Hands up if you’ve ever had a job where you dread Monday morning rolling around? Often, if we’re unhappy on the job, this can be because our workplace is not a mentally healthy one. Without measures in place to ensure work is a psychologically safe place, employees, employers and the organisation are all likely to suffer.
How would you define a mentally healthy workplace?
“One that’s what we call psychologically safe. That means that the employee can let the workplace know if they are burning out; if there’s a problem; if a work project needs rescoping; if there’s been any errors they’ve made or others. Then they can be empowered and supported. It’s a reciprocal relationship that’s a healthy one between them and their workplace."
What do we know about the importance of cultivating mentally healthy workplaces?
“If a workplace is not mentally healthy, the workplace suffers, the employer suffers, the organisation suffers. If it’s not healthy, you’re going to probably get staff that check out, burn out, aren’t engaged and aren’t productive. So the bottom line Is not going to be great for the organisation.”
What are some common barriers to good workplace mental health?
“One of the things we see is the push for the worker to become resilient – so putting all the emphasis on the worker being the one keeping themselves healthy – which is only half of the relationship. Organisational psychologists are trying to educate workplaces that it’s in their best interests to provide a healthy workplace for their business, as well as the employee.”
What are some strategies people can apply to ensure they have a mentally healthy workplace?
1. Encourage open communication
“Encourage giving information in advance. We saw that during Covid, that the organisations that were agile, that told their workers exactly what’s going on and what they were planning to keep everything working well, were the ones that had the most loyalty from their employees, the most productivity. Communication is one of the main things you can do to keep the workplace healthy. It’s also important to be open to feedback from employees, making it safe for them to push back, and to let the employer know if there are problems.”
2. Network Organisational Structure
“We’re seeing a lot more network organisations, which is essentially less hierarchical. There is more equality and empowerment throughout organisations, which most individuals are feeling that they should have, especially since Covid. There’s a lot more power to the worker now - the psychological contract has changed.”
3. Prioritise Employee Work-Life Balance
“Workers know they can go somewhere else if they’re not happy, and they’re doing it in droves. Much more matters to employees now, since Covid. We saw the Great Resignation, where people just walked away from workplaces that weren’t healthy. People are valuing their health so much more, and work-life balance is part of that.
Workplaces have to recognise it. Some are continuing to stay stuck and they’re not open to this, but they’re losing workers. It’s the agile organisation that is shifting and is recognising and hearing the employees saying that they need more and they need better and they need different, that will succeed.”
“Open, consistent channels for communication help. So, weekly checkpoints with your boss, daily in some cases. It’s important that your team know how they can communicate, for example is it only email, is telephone preferred? It’s healthier to have at least some days in the office, not all days at home, that’s something we know from research came out of Covid. Allowing employees to work from a café, if they need to create boundaries between work and home. Also, managers letting their workers know, ‘I'm clocking off for the day, so you should as well’.”
5. Offer TOIL
“Time off in lieu of overtime is so important. This is part of psychological safety.”
6. Support Job crafting
“To stay engaged, people want to craft their job. For instance, if someone is studying sustainability, and they’re working at an organsation where there is a sustainability project, bringing them in on that project to give them some workplace exposure in that area is a way of job crafting. Employees are looking for these opportunities.
Whether managers help their workers stay engaged and to craft their jobs and their careers or not, workers are going to be doing it, so being open to that as a workplace will keep your team engaged.”
Check out our Stories section to read more mental health-related articles.
