Let’s Talk about Mental Health and How to Support It in the Workplace

 

It’s estimated that 1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental health illness at some point in their life. Which means if it’s not you, it could be a colleague.

We spend so much of our time at work, and it can quite often impact how we feel. So, it’s important to recognise the signs that a colleague may be struggling with their mental health. As a recruitment provider, we think it’s important to help raise awareness of mental health illness in the workplace. That’s why we conducted research to collate a list of 5 common changes in workplace behaviour to look out for:

Loss of motivation

Withdrawing

Extremely high and low mood swings

Poor performance

Increased absences and changes to working patterns

Always take into consideration that these behaviours can be linked to something other than mental health, but it’s important to know the common changes in behaviour to watch out for.

What can you do to help?

As an employer, it’s important to foster a supportive workplace culture and provide additional wellbeing services for employees to access if needed. Using online wellbeing services such as Health Assured, and Perkbox Employee Wellbeing allows employees to confidentially access professional services 24 hours, 7 days a week, without having to disclose how they feel to their manager.

Making sure your colleagues are aware of your wellbeing policies and any additional support services available to them will help with communicating any issues. So, whether you have a designated HR team, or a singular HR representative, share this information amongst the team.

Acknowledging and communicating the best point of contact for confidential conversations about mental health might encourage more employees to come forward if they are experiencing problems; whether that is the Office Manager, a Line Manager, HR Representative or HR team, your employees should know who they can approach should they wish to discuss mental health issues or share their concerns about a colleague’s wellbeing.

Lastly, providing a supportive workplace culture will stimulate conversations about mental health. Opening the conversation up is an important step to abolishing stigmas associated with mental health in the workplace.

Professional Support

For further advice and support on mental health in the workplace, contact a professional workplace wellbeing provider, such as Mental Health at Work for further resources, toolkits and articles.

Click the link to find a list of crisis support lines available if you ever need to talk to someone about your mental health.