Tag: Employee Mental Health

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Work in the New Normal

Workplace Trends for 2022: 4 Things Every Business Leader Should Know

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Make 2022 your organization’s Year Of WellBeing. Visit www.mindnation.com now. 

If 2021 was about learning to live and work during a pandemic, 2022 will be about applying all the lessons learned this past year. What will the future of work look like? Business coach and consultant Grace De Castro of V+A Consulting, a boutique consulting firm with expertise in customized people programs and creative business solutions, shares her predictions:

  1. The hybrid mode of work will be the new normal — and not everyone is going to be treated fairly. “Sadly, there are still many leaders who equate ‘presence with performance,’” Grace says. “This means that those who choose to go to work onsite will be considered more productive and valuable than those who remain or prioritize working from home.”

    What this means for companies: Leaders must ensure that all team members — regardless of where they are working from — are regarded equally and treated fairly especially in terms of promotions and pay raises. Not doing so will cause discontent among team members. “Leaders must also change the prevailing mindset about what it means to be productive, and create avenues for more collaboration between employees,” Grace advises.
  2. Organizations will fight to attract and retain existing talent. “I know of quite a number of senior executives and managers in the Philippines who decided to take their families and just move — whether it’s to outside the city for a quieter provincial life, or even out of the country. This migration is the most I’ve seen since I started working 25 years ago,” Grace relates. 

Their reason for moving? “The past two years have made many pause and rethink their priorities,” she explains. “They either realized that they want more time with their family, or that what they are doing now is not what they want to do for the rest of their lives.”

What this means for companies: “There is going to be a lot of creativity around talent attraction and retention,” Grace says. “The fight is no longer against other companies, it’s now about whether your employee is finding purpose in their current role or if the current work schedule supports their desire for work-life balance.” 

  1. Employee health and safety will continue to be a top concern. As employees return to work, many will be struggling with fears and anxieties over their safety and adjusting to new procedures and protocols. This post outlines the things managers can do to make the transition easier and assure team members that the workplace will be a safe space for them, physically and mentally.

What this means for companies: Adhering to health and safety standards in the new normal requires added expenses, so leaders need to look at where they can cut costs and reallocate the budget. What’s important to you? Is it your bonus, or upgrading the ventilation system? Is it new furniture or investing in an employee well-being program? “Part of being a leader is looking at the situation, spotting the areas of concern, and making the tough calls to address them,” says Grace.

“Part of being a leader is looking at the situation, spotting the areas of concern, and making the tough calls to address them,”

Grace De Castro, Business Coach And Consultant
  1. Mental health and well-being will become very important. “The last two years have really taken a toll upon all of us, and business leaders need to acknowledge that there is no going back to before,” Grace says. “Mental health can no longer be a special event that only gets talked about during Mental Health Month or Suicide Prevention Month. Conversations around mental health need to be normalized; people who are struggling should know where they can seek help and not be ashamed about it.” 

What this means for companies: While it’s understandable that the priority of a company in the new normal is profitability, this cannot be at the expense of the team’s well-being. “You can’t expect people to be delivering multitudes when they’re physically, mentally, and emotionally broken and with no social support,” Grace says. “Treat your employees well, because if you take care of them they will take care of your business. And if your people are at the place where they can deliver, you can have both — profits and a culture that supports mental health and well-being.”

If you need help, partner with MindNation to receive a holistic, data-driven, and customized well-being program for your organization. Visit www.mindnation.com or email [email protected] to know more. 

With many businesses hoping to return to some semblance of normalcy in 2022, it is important to remember that success can only be achieved when all parts of a company are working well together, from the machinery to the people. Workplace well-being should not only be a priority, it must be made mandatory. 

Categories
Employee Wellness

Eric Santillan: 7 Simple Ways Managers Can Reduce Workplace Stress

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Eric Santillan’s road to psychology, counseling, and organizational development started — of all places — when he was studying to be a Jesuit priest in the early 2000s. “Jesuit formation is very psycho-spiritual,” he explains. So apart from studying theology, he also trained as a career and marriage counselor, moderated student organizations in the university, and even designed curriculums for schools. In 2006, he left theology school to become a full-time psychologist and counselor.

Today, Eric is a member of the MindNation Scientific Board, a relationship counselor, and a productivity and Organizational Development consultant. “As an OD consultant, organizations come to me when they have issues and problems and need clarity,” he explains. “And then I use organizational and management tools to help their people thrive and reach their full potential.”

Stress during the COVID-19 pandemic
One of things Eric realized in his 22-year career as an OD consultant was that big problems stem from minor irritations. “Little stresses build up over time and if they are not addressed, they blow up,” he shares.

An example would be the issue of workplace stress. A MindNation Pulse Survey of more than 6,000 full-time employees in the Philippines taken from September 2020 to April 2021 revealed that 61% of respondents are feeling stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eric clarifies, however, that the pandemic did not cause this spike in stress; rather, it simply magnified stressful situations that would — pre-pandemic — have otherwise been just considered to be inconveniences. “People already had mental health challenges before the pandemic; the pandemic just highlighted them and made them very real,” he explains. Some examples of these stressful situations:

  1. Bad management practices. Employees were already dealing with long working hours, heavy workload, job insecurity, and conflicts with co-workers or bosses long before the pandemic, but they have become more overwhelming now due to pandemic-related stressors like work-life imbalance, isolation, managing fears about the COVID-19 virus, and financial insecurity.
  2. Limited physical and psychological space. Prior to the pandemic, parents could take a breather from child-care duties and other household responsibilities by sending their kids to school or just leaving the house for some “me-time” at a nearby coffee shop. But school closures and social distancing policies now meant that people are stuck at home 24/7 with little to no reprieve.
  3. Missing support systems. “Deaths in the family and becoming a new parent are stressful transitions, and the pandemic has erased whatever support we would normally get during these major life changes,” Eric points out. Mourning rituals have been shortened, grandparents can no longer visit to help babysit — the people most affected by these transitions have no choice but to struggle on their own. 


How stress affects work
If left unaddressed, stress can contribute to decreased organizational performance, decreased employee overall performance, high error rate and poor quality of work, high staff turnover, and absenteeism due to physical and mental health problems.

As a manager, it is therefore important to take steps to ensure that employees are not subjected to unnecessary stress. “For a business to thrive, all elements have to be operating at their peak. So in the same way that you conduct preventive maintenance on your machines to make sure they are always running 100%, so should you have a program in place that makes sure your people are always at their best,” Eric says.

How to reduce workplace stress
While managers and leaders cannot address all the stresses that a team member is struggling with in their personal lives, there some things that they can do to make the workplace less stressful:

  1. Ask yourself: ‘Am I the source of stress?’ It’s possible you are inadvertently causing your employees stress, so be open to feedback about your leadership style. Another way to find out is to check the turnover rate in your department. “In teaching, there is a concept called ‘student factor’ or ‘teacher factor,’” Eric relates. “When one or two students fail in a class,that’s probably a student factor; but if 10 or 15 people flunk, then that’s a red flag, it’s a sign that there is probably an issue with the teacher. So it’s the same with workplace turnover– is it an employee factor or a manager factor? In some companies I have worked with, managers get sent for retraining if a certain number of people resign over a certain amount of time.”
  2. Get to know your team. Take into account the personal lives of employees and recognise that the demands of home will sometimes clash with the demands of work. “Letting your team know that they are not just workers, but that they’re recognized as individuals, goes a long way,” Eric says.
  3. Praise in public, correct in private. This simply means that when you have something positive to say about a team member, make sure others are aware of the praise; but if you are issuing a correction or reprimand, handle it one-on-one. Praising in public pumps up the self-esteem of the team member, while handing out negative feedback privately ensures that the employee is not publicly shamed in front of his or her peers. The latter creates stress and resentment, and damages morale.
  1. Mess creates stress. Disorganization contributes to stress, so always be clear when relaying instructions, Make sure that everyone is properly trained for their job, and encourage an environment where employees can openly raise concerns about their duties and workload.
  2. Try to celebrate small wins. Don’t wait for a project to end so you can celebrate; instead, break up the projects into milestones, and give positive feedback when people do a good job. “A company I know gives a small fund to each department, so that team members can treat themselves whenever they feel there is a cause for celebration,” Eric shares.
  3. Practice what you preach. “Don’t say anything that you will not do yourself,” Eric cautions. So model work-life balance and stress management techniques so that employees down the line will follow suit.
  1. Partner with a mental health and well-being company that addresses mental health challenges holistically. This means working with an Employee Assistance Program provider that addresses all dimensions of an employee’s well-being — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and cultural — because you cannot have one without the other. 

And if you do already have an Employee Assistance Program in place, don’t rely on it to be the cure-all for all your team’s well-being concerns. “Addressing workplace stress is not just the work of the EAP partner,” Eric shares. “It should be part of the organization’s culture.” This means normalizing the conversation about mental health in everyday interactions, granting paid mental health leaves, or even giving special mental health assistance to employees being groomed for leadership roles so they do not feel overwhelmed or stressed. “This way, the mental health program becomes holistic and robust, not just something offered on the side,” he adds.

“Workplace stress is a management issue,”

Eric Santillan

“Workplace stress is a management issue,” Eric concludes. A great manager is aware of their team member’s stress levels and takes proactive steps to reduce stress in the workplace. By reducing workplace stress, you not only improve the lives of your team members, you create an environment where they enjoy coming to work each day and become more productive. 


MindNation is a mental health and well-being company that uses a data-based approach to create proactive, customized, holistic health programs for your employees. Partner with us to build happier, healthier, and more productive teams. Visit www.mindnation.com now!

Categories
Suicide Prevention

5 Strategies for Suicide Prevention In The Workplace

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Executing a successful suicide prevention program at work requires making sure that there are enough people trained to recognise the risk and taking steps to provide appropriate and effective support. Here are some ways you can achieve this:

  1. Promote good mental health and destigmatize mental health problems
    The best prevention strategy is early intervention. Leaders can help reduce the risk for suicide by building a culture where mental health matters and asking for help is not taboo. You can do this by talking about mental health and therapy in company-wide meetings or mid-level manager one-on-one meetings to promote its importance and advocating or promoting pro-mental health work benefits such as paid mental health days, sufficient vacation time, and other policies that acknowledge the importance of both physical and mental health.
  2. Extend support and psychological health services.
    According to the results of the MindNation 2020 Pulse Survey, 42% of employees named “access to psychologists” as one of the top ways companies can support their mental health and well-being.
  3. Reduce stress at work.
    It’s important that managers help employees maintain work-life balance and make time for self-care so that they can manage stress better. This can be done by fostering an atmosphere where a direct report can bring feedback whenever they need assistance, and setting clear goals and then giving employees the freedom they need to reach those goals.
  4. Prevent and take action against bullying and harassment.
    Bullying, harassment, and intimidation in the workplace adds to stress at work, which can aggravate mental health challenges and increase the risk of suicide. Employers have a legal and moral obligation to provide a safe and positive work environment in which the rights of all employees are respected equally. You can do this by adopting a zero-tolerance policy towards bullying in any form, and act swiftly and decisively when allegations are made.
  5. Educate and train managers and other key staff on mental health and suicide prevention.
    Managers are in the best position to observe changes in behaviour or hear from co-workers that someone appears to be having difficulties. MindNation conducts virtual trainings on topics like Mental Health First Aid and Managing Depression And Suicide to boost awareness as well as interpersonal and social competencies.  

To learn how to execute these strategies properly and how MindNation can help you, download our Suicide in the Philippine Workforce 2021 toolkit now: http://bit.ly/mn-suicide2021.

Visit www.mindnation.com or email [email protected] to know more about mental health services for the workplace.