Is Mental and Emotional Health a Priority in Your Boardroom?

Until recent­ly, men­tal and emo­tion­al health was just not some­thing high per­form­ers talked about – and cer­tain­ly not in the boardroom.

Let’s face it, in the busi­ness envi­ron­ment, achieve­ment and prof­it are the dri­vers of effort and con­ver­sa­tion, and right­ly so. But the demands of deliv­er­ing con­sis­tent­ly high per­for­mance exact a high price, and it’s time to put men­tal health on the agenda.

One good thing about the COVID pan­dem­ic? Peo­ple are now talk­ing more about men­tal health and rec­og­niz­ing the need for strate­gies to help us deal with the demands of the world — and the impact on our Work, Self and Life.

A year ago, atten­dees of the World Eco­nom­ic Forum in Switzer­land were warned by men­tal health experts of a five-fold increase in refer­rals to psy­chi­atric clin­ics. Bipo­lar, they said, is now known as ​“CEO dis­ease” because addic­tion, depres­sion and anx­i­ety are linked to the tenac­i­ty, resilience and risk-tak­ing qual­i­ties that make an excep­tion­al senior executive.

They called it a men­tal health epidemic.

And then along came COVID.

A Men­tal and Emo­tion­al Health Strategy

In this recent Forbes arti­cle about research done after the first lock­down, 64% of peo­ple report­ed com­mon signs of depres­sion and 57% suf­fered from anx­i­ety. It’s clear that we need a men­tal health strate­gies — not just for your­self, but for your busi­ness, as well.

Research num­bers pre­dict a cri­sis in absen­teeism, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and reten­tion and the abil­i­ty to attract and recruit the right peo­ple. Sin­cere and strong men­tal health poli­cies can min­i­mize busi­ness dis­rup­tions, help you keep val­ued employ­ees and make you more attrac­tive to peo­ple who are a fit with your culture.

Prob­lem or Opportunity?

This isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly a prob­lem. It’s a mas­sive oppor­tu­ni­ty to rec­og­nize that how peo­ple work is under­go­ing a huge trans­for­ma­tion – and to cre­ate a cul­ture with core val­ues and poli­cies that demon­strate the impor­tance of a well and resilient workforce.

Com­pa­nies around the world are reap­ing the ben­e­fits as they look at a range of options to sup­port indi­vid­ual needs and pref­er­ences. Like the pro­posed flex­i­ble 3−2−2 work week struc­ture by aca­d­e­mics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. This work week con­sists of 3 days at the office, 2 days work­ing from home, and 2 days for fam­i­ly and friends.

And it’s pay­ing off, for peo­ple and business.

• Not com­mut­ing, in the US alone, has saved peo­ple about 89 mil­lion hours every week since the pan­dem­ic began.
• Unilever in New Zealand is test­ing a four-day work week, with no pay reduction.
• Microsoft‘s four-day work week in Japan saw pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and employ­ee sat­is­fac­tion and well­be­ing increase more than 40%.

Here are some things you can do:

• Edu­cate your­self and your teams to help de-stig­ma­tize men­tal health issues
• Learn how to rec­og­nize and deal appro­pri­ate­ly with some­one who needs support
• Mod­el healthy behav­iours from the top down
• Active­ly engage in con­ver­sa­tions with your employees
• Offer men­tal health sick leave and free counselling
• Review work­loads as part of quar­ter­ly tal­ent reviews and 360 feed­back sessions
• Work on pre­ven­ta­tive as well as reme­di­a­tion programs
• Where pos­si­ble, offer flex­i­ble hours and work-from-home options (post-pan­dem­ic) to allow peo­ple to deal with fam­i­ly or per­son­al obligations.
• Focus on out­comes and results ver­sus how long some­one spends at their desk.

What­ev­er works for your com­pa­ny, bet­ter men­tal health means a health­i­er bot­tom line. Time to put it on the agenda.

The Chal­lenge

• What do you need to do to cre­ate a respon­sive men­tal health strat­e­gy in your company?
• Review (in Your Oxy­gen Mask First) Chap­ter 3 Dou­ble your Resilience and Chap­ter 7 Man­age Your Men­tal Health with your team.

Please let us know if you need help with:

• A keynote pre­sen­ta­tion on the prin­ci­ples of Your Oxy­gen Mask First about how to take care of your­self and your team, in chal­leng­ing times
• A work­ing ses­sion for your team. These are full of prac­ti­cal tools and infor­ma­tion on how to stay resilient and learn more about men­tal wellness.
• A Men­tal Well­ness strategy.