Supporting your Employees’ Mental Health in the Workplace

If your Cloud & IT Infrastructure teams are remote, in the office or a blend of the two, thinking about their satisfaction at work is crucial for increasing retention, productivity and employee happiness.

Will Martin tells us how IT Solutions and Services Providers can support their employees mental health in the workplace:

“Having a happy workforce with strong mental health is a huge bonus to any business.

Positive mental health across your employees helps to keep morale and performance higher.

Supporting mental health in the workplace can be achieved in a number of ways.

1. Regular one-on-ones

Firstly, you can introduce more regular one-on-ones for employees with managers.

These should enable employees to speak openly about issues in the office or anything that may be troubling them outside of work.

This relationship can be cultivated between line manager and the employee through regular team events.

At InfraView many employees train at the gym together, enjoy lunches together, do a lot of activities outside of the office together. This means that it’s easier for us to have those important two-way conversations.

2. Educate internally

Secondly, there are a multitude of ways you can promote mental health internally through mental health training, workshops or even a mental health champion who encourages positive behaviours across the business.

By offering education for all levels of the business, conversations around in and out of work issues are far easier to have and offer greater value in terms of their content and possible resolutions.

3. Show love and compassion

Thirdly, show love and compassion.

It’s all well and good to implement these kinds of methods and processes, but management and colleagues in the business need to make sure that any issues are dealt with the love, compassion and respect.

Issues should not be considered overreactions,

What bothers or upsets you is different to what bothers or upsets someone else.

It’s important for businesses to treat mental health issues with the respect they deserve.

4. Think before you speak

Finally, think before you speak.

Comments in the office ridiculing people on their mental health are damaging both for them and your ability as a business to grow.

One of the biggest reasons people don’t share how they are feeling is fear.

Fear of ridicule.

Fear of not being taken seriously.

Fear of what people will think of them.

Think before you speak in the office making a throwaway remark about mental health to avoid alienating your workforce, and deal appropriately with employees who behave in this way in your business.

Improving mental health is something we need to do together.”