Creating and sustaining a psychologically healthy work environment is critical to a company’s success. Likewise, supporting and boosting employees’ mental wellbeing is a talent-management issue, requiring strategic investments of time and money. Everything company leaders do to enhance workers’ wellbeing helps ensure the overall health and success of not only individual employees, but also the business as a whole.
Here are some steps rent-to-own managers can take toward creating a work culture that supports staff through understanding, inclusivity, and belonging:
Regularly audit your Employee Assistance Program to confirm your company is providing the maximum benefit for workers – including verifying that providers follow current research and best practices.
Data from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that employees who don’t use their wellbeing programs tend to require higher rates of medical care, costing their employers more due to the effects of unaddressed mental-health issues on worker performance and productivity.
Be proactive with your commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), using a multifaceted approach to engage employees and advance their wellbeing. For example:
- Use inclusive terminology – words matter.
- Establish Employee Resource Groups as a space for under-represented workers to connect with each other and share experiences and advice.
- Acknowledge a variety of identities by celebrating important cultural and religious days on your company’s shared calendar, and by being mindful about scheduling meetings, events, and deadlines on those days.
Encourage employees to make time for their wellbeing in order to not only safeguard their mental health, but also improve their job performance. For instance:
- Create a company culture where workers have access to paid time off, and aren’t scolded for missing work. Multiple studies have shown that employees working even though they feel unwell is associated with worse health, higher healthcare costs, and lower productivity.
- Hold company-wide mental-health days when no emails, calls, or meetings are allowed, so no one feels the need to catch up once business resumes the next day.
- Separate paid vacation days from paid sick time to encourage employees to take appropriate time off for mental health, physical wellbeing, and their earned vacation leave.
Click here for more ways to develop company policies and programs to promote employee mental health.
Download the full Striving for Mental Health Excellence in the Workplace guide (PDF, 1MB)
