When leaders emphasize emotional wellness well-being in the workplace, workers and employers alike reap the rewards. Overall productivity and emotional wellness increase simultaneously for a number of reasons. Simply knowing that the two coincide won’t automatically make your workforce emotionally healthy. Awareness is only step #1.
How to improve emotional wellness wellbeing in the workplace
According to WHO, there are many risk factors for emotional wellness present in the working environment. It’s important to be proactive, address the issues found, and create spaces that encourage emotional wellness.
Following are five actions you can take to help lead your workers toward a healthier tomorrow.
#1 Educate and break the stigma
Depression, anxiety, and other emotional wellness issues have carried an unfortunate stigma for to long. This stigma has kept employees from reaching out to their supervisors and negatively impacting emotional wellness in the workplace.
Provide your leaders with the necessary tools they need to support the employees in their care. Schedule training and model an open-door policy that makes others feel comfortable recognizing and dealing with the emotional wellness of those they manage. emotional wellness in the workplace starts from the leadership.
When your company encourages leaders to be honest about their challenges and take charge of their emotional wellness, employees will be more willing to do the same openly.
#2 Get HR involved in building a sustainable, healthy work culture
Part of creating a healthy workplace is to maintain emotional safety between coworkers.
Psychological harassment, bullying, gaslighting, racism, discrimination, and more all can lead to emotional wellness well-being nightmares in the workplace for HR and those involved.
According to METRO, too strict of a policy may lead to less reporting while ignoring the bad behavior only encourages it. The solution? Prevention through education and training with a mixture of ownership in creating a thriving and safe culture.
#3 Pay attention to the workspaces
Noise, clutter, and poor lighting can contribute to stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.
Natural lighting provides numerous health benefits. You can play a few ways with natural lighting and the healing power of the sun, plants, and fresh air.
- Rearrange the desks, so everyone has an outdoor view
- Get rid of the fluorescents and rely on open windows and softer lights
- Create a garden space (indoors or out) where the employees can retreat to when feeling stressed
Be preventive. Lesson the emotional wellness burden of your employees by adding natural beauty throughout the workplace.
#4 Take advantage of tech
The global pandemic changed the workforce and the way we integrate technology into our workplaces. We all received a crash course in working remotely, making the argument for rigid working hours in a central location a difficult one to maintain.
Technology allows companies to offer flexible working hours, implement telehealth options into their physical and emotional wellness plans, and have access to more resources and emotional wellness helps than ever before.
Don’t fear the tech. Embrace it.
#5 Adopt programs that offer proactive emotional wellness approaches
Creating an environment that supports and encourages employees to discuss their emotional wellness openly takes work. Our culture has been reactionary to emotional wellness issues for far too long. Make the commitment to actively put an end to the stigma in your own spaces by adopting programs that encourage discussion, buddy systems, and a focus on health. Encourage your employees toward a better, healthier tomorrow.
At Yubi Health, we believe in an integrated approach to emotional wellness that is rooted in evidence-based science. We take a proactive approach with an ecosystem that helps drive members toward emotionally healthy outcomes. Our program is “enabling people to lead fulfilling lives.”
Do you have any additional ways that you support emotional wellness in the workplace? Please share your thoughts below about emotional wellness in the workplace.
You may also find our article about workplace isolation and employer focusing on emotional wellness interesting.
