You’ve likely heard of (or maybe even experienced it yourself) many organisations adopting initiatives such as fruit boxes and free yoga sessions for their employees with the intention to improve the mental and physical well-being in the workplace. Whilst this is a positive step, there still remains much more progress to be made to reduce mental health stigma in the workplace. The Productivity Commission has noted that building a strong psychosocial safety climate where mental health is treated as highly as physical health will prove successful at generating net savings after implementation costs.
Increased training of managers can improve confidence through improved mental health knowledge, contribute to reducing stigma in the workplace and will lead to more supportive managerial behaviours. It is also important for managers to identify triggers for poor mental health within their organisations so these can be addressed effectively, such as stress or inflexible working arrangements. Businesses should focus on implementing workplace policies, practices and programs that are widely promoted in business activities, assist in encouraging employees to seek help for mental health conditions. Business leaders should demonstrate their commitment to positive mental health in the working environment to encourage open conversations and reduce the stigma, with the ultimate goal to create and maintain a mentally healthier workplace.
Daniel Ko, Head of People and Culture at InfoTrack, is passionate about implementing tangible mental health initiatives that support the mental health and wellbeing of all employees. “We are proud to support our InfoTrack employees in seeking help by working to maintain a mentally healthy workplace. Not only are we pleased to offer several mental health initiatives such as flexible working arrangements, providing healthy food options in each of our offices, a free gym membership for each member of our team, regular catch ups and check ins with management; we also provide our people with ‘Be Me Days’ which are additional leave days that allow our people to spend time on things that are important to them such as connecting with their families, charity work or having a mental health day. Our leadership team are also strong advocates for our Employee Assistance Program. To reduce the stigma associated with reaching out for help we held a week’s worth of mental health initiatives during the week of RUOK? Day. At one of the events three members of our Executive team shared their individual experiences with the EAP program and championed the value of the service and the benefits of reaching out for help when you need it.”
It’s clear that by contributing to reducing mental health stigma in the workplace, in the long run this will achieve beneficial results to any organisations bottom line and significantly impact how your team and clients perceive the organisation. With mental health cases predicted to rise and cost businesses $140 billion annually by 2030, organisations who haven’t already taken steps to implement meaningful and impactful mental health initiatives within their company should consider what toll this could take.
