Supporting the Mental Health of Your Team: Workplace Mental Health Through a Lived Experience Lens
With 1 in 5 Australian workers currently experiencing a mental health condition, it isn’t just likely that someone in your team is going through a mental health condition, it’s pretty certain.
Workplace mental health is being spoken about more and more, and it can be hard to know which approaches are actually effective and where to start. So where do you start in terms of creating a mentally healthy culture within your team?
As someone who has worked with a mental health condition since I entered my working life, I wanted to share some helpful tips and insights from a lived experience perspective on how you can support the mental health of your teams as a leader.
Why is this important?
Well firstly, it is simply the right thing to do. Not just as a leader, but as a human being.
Each and every one of us will experience negative emotions through our lifetime and they can be incredibly hard to navigate. It is always helpful to place yourself in someone else’s shoes. If you (or someone close to you) was going through a mental health struggle, think about how important you would find it for them to be supported and understood at work.
Work is where we spend a large portion of our time, so if someone is struggling with their mental health it is inevitable that there will be some form of impact on them at work. In the past, I have heard comments being made like “leave your personal life at the door”.
I hate to break it to those who believe in that philosophy, but as someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, I can in fact confirm that I unfortunately can’t switch off those symptoms and feelings. Hey, if I could, I would probably choose to switch them off in every aspect of my life! Not just work. It’s just not possible to leave our feelings or personal life at the door.
Not enough to convince you? Well, as well as being the right thing to do, it makes business sense. If you aren’t driven by the warm and fuzzies like I am, I’ll let the statistics speak for themselves:
Research by Pricewaterhouse Coopers has shown that for every dollar you spend creating a mentally healthy workplace can, on average, result in a positive return on investment (ROI) of 2.3.
Research by Instinct and Reason (PDF) found that three-quarters of Australian employees say a mentally healthy workplace is important when looking for a job.
Research shows that organisations with a positive approach to mental health and safety have increased productivity, improved worker engagement and are better able to recruit and retain talented people.
Research found that around 90 per cent of employees think mental health is an important issue for businesses, but only 50 per cent believe their workplace is mentally healthy.
Organisations that focus on mental health also have reduced absenteeism, risk of conflict, grievances, turnover, disability injury rates and performance or morale problems.
This is a small selection of the many statistics out there that tell us a focus on workplace mental health is crucial for the success of a business.
So what now? Well, here are a few tips to get you started with creating a mentally healthy culture within your team. I would encourage you to write down/save at least one or two and think about how you can put them into action.
Get to know everyone as individuals and make check-ins a regular, scheduled part of your role
The first thing I wanted to emphasise is the importance of getting to know every individual within your team. This one might sound pretty simple, but it can be easy to get it wrong.
Every team has people who are perhaps louder or more comfortable in speaking to their manager than others. You may have people who are more likely to work through their daily tasks silently without much guidance or management required, but this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check in with them.
Try to view your team like this:
Instead of like this:
Make check-ins with every single team member a part of your work schedule. A great step to take is to organise an ongoing, monthly calendar invite with each member of your time. This can be just a quick, 30 minute check-in to see how everything is going and if there is any support needed from you as their leader.
My most supportive leaders have been the ones who take the time during our catch-ups, no matter how busy they are, to check in with how I am feeling. How I am REALLY feeling. My suggestion is to ask the below 2 questions before you dive in to work chat during your monthly check-ins:
How are you (really) doing?
Is there anything that you need from me right now?
Think about the language and conversations that you are using, and condoning, within your team
When you are silently struggling with a mental health condition, the likelihood is that you are experiencing ‘self-stigma’. When we think of the word ‘stigma’, we often think of it as judgment from others. However, sometimes we can internalise the feelings of other people or make judgements around what people might think of us if they knew we were struggling, and this is known as self-stigma.
The silver lining to come out of the last couple of years and our collective struggles is that we are becoming much more open as a society when it comes to talking about mental health and talking about not being okay in general. The stigma is reducing. however there is still a way to go.
Here are a few of the things that I have personally heard being said in the workplace:
“People who take medication for their mental health are just avoiding the real problem”
“I understand they have got things going on, but don’t bring it to work”
“Some people need to just drink a cup of concrete and get on with it”
Hearing phrases like the above only worsened my self-stigma because they showed me that stigma was real. This prevented me from being able to open up about my mental health at work and made me blame myself for what I was going through.
Think about the language you are using to ensure that you are leading by example, and if you hear your team members say things like the above, pull them aside and let them know that those words could have a negative impact. Mindframe have some great resources around the impact of language on mental health stigma.
Build mental health awareness and capability within your team
A great way to break down the stigma is through education and starting conversations around mental health. Initiatives such as R U OK? Day and World Mental Health Day are great opportunities to shine a light on mental health, but this shouldn’t be a one-off event.
Consider mental health awareness training for your teams to make them alert to the signs and symptoms that someone might be struggling, and the supports available to them.
Mental Health First Aid Training is a great way to equip your teams with this knowledge, as it teaches participants the signs and symptoms of a mental illness and how to start a conversation with someone that you are concerned about.
There are also a range of fantastic Workplace Mental Health Awareness Workshops out there, or if you have the resources you might look to develop some mental health awareness training in-house.
Peer support is huge, and when I have worked alongside colleagues who genuinely cared and checked in with me, it has made a huge difference to my wellbeing.
In addition to mental health awareness training, you should look to start the conversation around things like self-care and personal wellbeing to ensure that your teams are keeping wellbeing at front of mind.
Does your workplace have an Employee Assistance Program?
Next, we need to make sure that those who need help can access it.
In my work as a Workplace Mental Health & Wellbeing Trainer and Consultant, I regularly ask organisations if they have an EAP in place for their employees. For those who do, oftentimes they can’t tell me much about it other than the fact counselling is available and this support is underutilised.
Take some time to learn the ins and outs of the program available to your teams. A lot of providers offer:
At least 4 free counselling sessions per year to employees as well as their immediate family members. This is a game changer as we are seeing the out-of-pocket costs for psychology sessions rise.
Many also offer holistic support around nutrition, finances, positive psychology and legal support allowing for a well-rounded holistic approach to employee wellness.
Most are contactable 24/7, every day of the year and can be reached over the phone as well as offering in-person and video appointments.
Some even now offer live chat functions online or SMS counselling to break down the barrier of someone having to pick up the phone and verbalise what is going on for them.
Many now offer online wellbeing hubs with mental health and wellbeing resources, with some providers now offering mobile apps.
Some programs offer manager-specific support for leaders who have questions around team wellbeing.
One of the biggest things preventing people accessing the EAP at their workplace is scepticism around confidentiality. However, much like when we see a psychologist or counsellor privately, the professional you see through an EAP service has professional obligations around confidentiality.
As someone who has administered the EAP at a previous workplace, I can provide the assurance that there are no names or identifying information shared with a workplace when an employee accesses this support.
Here are some questions for you to ask your Human Resources team, or the EAP provider directly, about the program in your workplace:
Who is our provider and how can they be contacted?
Does our provider offer online chat or SMS counselling?
How many sessions are available to employees, and does this extend to immediate family members?
Where do we keep collateral such as posters, flyers, and contact cards that I can share with my team?
Does our EAP offer holistic supports such as nutrition, financial and legal support? If so, what does this involve?
Do they have a website or online hub? How can my team access this and how can I leverage this to support my team?
Is there a manager support component to our EAP, and if so, what is available to me as a leader?
What is the EAP’s confidentiality policy? (share this with your team!)
Can someone from the EAP deliver an awareness session to my team?
Once you know the answers to these questions, save them somewhere and talk to your team about the EAP and what is on offer. And don’t shut up about it. Don’t be scared about being annoying or talking about it too much (if anything, make sure that you ARE annoying and talk about it too much!)
Make it part of your agenda on team meetings, casually remind your team about it during one-on-ones, make sure they have access to posters and flyers in their physical and remote work areas. Jump onto the EAP website and download resources to share with your team on different wellbeing topics.
Learn about supports beyond the Employee Assistance Program
Educate yourself around the other helplines and supports available in the mental health space, because there are so many out there!
Click the button below to download a free list of helplines that I pulled together and be sure to share this with your teams.
Stick them up on the back of your staff toilet doors. This is a location where people have full privacy and will really pay attention to the information without worrying about what others think (do this with your EAP posters, too!)
Do some research into other support services in your local area and add them to the list.
Note: if you are outside of Australia I highly recommend printing off the helplines for your country from this website.
What to do when you think someone might not be ok
Earlier, I talked about the importance of team check-ins. Naturally, as you have monthly check-ins with your team members you will get to know them more on an individual level.
The great thing about getting to know them more is that you will likely become more aware of the signs and symptoms that they are not quite themselves, or that something might be going on.
Signs and symptoms of a mental health condition look different for everyone, but the key indicator that someone might be struggling with their mental health is a change in their behaviour.
For example, you might have an employee who is usually outgoing, social, and contributes their ideas a lot in team meetings. If they begin to withdraw from work social activities, appear less confident and don’t contribute ideas more then they could be struggling.
Maybe you have a quieter team member who always shows up to work on time, is great at meeting deadlines and takes pride in their appearance. If they start showing up to work late looking tired and dishevelled, and fail to meet their deadlines then this is a sure sign that something might be going on for them.
It can be hard to know what to say in these situations, and many managers that I speak to fear that they will say the wrong thing or make it worse. You are certainly not expected to be a psychologist and have all of the answers, however you can signpost the person to the support that they need.
The reality is, if you have genuine intentions and are acting with care and concern, it can be very difficult to say the wrong thing. Don’t let that initial fear lead to you avoiding the conversation altogether. Here are some top tips on starting that important conversation:
Preparation is key. Before you approach the person, print off your EAP contact details as well as the support contacts I shared above so that you can share these as part of the conversation.
Set up a time with the person in a comfortable environment (preferably outside of the workplace) and let them know you want to check-in.
Let them know what you have noticed. This is a great way to start a conversation with someone you are concerned about. You might say something like “I wanted to touch base. I have noticed that you don’t seem yourself lately, you aren’t sitting with the team for lunch anymore and you seem quieter in team meetings. Is everything ok?”
Listen. My biggest piece of advice here is to become comfortable with silence. As human beings, we can find silence incredibly awkward and feel the need to fill it. Create space for the person to share their story (and if you need to distract yourself from the awkwardness, count to 10 in your mind!)
Encourage support. Provide them with the resources you have printed and encourage them to seek further support.
Provide flexibility. Ask if there is anything you can do from a workplace perspective to support the person. If the person is seeking medical support, ask if their medical practitioner has any advice for the workplace around reasonable adjustments. Explore other flexible options, such as allowing them to leave early to attend appointments, or supporting them with their workload.
Follow-up. Continue to check-in with the person and see how they are doing.
Be there. The person might not be ready to talk now, and that’s ok. If you are shut down, just let the person know that you are here to talk when they are ready, and share the support resources that you have with them anyway.
In summary
Be the leader you would want to see if you were struggling with your mental health.
Being a human-centred, authentic manager makes a huge difference to mental health in the workplace. Be assured that by doing this, you can make a difference in this space and champion mental health in the workplace.
I hope that these steps can help you to make a difference.
Abbie Williams is the CEO and Founder of Letters of Hope, a mental health charity who send handwritten letters to people who are struggling with their mental health. Abbie offers speaking engagements, mental health consulting, training and workshops, the proceeds from which fund her mental health charity. Click here to learn more about Letters of Hope’s workplace mental health and wellbeing services.