Written by Tanika Kline, HR Consultant at Melbourne HR
Workplaces and the wider social landscape alike have made considerable progress with recognising the need to better address and communicate the conversation around mental health. While attitudes have changed and stigmas have been reduced around these issues, creating open communication about mental health within a workplace is something that needs to be consciously addressed to ensure support options are realised.
This blog post will look into proactive changes the workplaces can adopt in order to provide mental health support for employees who work from home/remotely.
5 Ways to Support Remote Employee’s Mental Health:
Create conversations
Get everyone involved
Buddy systems, mentors & online forums
Check ins
Promote physical wellbeing
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Support In The Remote Workplace
Building up a workplace culture is a combined effort. Managers and employees alike have an influence over whether the environment they work in remains to be supportive and positive for everyone.
Nowadays, the workplace may not necessary be confined to the office. The working from home arrangements that transpired in the beginning of the lockdown provided the much-needed flexibility to allow employees to continue to work throughout lockdowns and have resulted in more people continuing to work remotely in the aftermath of the pandemic. Despite working arrangements being popularised from supporting employees’ mental health, the post-lockdown reality is that remote workers still need help to manage their wellbeing.
What’s The Concern?
The Productivity Commission’s research paper into working from home suggests consequences on mental health caused from working remotely include feelings of loneliness, remoteness causing changes in both work and personal relationships, and the blurring of home and work life.
Despite the benefits that are realised from working from home, workers are not impervious to burnout.
Creating Conversations
When hardships arise, not all individuals will know what support and resources are available to them. These are the kind of conversations that change people’s lives.
This year’s R U OK? Day fell on Thursday 8 September 2022. While the date is a way to raise awareness, R U OK? is a charity that is working towards influencing conversations to create support for mental health sufferers. The process that is recommended for workplaces is as simple as:
“Ask. Listen. Encourage action. Check in.”
With this in mind, it is important to keep an eye on your colleagues, whether working in the office or from home. Identifying signs that someone is needing support is the first step before communication.
R U OK?’s guide to starting the conversation is a great resource to make sure you are prepared and approach these types of hard conversations in the best way possible.
2. Get Everyone Involved
Beyond Blue found that one in three workers have reservations about working with a co-worker who is experiencing anxiety or depression because they did not believe that individual would be able to adequately perform their job.
These kinds of attitudes are what perpetuates not only problems in the workplace but the stigmas around mental health that stop individuals from speaking out.
“There is strong evidence to suggest that when employees believe their CEO values a mentally healthy workplace, there are significant attitudinal and behavioural benefits.”
Particularly, 87% of employees believe their workplace is physically safe when their CEO is perceived as valuing mental health.
Leaders getting involved can be achieved in a multitude of ways:
Sharing personal experiences
Showing support for R U OK Day and similar charities/events
Asking questions about what can be done better
Promoting personal mental health wellbeing activities
3. Buddy Systems, Mentoring Programs & Online Forums
We have referred to the importance of allowing mental health to be a topic of conversation taken seriously in the workplace. Broadcasting that to employees is not enough, there also needs to be the systems in place that make conversations easy to start and maintain.
Intentionally making time for socialisation ensures the employees get to know each other and spend time talking. Especially for remote workers, incidental catch ups that may happen in the break room or over the photocopier no longer happen, which can fuel a feeling of loneliness or inability to connect with other people.
Creating time for socialisation can be made easy through online forums, work group chats and video calls that get people interacting with one another. Posting pictures of pets, organising group coffee catch ups over video and logging calendar reminder for birthdays are small ways to make individuals feel included.
4. REGULAR CHECK INS
Catching up one-on-one with individuals is a great opportunity to ask how they are going.
The focus of these type of check ins does not have to solely revolve about ‘what’s wrong?’ or ‘is there anything you need to talk about?’. It can be a great opportunity to just say ‘thank you’.
Recognising remote employees’ work is essential for keeping them in the loop and connected with the organisational body. Providing input towards employees’ work demonstrates that their contributions are valued. Recognition can be verbal but there are plenty of other ways to say thank you.
Where there are indications that an individual may be experiencing difficulties or challenges with their mental health, it is important to prepare before approaching a conversation with them. It is important to choose an appropriate time and place so that the individual feels comfortable. This is where introducing a workplace mental health policy or procedure can provide important guidance towards sensitive conversations.
5. PROMOTE PHYSICAL WELLBEING
Exercise is a proven way to improve not only physical but mental wellbeing.
“Experts recommend adults should be active most day, aiming for a total of 2.5 – 5 hours of moderate exercise, or 1.25 – 2.5 hours of vigorous physical activity per week.”
Often work gets in the way of making time for physical activity. Remote workers a likely already facing difficulties with separating their work life from their home life, which is why reminding and promoting exercise will help employees to find balance.
Where does the role of the workplace come into play? According to the World Health Organisation, the workplace is relied upon setting for the promotion of wellbeing.
Ways to promote getting active from home:
Set up workers to use pedometers and coordinate targets to collectively work towards.
Helping workers to find “workout buddies” by introducing co-workers who live close to each other.
Set up a group chat to allow individuals from across the organisation to post images of them getting outside and active.
Key Takeaways
Create genuine and meaningful conversations around mental health and how support is offered in the workplace.
Get everyone across all organisational levels involved to show commitment to mental health support.
Utilise social media and online platforms to get people talking.
Check in with workers to let them know their work is contributing towards the greater organisation even if they don’t physically see it.
An active workplace is a healthy workplace.
Implementing these 5 tips is a great way to kickstart the culture of openness regarding mental health in the workplace and supporting remote workers. By being proactive, we can help prevent our employees from being affected by mental health issues.
Watch our latest Q&A with the team at Melbourne HR regarding mental health in the workplace.
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Tanika Kline is a HR Consultant at Melbourne HR.
Edited by Toby Pronstroller, Digital Marketing Coordinator at Melbourne HR.