Organisations may expect employees with mental health issues to make a full recovery before returning to work. This approach is often misguided as returning to work is often important to the recovery process. Changes to the workplace may be necessary. <ul><li>Direct access to psychological support. </li><li>Increased leave. Employers can offer five days of additional "pandemic leave" on a no-questions-asked basis.</li></ul>

Supporting recovery and return to work

Effective programmes focus on psychological safety and broad-based mental health awareness. For example:<ul><li>Mental health promotion. Leaders publically share their commitment to supporting and improving mental health through storytelling.</li><li>Supported boundary setting. </li><li>Leader capability. Providing access to mental health training.</li></ul>

Building organisational resilience

Poor mental health can impact individuals, employers, and societies. Mental health conditions can cause individuals to miss ten to 12 workdays per year and suffer 14 to 18 days of reduced productivity. Many companies think taking action on workplace mental health means setting up programmes that are owned by human resources (HR). However, this approach is insufficient to create real, sustainable change. Five core principles can help leaders create a more mentally healthy workplace.

The impact of poor mental health

Employers provide stress-management programmes built around cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It aims to change misconceptions and assumptions and teach new skills for handling stressful situations. For example:<ul><li>Resilience training. Companies distribute workbooks containing a series of resilience challenges.</li><li>Mindfulness programmes.</li><li>Physical activity. Organisations use virtual physical challenges for individuals and groups.</li></ul>

Building individual resilience

Core risk factors include high levels of role stress or a lack of support or flexibility. For example:<ul><li>Community building. Bringing together people across roles and levels to help build organisational cohesion.</li><li>Enhanced flexibility. Ensuring flexible work hours for parents, such as additional paid and unpaid time off, reduced hours, changed work patterns.</li><li>Workload monitoring and dynamic rebalancing. It can be informal or low-tech, such as team stand-ups with work for the day or system monitoring to spot activity spikes.</li></ul>

Design workplaces to minimise harm

Organisations create a strong awareness of the signs of mental ill-health, appropriate services, and a culture that encourages asking for help. For example:<ul><li>Tailored mental health awareness. Creating multichannel communications that focus on the experiences of working parents and advice and details on support resources.</li><li>Mental health-focused events. Organisations share stories, build awareness and reduce stigma.</li><li>Expanded employee assistance programmes (EAPs). Organisations expand access to preexisting programmes that include family members of employees, or small-business suppliers or customers.</li></ul>

Facilitating early help-seeking

<ul><li>Understand the factors that contribute to mental health conditions, such as a low level of support provided in completing work, an imbalance between effort and reward, and a low level of autonomy.</li><li>Holistically consider the entire operating model and cultural system. Consider the people, process, structure and culture.</li><li>Use data to personalise interventions. People experience the workplace differently. Each one will face different stressors and challenges.</li><li>Co-design solutions with your employees. </li><li>Solve with your community. Look beyond the workplace and engage with your communities.</li></ul>

Principles to sustainably improve workplace mental health

Easy to implement strategies to revamp work practices in ways that benefit employees’ health