Prioritize Employee’s Mental Health and Improve Organisation Productivity

In today’s turbulent environment employees’ health is the new wealth and progressive organisations have included it in their employee value propositions. To gain competitive advantage all organizations should recognize and prioritize the well-being of their workers as a strategic move to gain financial wealth and long-term success in an increasingly complex and socially conscious environment. When employees are physically and mentally fit, they can focus, make better decisions, and execute their tasks efficiently. This increase productivity and directly contributes to the organization’s wealth in terms of output and results. Moreover, organisations that place a strong emphasis on employee health tend to attract top talent and retain their best employees. A healthy workplace culture can be a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining skilled individuals who value their well-being. Shockingly, employee’s mental health is deteriorating in the world.

According to Gallup study on the Global state of Workplace released in 2023, many employees are living with work stress and anger, as a result 51 percent of them are actively looking for alternative employment. The study findings indicate that 47 percent of employees in the world are worried about poor working environment, 44 percent of these employees have daily work-related stress and out of this number 21 percent of them have daily anger in their work. This is a tragedy because it suggests how the world has regressed in upholding humanity in the workplace. In this kind of state, most organisation’s sustainability is at risk. Further findings from Gallup indicate that the level of employees’ engagement has also declined. Only 23 percent of employees in the world are fully engaged, 77 percent are disengaged, and 60 percent are quit quitting. This means employees are going to work everyday but they are not mentally committed to the organisation goals, and their daily work. Clearly this shows that providing low quality of life and lack of prioritizing employees’ mental health brings more harm to the organisation. Executive management should make this issue a priority area.

In the current VUCA world characterized by volatile and complex changes organisations requires entrepreneurial mindset employees who are engaged, innovative and who believe in continuous improvement to improve organisation performance and its competitive advantage. This can only happen when they feel valued, respected and when they are mentally fit. There are various ways of improving an employee’s mental health and the first one is to lead employees correctly. Many people who are given the role of leadership are failing to lead and they are destroying their team’s mental health. Leadership is not about demonstrating power and being a tyrant to employees, rather it is about loving people, communicating the organisation vision and believing in employees’ ability to deliver this vision. Organisational Excellence Specialists body from Canada have listed effective strategies and tactical plans that should be implemented to improve leadership effectiveness. They include promoting a positive culture, managing organisation strategy, delegating authority, encouraging new ideas and supporting best practices, commitment to continuous improvement and promoting employee welfare.

The second strategy is to communicate effectively. Effective communication happens when employees feel comfortable discussing their mental health concerns without fear of repercussions. It is critical because it reduces misunderstanding that could happen between teams and employees, and it also stops possible grapevine and potential conflicts. The third strategy is to introduce flexible working arrangements. It is surprising that organisations are still refusing to modernize their working arrangements despite the post Covid-19 evolution that stopped 8-5 working arrangement style. Flexible working arrangement symbolize the organisation commitment to uphold work-life balance. It has the power to rejuvenate employees, reduce their stress and fatigue and in enhance their productivity. The fourth strategy is to manage the workload of employees and stop rewarding good performance with more work. This can be advanced by ensuring that employees are given realistic deadlines and priorities so that they can have full control over their work. The fifth strategy is to provide mental health training and workshops to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues. By educating employees to recognize signs of stress and burnout make them to be self-aware and manage themselves appropriately.

The sixth strategy is to provide employees with mental health support such as partnering with clinical and industrial psychologist to offer employees assistance programs and help them cope with personal and work-related issues. The seventh one is to recognize and reward employees for their contributions in the organisation. When employees feel valued, they become happy and more motivated. Promoting mental health in the workplace is an ongoing process and it requires commitment from leadership and a culture that prioritizes the well-being of employees.