How to Sleep Better
·
And
many more, all of which you could print and leave in break out areas in your
office.
The Benefits
By
implementing simple and relatively cheap ideas to your workplace, the effects (detailed in Mind’s Mentally Healthy
Workplaces booklet) could be:
- An increase in productivity, efficiency and innovation
- An increase in profits and reduced business costs
- Improved staff morale and performance
- A reduction in absence and staff turnover
- An enhanced reputation as an employer
- Help you to honour your duty of care as an employer
·
Here
are just a few of my tips for helping to raise awareness of Mental Health in
the workplace:
- Order relevant booklets and publications and keep a catalogue of these in your break out areas for employees to read through
- Encourage employees to take a walk at lunch, or on their break. It's know that spending time in nature can help reduce stress
- If you have space, investigate holding before or after work Yoga, Pilates or breathing exercise classes at the office.
- Instead of bringing in biscuits and cake to the office (delicious though they are), stock up on healthy snacks like carrot sticks, strawberries, grapes and apples which will help your employees get in their 5-a-day.
- Promote flexible working practices, helping your employees find that coveted work/life balance.
- Praise your employees and acknowledge their efforts.
- Open the windows. Research shows that exposing your lungs to fresh air, and the scents of flowers and plants can help to relieve stress.
- Take advantage of all the free resources provided by Mind and the Mental Health Foundation to learn and put in place policies and procedures to help manage the mental health and stress of your employees.
- Take a training course to really understand how improving the mental health in your workplace can benefit your business.
Raise Awareness
To
raise awareness of mental health and Mental Health Awareness week, make sure to
wear your green ribbon pin badge, find them here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/green-ribbon-pin-badges.
And to find out more from Mind.org.uk and The
Mental Health Foundation, click the links below:
I
hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a stress-free
week!
See
you soon!
Naomi | VIRTUALESQUE
Photo by Tim Goedhart on Unsplash
Photo by sharon wright on Unsplash
