Employees are experiencing burnout at a higher rate than ever before. 89% of workers have suffered from burnout in the past year, and over 4 million workers quit their jobs each month. Mental health is cited as the main reason for quitting, so feeding employee stress and burnout is vital to ensure you retain your workforce and they are happy and healthy going forward.
Action, not lip service
It’s not enough these days to pay lip service to mental health issues. You need to show you understand the concerns and are here to support them how they need it. After all, employees who are off sick or too stressed to carry out their job will impact your performance and bottom line.
From providing counseling to mental health days, Online Buddhist courses to fitness and yoga classes to help them unwind, there are multiple ways you can support your team to support their own mental health and show you are serious about making positive changes so they can remain at their best at all times.
Management practices
People don’t quit jobs. They quit people. You could have an employee doing the role they have always dreamed of, but if your management style leaves a lot to be desired, they won’t think twice about jumping ship to somewhere with a healthier workplace environment. Look at your management style and see if it’s impacting your employee’s welfare and mental health. If it is, you must address how you manage and interact with your team to make changes.
Time off
American culture is built on a highly unhealthy work-home life balance. In the modern age, incoming generations are fighting back against poor working hours, reduced personal time, and being unable to take paid time off as is their right.
Employers need to follow suit and ensure that employees have enough downtime between shifts and aren’t expected to work in their free time or relinquish PTO simply because it doesn’t suit them. Accepting that people have lives outside of work and that they don’t owe you their life can start to heal the generational trauma and build a new work ethic based on balance, mutual support, and respect.
Transparency
Not being transparent with your employees about the company, when you do what is expected, or anything else that is vital to how they work will only foster a toxic culture in the workplace. This toxicity will slowly chip away at people’s mental health and impact their ability to work. You need to be ensuring you are equipping everyone with the information they need to get the job done and focusing on clear and open communication so everyone knows where they stand and what is expected of them.
Mental health isn’t a buzzword or a phase in an age where more and more people of all ages are fighting to retain their mental health, and employers need to be more sympathetic to the needs of those working for them to maintain a happy, healthy workforce.
