It was Mental Health Awareness Week from 27 September to 2 October. As employers we know that workplaces that prioritise mental health have better engagement, reduced absenteeism, and higher productivity, while people have improved well-being and greater morale.
While the pandemic and the subsequent ‘fall-out’ have affected us all differently I think we can all agree there is a heightened sense of stress and anxiety for many of us and our teams. There are some things workplaces can do to support our people to build resilience and have positive mental health so we can all cope with setbacks and take advantage of opportunities.
I personally found a lot of the information that came to our attention over the past week was very informative and helpful when it comes to managing our wellbeing and extending that to our workplaces. This information is directly from www.mentalhealth.org.nz.
The Five Ways to Wellbeing are – Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give, and Take Notice.
They help people take care of their mental health and wellbeing. Regularly practising the Five Ways is beneficial for everyone – whether you have a mental health problem or not. Why the Five Ways work:
Connect: Strengthening relationships with others and feeling close to and valued by others, including at work, is critical to boosting wellbeing.
Keep Learning: Being curious and seeking out new experiences at work and in life more generally positively stimulates the brain.
Be Active: Being physically active, including at work, improves physical health and can improve mood and wellbeing and decrease stress, depression and anxiety.
Give: Carrying out acts of kindness, whether small or large, can increase happiness, life satisfaction and general sense of wellbeing.
Take Notice: Paying more attention to the present moment, to thoughts and feelings and to the world around, boosts our wellbeing.
Meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing don’t have to be hard conversations. Being able to talk about our mental health, including our thoughts and feelings, is a sign of connection and a good attitude towards health at work.
It can be as simple as…
Ask a starter question and listen to how people are feeling and what is impacting (positively or
negatively) on their actions and relationships at work:
How are you? What’s up?
How are you going with work / home /family / friends?
How do you feel about this?
What have you been up to recently?
What happened over the weekend?
How did you solve that issue?
What would help? Can I help?
How are you finding that job?
Are there any things that could make it better, easier, less stressful?
Or, for managers, it can be as simple as 1,2,3
Talk – Make talking about mental wellbeing an everyday thing. Keeping the kōrero alive and open in your workplace positively affects mental wellbeing.
Understand – Find out how you can support your team to find balance, build resilience and boost mental health and wellbeing. Let them know you’re asking because you want to support the team to flourish. Use the Five Ways to Wellbeing to guide the discussion. Listen non-judgmentally, acknowledge the teams’ thoughts and suggestions and don’t take it personally.
Work together – As a team, identify things you can do together to build connections, friendships and have fun. Focus on the strengths and abilities team members bring to the workplace and what resources everyone can bring to tautoko (support) wellbeing.
For more information that can help us lead a conversation about our own, and our teams well-being in the workplace go to www.mentalhealth.org.nz/resources.
