Many people still think of occupational health and safety (OHS) as a discipline concerned with physical safety. It’s the company department tasked with making sure that no one gets crushed by the moving parts of heavy machinery, falls off the edge of a roof, or inhales toxic fumes.
In reality, OHS professionals safeguard workers from a variety of different hazards. They work tirelessly to protect them not only from physical injury and various health complications, but also less tangible risks like harassment, stress, and depression.
Mental health falls squarely under the OHS umbrella, and working conditions that are hazardous to employee mental health have to be controlled. Like other hazards, mental health risks are best addressed proactively, by promoting wellbeing at work.
That’s a responsibility every safety professional takes seriously. But it’s not always clear what steps you can take to ensure that your workplace is conducive to better mental health.
You know what kind of chemical-resistant gloves are needed for handling corrosive materials. You know how to create an effective lockout/tagout procedure for heavy equipment. But do you know what you can do to support the wellbeing of everyone who shows up to work?
To help you get started in tackling this issue, we’ll cover a few simple strategies for improving mental health in the workplace.
First, let’s quickly go over some of the benefits you can expect from a workforce whose wellbeing is taken seriously by their employer.
Obviously, there’s the simple fact that everyone will feel better and be happier. That, in and of itself, is reason enough to implement a comprehensive worker wellbeing program. But you’re also likely to see:
- Higher productivity as workers become more motivated and are better able to focus
- Lower incident and injury rates, since stress and fatigue can be contributing factors to accidents
- Increased employee retention and lower turnover rates, due to improved morale and employee satisfaction
- More creative thinking and better problem-solving as reduced stress frees up more mental bandwidth
- Reduced absenteeism and medical leave, since workers are less likely to suffer from burnout and overwhelm
- Better hiring prospects due to the organization gaining a reputation as a good place to work
(Learn about The Importance of Employee Engagement and Its Impact on Your Bottom Line)
So, what can you do to improve worker wellbeing and enjoy the benefits that come from it?
It all boils down to creating working conditions that make each and every employee feel safe, valued, and engaged.
Simple enough, right?
But seriously, there’s no single quick-fix solution for this. There are, however, a number of measures you can implement that will collectively create an environment that is conducive to mental and emotional wellbeing. Some are small and easy, some are a bit more challenging, but all of them will pay off.
Support Better Work-Life Balance
Every employer will talk about the importance of work-life balance. Which isn’t terribly surprising because employees who feel like their responsibilities at work get in the way of their responsibilities at home simply can’t put in their 100% on the job. They’re more likely to be frustrated with their boss or supervisor, disengaged from their work, prone to quitting, and just plain stressed out and overwhelmed from trying to balance everything.
The problem is, employers often talk about work-life balance in vague terms. And they don’t always back up that talk with concrete policies.
Unfortunately, that’s entirely ineffective. Because work-life balance isn’t a feeling or a mindset, it’s being able to manage your time in a way that doesn’t force you to choose work over the important things in your life, like picking your kids up from school or accompanying a sick relative to their doctor’s appointment.
The best way to support work-life balance, then, is to build in as much flexibility into working arrangements as you reasonably can.
Review the various job positions to determine just how critical it is for someone to be at their post at a given time.
Is it possible for them to have control over when they come to work and leave? Does it matter which eight hours they spend at work, so long as they spend all eight at work?
Are employees able to swap shifts with each other when needed?
Can any of the jobs be done remotely or at least in a hybrid working arrangement (with part of the week’s work hours done in person and the rest at home)?
By allowing more of that flexibility and building it into your company policies, you can drastically reduce your workers’ stress levels, increase their engagement at work, and build more company loyalty.
Let Employees Turn Off After Hours
Smartphones have made it so we’re almost constantly available. With just one text or a quick email, you can get someone’s attention no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
This has done wonders for productivity and collaboration, but it has also made it too easy for managers and supervisors to treat employees like they’re still on the clock after work hours. Contacting employees or asking them to do quick tasks when they’ve already left work might not seem like a big deal, but it can have a detrimental effect on their overall wellbeing. The added pressure of always being on call and feeling like work is creeping into their personal lives means that employees never truly get a break.
Make it an official policy that work stops when the employee’s stated workday does. That means not sending work-related emails or texts after hours or expecting anyone to do job tasks on their days off.
Keep Workloads Reasonable and Manageable
Employees should be able to feel a sense of accomplishment while at work. They should be able to actually finish all their job tasks instead of scrambling to keep up with a constantly expanding list of things to do.
They should also be able to achieve this by working at a reasonable and sustainable pace, and not feel rushed or pressured to do more than than they can.
And this isn’t just about productivity – giving employees more work than they can handle is a recipe for burnout.
To prevent this, regularly evaluate the workload for each position to see if adjustments have to be made. If workers are struggling to keep up with the demands of their job, consider streamlining their duties and eliminate non-essential tasks. If there is no way to do this, or if it isn’t sufficient, you may need to hire additional staff to lessen the burden on current employees.
(Learn more in Managing Employee Burnout to Reduce Deadly Accidents)
Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities
Employers and managers sometimes assume that everyone knows what to do when they show up to work.
And yes, almost everyone will be sure of the core tasks of their job. Account managers know they have to interact with customers and ensure their needs are met. Administrative assistants know they have to take calls and manage appointments. Warehouse workers know they have to unload and store inventory.
Things get fuzzier at the edges, though.
Like, who’s responsible for housekeeping tasks in a shared workspace? Who should handle customers and who should redirect them to someone else instead? What, exactly, should the warehouse people be doing on quiet days when there are very few shipments?
Not having definite answers to those questions is a problem. People want to feel useful and productive, but that’s a lot more difficult when they’re not entirely sure what they should be doing. In many cases, they might keep themselves occupied with makeshift busywork, which passes the time but isn’t fulfilling or engaging in the least.
Formalizing roles and responsibilities for every worker will reduce their stress levels and make them feel more valued as employees.
It will also ensure that some of your staff don’t end up taking on too much. When roles and responsibilities are too vague, some workers will end up doing tasks that fall outside their job description and should be handled by someone else.
Provide Career Advancement Opportunities
No one likes feeling stuck in their job. Those who do are more likely to check out and lose interest in their work. Not only that, but it can be a contributing factor to depression.
So, one step you can take to improve worker mental health is to provide clear paths for advancement within the organization. Making the requirements for a promotion explicit, for example, will help workers feel like they’re not just working themselves in a circle, but actually moving forward in their career.
Offering professional development opportunities to workers will also help them know they are getting ahead. These can include:
- Training sessions
- Certification courses
- Mentoring programs
- Rotating positions and roles to give more varied work experience and the chance to learn new skills
- Paying for their spot at a conference or workshop
(Learn more in Safety Certifications 101)
Encourage Active Employee Participation
Workers feel valued and more engaged when they have genuine input into the company’s policies and programs.
This can be done by soliciting feedback, holding open discussions during meetings, and running policy updates by the employees before implementing them.
Simply making these changes and announcing them to the workers may seem like the most straightforward approach. In reality, it only makes employees feel more disconnected from their jobs and less in control of their working conditions.
It might require a bit of extra time to solicit employee participation and make adjustments based on their input. But given the results, it’s worth every minute it takes.