Mental Health in the Workplace
Whether your team is working from home, hybrid or back in the office, prioritizing mental health in the workplace is key to your organization's success. Based on a study from 2011, “1/5 of Canadians experience a mental health problem or mental illness each year.” 1
Because we have spent the past two years living in a pandemic, it is expected those numbers are increasing. Research by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) with UBC found that 41% of people in Canada reported a decline in their mental health since the onset of the pandemic which means the need for mental health support at work is more critical than ever.
“While some leaders may feel like things are beginning to return to normal, data from Gallup’s new State of the Global Workplace report suggests that the emotional side of work has not healed from the pressures of the last two years. Under the surface, people around the world are stressed and anxious: 44% of employees say they experienced stress a lot during the previous day.”2
Although many leaders have made an effort to conduct a thoughtful re-entry into the office, “Gallup research from March 2022 found that fewer than one in four U.S. employees felt strongly that their employer cared about their wellbeing — the lowest percentage in nearly a decade.” 3 This may account for some of the resignations that companies are facing. During the pandemic, many mindsets shifted and people began to prioritize their well-being over their careers.
While wellness and mental health programs vary from company to company, there are many opportunities to encourage workplace wellness. It can be beneficial to take time to review your current practices and determine where you can enhance your employee mental wellness program. Prioritizing mental health in the workplace benefits employee well-being and is good for business.
Here are just a few of the benefits of a psychologically healthy workplace.
Here are just a few of the benefits of a psychologically healthy workplace:
Increased
Engagement
Morale
Job satisfaction
Retention and recruitment
Productivity
Reduced
Absenteeism
Grievances
Health costs
Medical leave
In today’s fast-paced workplace environment, it’s no surprise that work contributes significantly to life’s stressors. Stress can lead to more severe issues from burnout to depression and losing employees to stress-leave or resignation can be costly to an organization.
The CMHA states, “According to Statistics Canada, employees who considered most of their days to be quite a bit or extremely stressful were over three times more likely to suffer a major depressive episode, compared with those who reported low levels of general stress.”
So, what can we do to create a more psychologically healthy workplace? Here are a few areas to explore.
Management Wellness Tips:
Touch base with teammates on stress levels and reassign workloads to help manage stress.
Encourage employees to get up and walk around the block. If they are struggling, getting outside can help reset their perspective.
Implement the two-word check-in at the beginning of the day. Staff use up to two words to help level-set where their headspace is. For example, “Feeling overwhelmed,” “I’m excited,” “I’m exhausted,” “Feeling burnt-out,” and “Feeling optimistic,” etc. Managers can then follow up to get more context about the situation.
Give your team autonomy to complete their work.
Bring in a conflict resolution/workplace communication specialist and implement their suggestions with your team.
Invest in employee engagement, from events, to coaching, to retreats, to foster connection within the workplace and boost morale.
“Only 23% of Canadians feel comfortable raising a mental health concern at work ”
Corporate Wellness Tips:
Encourage breathwork. Hire a specialist to teach breathing techniques or incorporate a corporate subscription to Breathwrk.
Offer a robust benefits package with counselling and therapy coverage.
Provide mental health days for your employees. Make it a no questions asked policy so that employees feel comfortable requesting them. As a leader, set the tone by using those days yourself.
Enroll your company in a program like Not Myself Today (endorsed by the CMHA) or Headversity that teaches tips and tools for managing stress.
Bring in a yoga instructor on a regular basis to help reduce stress and improve mindfulness within the team.
Encourage meditation through a corporate subscription to Headspace or provide dedicated time for meditation within the work day.
Bring in a specialist to provide diversity and inclusion training, ensure you follow through with their suggestions.
Hire a specialist to host a workplace communication training session to improve team communication dynamics.
Run surveys to get a pulse check on the well-being of your teams and implement solutions based on the findings. Employees can help uncover blind spots and offer solutions that will save the company money in the long term, from adding a role to implementing a new process, etc.
Coworker Wellness Tips:
Lighten the mood. Help manage stress by creating a fun workplace. Some humour can be an excellent way to break the tension in high-stress situations. Remember, in most cases, we aren’t saving lives.
Check in with a teammate and, if they are struggling ask if there’s anything you can do to help. When people are stressed, their troubleshooting abilities suffer. Having a fresh outside perspective can help resolve an issue, reducing stress and helping to get work done faster.
Encourage teams to eat lunch together.
Provide teams with a social allowance to encourage them to get to know each other better.
“Friendship and social connection have many benefits for our mental health.”
Office Environment Wellness Tips:
Create a dedicated quiet space for workers. This can help them manage stress when focusing on a specific task.
Offer a range of washroom solutions, including non-gendered, private washrooms.
Consider reviewing the layout of the office and encouraging staff to use headphones and to take in-person meetings in conference rooms to reduce ambient noise.
Create dedicated social areas to foster connection.
While there are varying degrees of corporate investment in wellness programs, there are many cost-effective ways to improve employee well-being. Awareness, communication, and empathy can be great places to start. Be present with your team and actively listen. If you are looking for ways to foster connection and improve communication, it might be time to bring in a specialist. Drop a hello, and we’d be happy to chat.
1 Smetanin, P., Stiff, D., Briante, C., Adair, C., Ahmad, S. & Khan, M. (2011). 2 Stressed, Sad, and Anxious: A Snapshot of the Global Workforce by Ryan Pendell 3 Stressed, Sad, and Anxious: A Snapshot of the Global Workforce by Ryan Pendell 
About KindCo
KindCo is a Vancouver-based brand engagement consultancy that specializes in employee engagement and corporate events. We bring people together through the art of gathering.
Founder, Nikki Hedstrom, has over 15 years experience as a brand engagement and event specialist.
