Supporting mental health at work

Supporting the mental health of today’s workforce has long been on the radar of many business leaders. Brian Donn from Ceridian, Australia and New Zealand, looks at recent Ceridian research and offers areas where organisations can get started in raising awareness of mental health in the workforce.

With the increased strain over the past few years, including staff shortages across industries, global volatility, and the war for talent, it’s more critical than ever to raise awareness of mental health in the workforce. Ensuring mental health support is crucial to safeguard retention, maintain a strong workplace culture, and is simply the right thing to do.

When we think about the impact of mental wellness, it’s no surprise innovation is more likely to blossom in environments where people feel valued and where they feel they can be open and honest with managers about personal challenges. Employees are also more likely to be present and focused on work. According to the OECD, poor mental health costs the New Zealand economy 4–5 per cent of GDP every year through lost labour productivity, increased healthcare expenditure and social spending on people temporarily or permanently out of work.

According to research in New Zealand, it’s clear that employees are tired. Ceridian’s Pulse of Talent report shows over four-in-five (84 per cent) of surveyed New Zealanders report experiencing burnout, while 36 per cent indicate serious or extreme burnout symptoms. The main factors leading to these burnout levels include increased workload (42 per cent), mental health challenges (36 per cent) and leaders who are unsupportive (25 per cent).

The Pulse of Talent research also found that, while many New Zealand businesses support mental health and wellness through employee assistance programmes (44 per cent) and consistent manager check-ins (32 per cent), another 14 per cent are doing nothing at all. The research highlights a desire for mental health days (46 per cent), flexible schedules (39 per cent) and additional benefits coverage (37 per cent) when it comes to supporting employee overall wellness and mental health.

Beyond these benefits, employees need and expect sustainable and healthy workplaces, which requires taking on the real work of culture change. Winning top talent goes beyond pay and encompasses the complete employee experience. It’s not enough to simply offer the latest apps or employ euphemisms like ‘wellbeing’ or ‘mental fitness’. Employers must connect what they say to what they actually do.

The question now lies in how organisations can get started.

Get to the root of the problem

Building mental health awareness can only happen when organisations know where they fall short and what their employees really need. Businesses need to measure their people analytics on a consistent basis. Leaders should become more aware of their flight risks, employee expectations and gain regular feedback before working on a tailored mental health strategy for their talent pool.

Offer opportunities for culture change

Employees want their voice to be heard, especially when it comes to company values and culture. Employers can empower staff to change the workplace culture for the better and put forward their recommendations on improving mental health. Leaders need to be open to feedback as a first step in increasing awareness about an organisation’s commitment to mental health.

Workers may seek out other employment opportunities if a company fails to address social issues. The future of employee experience – from recruitment to retirement – is intimately connected to initiatives around mental health and culture, so these practices shouldn’t fall by the wayside.

Help employees while giving them flexibility

The shift to remote work has dramatically changed the work– life balance for employees who are able to work from home. For some, without the commute to and from an outside office location, ‘work from home’ can quickly start to feel like they’re living at work 24/7. Managers should encourage employees to take breaks, to disconnect, and establish set working hours with a consistent time to sign off.

On the other hand, half of the workforce doesn’t have the option to do their job remotely. It’s important to give these workers a sense of autonomy and control over when they work with scheduling flexibility. Irregular schedules can make it hard to plan childcare, commute or feel in control of their own work– life balance. Managers should ask workers when they would like to work and provide fair notice of these schedules.

Leveraging workplace technologies that help you create fair schedules and better match staff to demand, is the first place to start.

Assess employee benefits

It may be time to re-evaluate corporate benefits packages. Paid time off can be an important part of a company’s employee value proposition that helps improve worklife balance. Organisations should regularly review their paid time off offerings and whether they suit the needs and wants of employees.

In addition, organisations should ensure they’re taking a holistic view of wellness offerings. Research by CFFC recently released to support Mental Health Awareness Week found 69 per cent of New Zealanders are concerned about money, with that figure rising to 74 per cent of women and 82 per cent of those aged 18–34. When it comes to financial wellness, employee offerings should be based on organisational data, so programmes have a positive and measurable impact on the business. Examples of wellness offerings are financial literacy programmes and retirement plan matching. In addition, a relatively new and growing trend is when organisations provide employees with early access to their earned wages to give them greater control over their personal finances.

Although every workplace is different, there is a clear need to take a broad view of wellbeing and ensure workplace wellness conversations are happening now to enact change. Today’s business leaders and HR professionals need to be finely tuned to how they can support their workforce now and into the future.

Brian Donn is the Managing Director of Ceridian in Australia and New Zealand. With more than 20 years of market experience, Brian has held leadership positions across the Asia-Pacific region, including Oracle, Verint Systems Inc, KANA Software and Sword Group. At Ceridian, Brian is focused on empowering customers with the digital transformation of their people processes in a constantly changing world of work.