Mental Wellbeing In The Workplace
It is increasingly being recognized that the mental health of employees is a crucial determinant in their overall health and that poor mental health and stressors at the workplace can be a contributory factor to a range of physical illnesses.
Poor mental health is one of the biggest issues in the workplace today, causing over 70 million working days to be lost each year. As well as having a huge impact on individual employees, poor mental health has severe repercussions for employers – including increased staff turnover, sickness absence due to debilitating depression, burnout and exhaustion, decreased motivation, and lost productivity.
Mentally healthy workplaces are positive and productive. They are environments where people want to come to work.
In mentally healthy workplaces:
people watch out for each other and can ask someone if they’re ok.
managers and teams understand mental health and openly talk about it
people know about things they can do to build resilience for challenging times at work and at home
staff with mental health concerns seek help early
staff with mental health issues are supported in their recovery.
Mentally healthy workplaces are good for people and businesses
When our workplaces are mentally healthy, we see enormous benefits to individual employees and to the business itself, such as:
Enhanced work performance and productivity. We perform at our best when we have high levels of psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Improvements for your company’s bottom line. Reduced staff turnover, recruitment and training costs; fewer sick days and presenteeism (being at work but not able to work at capacity); greater productivity and creativity are all good for your business – increasing revenue and decreasing costs.
Improvements to your wellbeing. Work instills us with a sense of purpose, provides social networks and supports, gives opportunities to grow and develop, and helps us achieve in areas of strength – all important contributing factors to our wellbeing.
Helping recovery. For those of us living with mental illness, work can play an important role in helping us recover. Many mental illnesses we see in the workplace are treatable, and in some cases, preventable.
Attracting (and keeping) great talent. Businesses that invest in mental health are more likely to attract and retain the best and brightest. The culture of workplace wellbeing has many flow-on effects to individuals, businesses and the community.
In Conclusion, a mentally healthy workplace leads to greater productivity, better morale, better retention of valued and experienced staff, and reduced sickness absence.
Here at Inbloom, we have been offering for many years an interactive 45 minutes R U OK? Workshop to support this important cause. This virtual workshop can literally save someone’s life; when pressure is high and you feel isolated, the darkest thoughts can emerge in your mind. We are committed to empower and educate people to take care of their mental health & wellbeing, whilst learning ways to support their colleagues who might be struggling. Let’s talk about it!
Reference:
Workplace wellbeing by black dog institute org Link: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/resources-support/wellbeing/workplace-wellbeing/