Okay, so we’re all aware of Mental Health issues and that it has a tremendous impact on employers and the UK economy as a whole. According to the Deloitte Global 2021 Survey around a third of Millennial and Gen Z workers took time off work due to stress and anxiety last year. We also know that Mental Health can have a big impact on retention in your business. With a record number of job vacancies more people than ever are considering leaving their current role. But what is it we’re actually talking about when we say Mental Health and what should we actually be focussed on as employers?

What is mental health?

According to a government definition,

“Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.”

However is a business environment we most often approach the topic of Mental Health from the point of Mental Health issues, i.e. when problems have occurred. Training and guidance tells us to look for signs of mental ill-health, such as:

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little
• Pulling away from people and usual activities
• Having low or no energy
• Feeling numb or like nothing matters
• Having unexplained aches and pains
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
• Yelling or fighting with family and friends
• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
• Having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head
• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
• Thinking of harming yourself or others
• Inability to perform daily tasks like getting to work

Mental Health policies in the workplace, such as they are, usually focus on actions to be taken once problems have been identified. This includes how to deal with someone suffering from stress, anxiety or depression, how to engage with them, what you can and cannot say or do and how to motivate them once they are back at work.

Let’s be clear, there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s all useful, it’s all valuable, even essential, but it’s acting after the horse has bolted! This is all about how to spot when someone is ill and how to support and engage with them once they are ill.

We all have first aiders in the workplace, they’re great too, but we also have health and safety policies and safe working guidelines. We’re not sending staff out into the workplace without checking if it’s safe, reliant that if they do have an accident the first aider will fix it. Yet in terms of Mental Health that’s pretty much exactly what we do, even those companies who have a Mental Health policy just have mental first aid. In other words, when it comes to Mental Health we’re behaving like all you need is a doctor and a hospital, and that you never need to worry about lifestyle, diet, sleep, exercise etc.

The reality is that to tackle Mental Health you don’t just need action after the fact, you need it before. You need to do all those things that mean that you don’t need the ‘doctor’ and the ‘hospital’. You need to have Mental Fitness.

So What Is Mental Fitness?

Mental Fitness means having an environment and behaviours that encourage Mental Health. Mental Fitness is about creating a workplace that minimises bad stress, as opposed to good stress that stretches and develops people’s potential. It’s about creating a workplace that makes people happy, that encourages creativity, engagement, communication and a positive mindset.

What It Isn’t

Some people use the words ‘Wellbeing’ or ‘Mindfulness’, and they’re very similar in meaning to Mental Fitness. But ‘Wellbeing’ and ‘Mindfulness’ have become dreadfully entwined with behaviours and messages that few real business people can respect. Say ‘mindfulness’ to many and they’ll think of organic chai tea, meditation zones and free-range yoga. Mental Fitness is not about that.

What It Does

Mental Fitness delivers a host of benefits. It creates an environment where people feel less pressured, less stressed and less isolated. It provides tools to address issues in non-confrontational ways. It opens communication so that people can talk about their mental health and state of mind without feeling stigmatised. It improves engagement, so that employees empathize with the management and company more.

Doing It

Getting Mental Fitness into the workplace is about looking at the environment, the structure of the working day, workflow, management style, communications, development opportunities, workload, hiring practice and overall company culture. Getting these things right makes a tremendous difference.

Results

Having a workplace focussed on Mental Fitness fundamentally reduces the incidence and impact of workplace Mental Health issues, the knock on of this and the incidental impact is enormous:

• Reduction in mental health related sickness
• Reduction in ‘presenteeism’ (When people are there but not performing)
• Reduction in absenteeism
• Reduction in staff attrition
• Reduction in errors
• Increase in quality
• Reduction in wastage
• Increase in pride in work and the company
• Increase in internal communication
• Increase in overall happiness of the workforce
• Increase in employee drive and commitment
• Improved employer brand
• Easier hiring/reduced recruitment costs
• Improved retention
• Improved productivity
• Increased bottom line

Why not?

We’re not talking about having morning meditation classes, or indulging people who don’t want to work. We’re talking about creating an environment people enjoy, managing them in a way they respond to positively, working with them so that they see that there is benefit to them and to the company. It’s about communication, respect, engagement and, yes, happiness. If you get it right you not only get less issues with Mental Health, you get a better company overall, one you and everyone in it can love.