Healthy minds, happy workforce

Employees are the building blocks of any organisation; they are not mere cogs ensuring the machine to run efficiently, rather, they are the force behind innovation, collaboration, and fluidity. Even in an era of technology, artificial intelligence, and advancing automation, it is the human factors that ascertain the organisations’ productivity and continuous growth in any field.

With the workforce holding such importance, it is imperative that the employees are in their best physical and psychological state, with well-being not merely the absence of illness, but rather a state of being optimally and holistically healthy. Psychological well-being in this regard holds utmost importance. Plenty of surveys worldwide have identified a clear link between the psychological state of employees, its impact on their work productivity, and the ultimate link with the organisation’s performance. Employees’ well-being and psychological safety relates to all aspects of working life, including work organisation, social factors at work, work environment, and equipment and hazardous tasks. For organisations, the impact of psychological risks factors in employees include increased costs due to absence from work, increased turnover, reduced product or service quality, increased cost of recruitment and training, workplace investigations and litigation, and eventual damage to the organisation’s reputation.

Keeping in view the cost and benefits of employees’ well-being at micro level, and its cascading impact on world economy at macro level, the World Mental Health Federation has declared prioritising mental health in the workplace to be the theme of world mental health day in October 2024. This leads to the question about the potential ways organisations wanting to be at par with international standards can adopt this theme and turn it into their workplace culture.

To bring about a holistic change in the direction of employees’ psychological well-being and safety, first step can be to divide the plan of action into strategic, tactical, and operational levels with awareness and skill-building being executed at micro level and policy making and implementation at macro level.

Creating a cultural shift necessitates a strategic realignment, requiring buy-in from the leaders, subsequently moving down to lower management. This can be achieved through initiating coaching or trainings of leaders and managers on the importance of psychological well-being and safety; it has been found to create improved attitudes towards mental health and higher motivation to promote it at work. Training the managers and supervisors in this domain has also shown promising results in early detection of stress and burn out in their supervisees, helping reduce turnover and absenteeism.

Along with this, encouraging open dialogue around mental health issues and well-being with employees themselves also creates a sense of safety and acceptance; pretenses lead to cognitive and emotional burden, causing a productivity decline. Having a safe space to talk about the potential work related psychological triggers and their solutions with a trusted source leads to reduced stress; in order to achieve this open culture of psychological well-being, organisations worldwide have begun hiring well-being officers dedicated to this vision. In case of reticent employees, conducting anonymous surveys to assess the levels of workplace stress, their causes and prospective solutions, along with sharing a concrete plan of action based on the findings is established to be a good way forward in the direction of creating a psychologically safe work culture.

Policies aimed towards equity, diversity, and inclusion are also imperative in ensuring employees’ well-being. Training managers and supervisors to understand and implement organisations’ inclusive policies and practices in true letter and spirit, and entertaining diverse viewpoints foster a psychologically safe workplace. This in turns builds trust among leadership and employees, further contributing towards job satisfaction, and minimising job-related stress.

In addition to policy change and implementation at strategic level, providing the employees with a sense of control over work decisions and practices at operational level also ensures them to stay motivated and at their top performance. Having a say in deciding their work hours in the form of flexibility, or opting freely to choose a hybrid mode of work when possible creates a sense of empowerment, agency, and autonomy in employees. This has been shown to increase their motivation and performance, which can directly impact the organisation’s bottom line. Organisations investing in more autonomous work, balancing the business and employees’ needs, are viewed as creating more psychologically safe and inclusive work environments.

At a more tactical level, organisations are furthermore opting for employees’ well-being programs or assistance services. Employees’ Assistance Program (EAP) services provide counseling, support, and resources to employees who are struggling with personal or work-related issues. This can include mental health concerns, financial problems, substance abuse, and family issues. By offering EAPs, organisations show their commitment to the well-being of their employees and create a supportive work environment, consequently leading to a healthier and more positive workplace culture. Overall, implementing an EAP has benefits for both employees and the organisations as whole.

Dr Fareeha Kanwal is a clinical psychologist and freelance contributor

All information and facts provided are the sole responsibility of the writer