Business Leaders: 3 Tips to Improve Your Mental Health at Work Initiatives.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
Yes, it's called mental health. No, we don't have to call it mental wellness or mental wellbeing. Mental health isn't a dirty word, even at work, and we need to stop treating it like it is by dancing around what we call it.
How you name mental health at work initiatives, the purpose you highlight, and the language you use to discuss them matters - even more than you may realize.
It's clear as day: we don't just need mental health at work initiatives - we need effective ones steeped in reality, are realistic, and action-oriented.
Why? Because it's not just about having 'something' - it's about getting it right too.
Even if you have one in place, it might have stalled, fizzled out, or gone off the rails in a direction you really didn’t intend for it to. It may seem difficult, but you can get your initiative back on track.
How?
Examine what might be wrong and follow these three steps: check in with yourself, use intentional language when naming initiatives, and (honestly) document your stance.
WHY MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVES AT WORK FAIL
A mental health initiative can go off the rails when it’s not what your employees actually need.
Let's keep in mind that, for the companies who do want to address this, they are generally doing what they can, when they can, with what they have. Doing something is in fact better than doing nothing - but how it's done matters.
To create a successful initiative, you need to address the real issues — not slap a band-aid on it. You also need to consider why your employees may or may not want to talk about mental health and mental illness.
MENTAL HEALTH BAND-AIDS
Mental health band-aid initiatives are a quick fix thrown at a problem and often don't show an awareness of what your workforce needs, or employee situations, and tend to skirt around the real issues at hand. (1).
Mental health band-aids can take many forms. The intention seems right - but the execution is where it gets lost. Here's what this can look like:
The only mental health presence in your company is about benefits or wellness incentives.
Why? To decrease turnover rates or entice employees to join your organization.
What can this look like? Money towards fitness classes, a gym membership, or free yoga classes.
You accidentally promote toxic positivity.
Why? To keep company morale high.
What can this look like? Encouraging your employees to be positive all the time (translation: please keep those negative feelings to yourself).
You encourage employees to discuss personal concerns and perspectives in an open setting.
Why? To foster honest conversations and promote discussions about mental health.
What can this look like? The occasional Wellness Wednesday luncheon, and nothing else.
While these initiatives appear helpful and progressive, they don’t address the real issues — and go about it in the same way it's historically been done: Oh you have a problem? Here's this program. Ok bye best of luck!
Take a moment to look at the initiatives you have in place. Are they a band-aid?
TALKING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AT WORK
When creating mental health at work initiatives, a huge step is often missed: considering what people bring to the table for the discussion (i.e. personal experience, views, perceptions, biases, etc.).
How can you effectively create an effective mental health at work initiative and ask people to discuss the topic without knowing the lens they come to it with? You can't.
Mental health is a deeply personal topic for people. There are many factors that determine someone’s comfort level around this subject.
Factors that shape these views outside of work include, but are not limited to:
Gender
Culture and ethnicity
Religion
Family of origin
Media influence
Personal experiences and how one views themself
Factors that influence views inside the workplace can include:
Work relationships
Witnessing the language choice that others use around mental health or mental illness
Leadership stoicism
Company avoidance about current social issues that impact mental health
Staff may not feel comfortable talking about mental health at work. They may not know how or even want to. But here's the thing: getting a pulse on peoples' experiences, comfort levels, willingness or unwillingness to have this conversation, and what they actually need is imperative.
Why you ask?
Knowing this crucial qualitative data is paramount because it will help to shape your mental health at work initiative. The goal is to create a purposeful program that will actually support constructive conversations about mental health at work based on what people actually need, not what is 'assumed' that they need. Look at it like this: to build a house that won't crumble, you need to draw blueprints that are checked by multiple people for usability and accuracy. How is designing a mental health at work initiative any different?
Understanding their perspective is crucial to improving how your mental health at work initiatives are designed and received.
3 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVES
So, you want to offer initiatives that are well-positioned and actually work? Here’s where you need to start:
“Honor, acknowledge and seek to understand [each person’s] differences. Don’t assume that someone’s views and experiences around mental health and mental illness are the same as yours.”(1)
The goal is for your initiatives to create a better understanding of this topic and deeper conversations between colleagues, at all levels of the organization.
With this guidance and the tips below, approach mental health initiatives at your company in an open, honest way.
TIP #1 — CHECK-IN WITH YOURSELF - AND BE REALLY HONEST
If you're involved in helping to create mental health at work initiatives, before implementing them, start with yourself.
After all, if you’re not willing to discuss your own mental health, how can you expect your employees to?
So take some time and explore your own fears, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings around mental health discussions. Check-in with yourself using these guidelines:
Be honest and dive deep into your own roadblocks on the subject.
Make notes about your own concerns on the topic.
Determine your comfort level with these conversations.
Decide what you want to accomplish in your company.
This gut check gives you a starting point for checking your own biases before designing and implementing your mental health initiatives.
TIP #2 — USE INTENTIONAL LANGUAGE
Words matter. It’s how we communicate with each other. And it can set the tone around this topic in your company.
The words you use will impact peopless’ perceptions about the “why” of the program.
If you're not intentional with your words, your initiative will fail.
Why? Because what you say you're trying to do versus what you're actually trying to do, might not align. And people at your company will pick up on this - quickly.
So your language choice is crucial when it comes to your initiatives. Use the power of language to set the tone that people really need, not that you 'think' they need.
Call a spade a spade, not something 'resembling' a spade.
Do you want to talk about processing grief and loss? Call it that.
Do you want to discuss the mental health impact of different sociopolitical events? Call it that.
Do you want to give people the conversational abilities to have supportive mental health at work conversations? What do you think I'm going to say...
TIP #3 — CLEARLY DOCUMENT YOUR STANCE - AND WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO
Take time to document your company’s stance on how and why you want to enable mental health at work conversations — and be really honest about it. Why, and how. Not the market-dictated reasons, but your organization's ACTUAL reasons.
Work with colleagues, at all levels of the organization, to gather information and understand why this initiative is actually important. Use this information to create a mental-health-at-work mission statement.
Writing down your company’s values around this cements your commitment to change, at least on paper. You know what else needs to be there?
An explanation of how and why you're going to keep it alive over time.
How are you going to enable your entire organization to develop the skills to have these conversations?
How are you going to encourage the organization to learn from each other around this topic?
What are the core values you're going to practice in this initiative and why?
What are the pain points and key learning areas you're going to address through this education?
How will you include people at all levels of the organization to support and carry on this initiative so it's not solely on HR's shoulders?
How will you continually revisit the program to ensure the content is relevant and up to date?
How will you measure success?
Keep in mind that no initiative can be everything to everyone. But taking the steps above puts you in the right direction and using best practices to do it.
It’s important to note that documentation should be your last stop. Springing this idea on your employees, without context, might actually do more harm than good. While you might be eager to get here, it will take some build-up and stage-setting before you reach this point.
YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR WORKPLACE INITIATIVES
If your workplace mental health initiative is struggling along or stalled completely, don’t give up hope. You can adjust and improve it. Start by realizing what isn’t working and commit to changing it.
Using these steps — checking in with yourself, choosing the right language, and documenting your stance — will help you get started.
Remember, this is a slow burn, and true change takes time.
Are you ready to create mental health initiatives at your company, but need a little guidance? Book a call with Melissa and see how she can help.
Not ready for those changes, but want to learn more? Check out Melissa’s new book for even more tips.
Sources:
Doman, Melissa. Yes, You Can Talk about Mental Health at Work: Here's Why ... and How to Do It Really Well. Welbeck Publishing Group, 2021.
