May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and employees’ psychological wellbeing has never been more important. Especially as more organization embrace different, increasingly flexible work models, workers need to feel comfortable, safe, engaged, connected, and confident.
These three steps can help you address employee mental health while implementing new work models:
- Bring mental health under the DEI umbrella. Consider establishing an Employee Resource Group to create a safe place for workers to engage in honest discussions and enjoy a sense of belonging. These can be virtual or live and enable employees to connect, chat, share feelings and concerns, and see that they’re not alone in their struggles.
- Offer benefits that include mental health. If you’re not doing this already, make it a priority. Your employees need this now more than ever, and offering these (and making sure everyone knows about them) shows your workers that you care about their mental health and that there is no stigma in needing and seeking help. Remember, these can be fun – exercise classes, book clubs, after-school programs for kids, drawing/painting workshops, etc.
- Create opportunities to talk about mental health. Make mental health resources easy to access and use. Encourage workers to take breaks, chat, and share.
