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- Show Appreciation. The most frequently cited behaviors (mentioned by 44% of the participants) were recognizing, praising, and otherwise showing appreciation for a person’s work, dedication, effort, and contributions.
- Provide Individualized Support. When leaders showed an understanding of employees’ needs, preferences, and circumstances when it came to work arrangements, employees felt it provided the individualized support they needed to help them accomplish work goals.
- Involve Employees in Decision Making. In a time of great uncertainty and stress, several participants (15%) noted that they appreciated leaders who sought out, and acted upon, their input.
- Entrust Employees with New Responsibilities. This may seem counterintuitive given that people’s mental bandwidth is often constrained in times of crises and disruptions, but 13% of participants mentioned feeling empowered when they were tasked with new responsibilities even while organizations scrambled to meet the challenges of the pandemic.
- Creating clear policies. With the increased stress levels brought on by the pandemic, managers may see more employees experiencing personal crises or disruptive behavior that is affecting their work performance.
- Partnering with mental health providers. Many workers suffering as a result of the pandemic may not be exhibiting clear mental health problems. Rather, they could be experiencing a disruption in their personal lives that is bleeding into their work.
- Preventing illness with wellness programs. Workplaces can also take a more proactive stance. Workplace wellness programs help prevent mental health problems by teaching employees new skills that support resiliency, which can act as a buffer from the negative effects of stress.
- Fighting mental health stigma by changing norms. People experiencing mental illness or just mental health struggles often face substantial stigma. They might avoid treatment because they are concerned about losing their job or being viewed differently.
Phrases like these can seem dismissive and out of touch. If the outburst continues for an extended time, suggest a change of scenery. Encourage the employee to go for a walk or take a break and ...
- Natalie Kroc
- (800) 283-7476
- 1800 Duke Street, Alexandria, 22314
Mental health in the workplace is a human rights issue. COVID-19 is making existing barriers to equality worse for many people across Canada, and creating new barriers for others. The pandemic also implicates other laws in Canada aimed at proactively reducing barriers for people with mental health related disabilities.
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- Be vulnerable.
- Model Healthy behaviors.
- Offer Flexibility and Be inclusive.
- Communicate More Than You Think You Need to.
One silver lining of the pandemic is that it is normalizing mental health challenges. Almost everyone has experienced some level of discomfort. But the universality of the experience will translate into a decrease in stigma only if people, especially people in power, share their experiences. Being honest about your mental health struggles as a lead...
Don’t just say you support mental health. Model it so that your team members feel they can prioritize self-care and set boundaries. More often than not, managers are so focused on their team’s well-being and on getting the work done that they forget to take care of themselves. Share that you’re taking a walk in the middle of the day, having a thera...
Expect that the situation, your team’s needs, and your own needs will continue to change. Check in regularly — particularly at transition points. You can help problem-solve any issues that come up only if you know what’s happening. Those conversations will also give you an opportunity to reiterate norms and practices that support mental health. Inc...
Our study with Qualtrics and SAP showed that employees who felt their managers were not good at communicating have been 23% more likely than others to experience mental health declines since the outbreak. Make sure you keep your team informed about any organizational changes or updates. Clarify any modified work hours and norms. Remove stress where...
Cheng et al. (Reference Cheng, Carlin, Carroll, Gupta, Rojas, Montenovo and Simon 2020) pointed out that the employment activities have increased after the companies' reopening in some US states mainly due to the return to work of employees, after lockdown, to their physical workplace. Nevertheless, the reemployment probabilities diminish significatively for employees who stayed longer away ...
Be patient and treat the associate with sensitivity. You don’t know what others are going through in their personal lives. Usually, people are being difficult as a cry for help. Try to get them ...
