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Today, I want to explore these questions:
1. What is your organization’s mental health and wellbeing strategy?
2. What pillars should make up your strategy going forward?
Here are four pillars that I recommend for your organization to consider when building and maintaining a culture of true wellbeing.
1. Leadership
We all know that nothing happens in a company without leadership buy-in. Leadership sets the tone of the organization and decides which strategies will grow the company and improve the culture. It is imperative for leaders to champion the mental health and wellbeing causes. Effective leaders listen to their workers and consistently check their cultural pulse. Unless members of your leadership team truly want to build a culture of wellbeing, the next three strategies will either not happen at all — or they won’t be effective.
2. Policy
Workplace policies inform employees about how things work within an organization. These policies build the structures and systems that support employees as they work. They’re there to protect and instruct staff as they make decisions — and if your organization does not have mental health policies in place yet, now’s the perfect time! Here are some policies and strategies organizations should consider implementing to improve their employees’ mental health and wellbeing.
What is your policy regarding work flexibility, such as remote or hybrid working arrangements, 4-day work weeks, etc.?
How does your organization promote and support wellbeing practices?
How has your organization implemented psychological safety policies regarding bullying, harassment, discrimination, etc.?
Do your employees feel safe to talk about their mental health? If they do open up, how are they treated?
3. Mental Health Training & Education
Most organizations have a training department in place to educate and build the skills of the staff. Leaders have the opportunity to partner with learning and development professionals to embed mental health training and education within the organizational culture. But to form and maintain an effective wellbeing strategy, mental health training and education needs to be a long-term and meaningful investment. Here are three ideas to try for starters:
Workplace Wellbeing Manager Program
Psychological Safety Training for Employees
Workplace Mental Health Training
4. Benefits
It’s a common practice for businesses to offer their employees benefits. However, we all know that company benefits are not created equal. Some companies make major investments regarding benefits, while others do the bare minimum. Adequate benefits should extend beyond physical health and address the whole person, including their mental health — and more and more companies are starting to understand that mental health benefits are becoming the new table stakes for recruiting and retaining high-quality hires. Here are several ways to bolster your organization’s mental health benefits:
Expand your EAP.
Offer more mental health days.
Find ways to balance work and life (work-from-home opportunities, childcare stipends, transportation reimbursement, etc.)
Offer subscriptions to wellness, mindfulness and mental health apps.
These four strategies are what make up a culture of wellbeing. To build one within your organization, start by deciding which of the four to implement first. Every organization is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all starting point. Just ask yourself which strategy will impact your organization the most right now and use it as a first step to improve the wellbeing of your employees and to ultimately build a culture of wellbeing.