The workplace can be a leading contributor to the deterioration of employees’ mental health and emotional well-being. One in three Americans say their mental health is negatively impacted by their jobs, according to research by the Society of Human Resource Management. Thirty percent of the 1,000 workers surveyed reported feeling overwhelmed at work, while 29% said their jobs make them feel anxious at least once a week.
Mental health issues and burnout can result from rigorous deadlines, heavy workloads, long hours, a toxic work environment, lack of recognition and psychological safety, as well as job and financial insecurity.
In the first quarter of 2024, over 50,000 employees have been terminated in the tech sector alone, according to Layoffs.fyi. The constant barrage of layoff announcements by large, prominent companies takes its toll on the workforce. People fear and dreadfully wait in anticipation that they will be next in line to get the ax.
Businesses must address mental health issues in the workplace—for the sake of both the workers and the companies’ bottom line. If the staff is operating under duress, it will adversely impact their engagement and production. Employees also expect more from their companies, with 45% of U.S. workers reporting higher expectations for the level of mental health support their employers should provide, the SHRM study revealed.
New Mental Health Initiatives
Employers must prioritize mental health awareness, provide support mechanisms and create a culture that values employee well-being. Otherwise, they’ll ultimately have to contend with chronic absenteeism, disengagement and decreased productivity and quality of work.
Here’s what global management consultancy KPMG and top-tier investment bank Goldman SachsGS are doing to offer their respective workforces mental health support.
Energy Check-Ins
KPMG plans to roll out a companywide initiative that will take a proactive approach toward addressing burnout to ensure that its 36,000 employees are mentally prepared to successfully do their jobs.
The company will identify workers at risk for burnout based on internal data points, such as how much time an employee has been working over their contracted hours, the amount of paid time off they have taken and how many meetings they have been attending. Once an employee is flagged three times, their immediate manager will be prompted to conduct an energy check-in.
The supervisor will inquire about the employee’s work-life balance, offer them mental health tools and resources and encourage them to use their PTO.
After KPMG’s initial trial of this program, 77% of employees reported that it was beneficial to their well-being.
“We’re corporate athletes, and we need to not only be physically ready to do our job, but we need to be mentally ready to do our job,” Sandy Torchia, vice chair of talent and culture at KPMG, told Fortune. “If we make these investments in our people, we are going to have higher performing teams.”
The initiative is expected to be implemented across the organization by the end of 2024.
Mental Health Training
Goldman Sachs instituted a new program last month that mandates all vice-president level or higher employees and managers complete a 25-minute virtual mental health training.
Managers will be equipped in identifying and responding to changes in workers’ behaviors, such as appearances, attitudes, absenteeism and poor conduct. They will be put through various hypothetical workplace scenarios to better learn how to help employees deal with the personal loss of loved ones or anxiety and despair over global atrocities.
“We felt like the time was right to expand this and scale it to all of our managers,” Jacqueline Arthur, global head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, told Fortune. “So many of our people are struggling right now with what’s happening in the world.”
What You Can Do
To stay on top of your mental health and emotional well-being, you must remain vigilant and watch out for uncharacteristic behaviors, as well as drops in your engagement and productivity levels. Regularly check-in with yourself and conduct a self-audit. Ask yourself the following questions to determine if your mental health may be declining:
- Are you regularly feeling depleted, tired and lacking energy? Is it hard to get out of bed?
- Are you no longer excited about things you used to love?
- Are you withdrawing from social engagements?
- Are you experiencing physical and mental fatigue?
- Do you have a short fuse and are lashing out at others?
- Do you have poor time management skills?
- Are you overworking yourself, working a ridiculous amount of hours?
- Do you seem more frazzled, sad, lost, angry and confused lately?
- Are you having difficulty focusing?
- Do you have trouble sleeping?
- Are you losing your appetite?
- Are you feeling disengaged from work?
- Are you getting sick more often, experiencing headaches and other pains?
If you check these boxes, ask your human resources manager about how you can gain access to support strategies, including mental health, stress management and workplace wellness programs, such as counseling.
It is essential that you focus on what is in your control. Maintain your mental health by cutting down on doomscrolling on social media. Practice self-care, exercise, get adequate sleep and ensure you are eating healthily. Lean on family, friends and the supportive, loving and caring group you have cultivated in your life. Consider venturing outdoors, taking in the sun and breathing in the fresh air.
To take your mind off of all of the daily pressures, make time to participate in hobbies and activities that bring you joy or help you to relax and decompress.
What Companies Should Do
To ensure that mental health remains at the forefront for organizations, employers should appoint a “chief well-being officer.”
In 2022, global accounting, audit, tax and consulting firm EY hired Frank Giampietro to be at the helm of its company’s wellness initiative. Installing an executive leader in the position demonstrates a firm’s commitment to improving and enhancing the work-lives of its staff.
Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas vice chair of talent, has also led the charge on the mission to ensure that EY is an empathetic workplace by focusing on the mental health and well-being of her employees. “Managing the physical and emotional health and well-being of our employees must be at the top of every leadership team’s priority list every day,” Carlier wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Source: Forbes
