Mental Health absenteeism is having a huge effect on businesses around the word. In a recent post we discussed how much mental health absenteeism is harming your business. You can read that article HERE.

 

Costing businesses billions every year, mental health absenteeism is becoming one of the top causes of sick days. Below we are going to give you our top five ways to reduce this in your business. Remember, this doesn’t just help your workforce. Helping them helps you and your business as well. Increased productivity and efficiency, improved accuracy and quality of work, an overall better place to work with greater moral. All of these contribute to your results as a leader and / or business owner.

 

 

Ok, we are starting with one that some people won’t like. However, we see it all the time when we work with businesses. Supporting the workforce with their mental health becomes a tick box exercise. The business can say “yes, we do that” while providing the lowest cost (and impact) solutions. If you want to reduce the cost of mental health absenteeism you have to step up and make it meaningful. Make it part of your business values, set targets as you would with any other initiative and let people know how serious you are about helping them. 

 

Many businesses have taken on EAP’s (Employee Assistance Programs) but, unfortunately, some of these are not fit for purpose. There is still a stigma attached to mental health and talking to a counsellor or therapist. Because of this, a large proportion of people want to keep it to themselves while also helping themselves. Make sure the support you provide reaches those people as well. Providing resources and training that people can use privately to help themselves is a far more effective way of catering to everyone than just a phone line to talk to someone.

 

While many of the phone lines that EAP’s use have 24/7 availability, training doesn’t usually do that. In-person workshops are ok, but they only last for that moment. Giving your workforce resources and training that can be accessed any time and from anywhere can be crucial. Online, pre-recorded workshops and training courses give them the option to have the information at their fingertips when they need it the most. This could be the difference between a sick day the following day and them coming to work happy and well. This alone could reduce mental health absenteeism in your business.

 

Here’s a quick question for you. If you wanted to improve the productivity and efficiency of a particular part of your business, would you just throw random ideas at it and hope they worked? Of course you wouldn’t. You would assess the issue, set clear goals and take the actions that would make the most impact. Why, therefore, would you not do the same when it comes to mental health absenteeism? Assessing the mental health landscape of your business helps you target the needs of your workforce. With clear information you can provide the support and training in the areas it is needed the most. Re-assessing your actions tells you which work and which need improving. This is business 101, right?

 

There’s every chance that, in your workforce, people become friends as well as colleagues. Having members of your workforce trained in how to help others gives people somewhere to turn. Rather than just a faceless voice at the end of the phone, they can speak to someone they know and trust. That immediate bond of knowing and trusting who you are speaking to provides a safety net, a safe space in which to open up. You should have trained staff who can offer mental health first aid as well as facilitate training and workshops for your staff. This could be a crucial step in bringing down your levels of mental health absenteeism.

 

The only question that remains is……. will you? Will you support the emotional and mental health of your workforce? When you are ready to say yes, get in touch, we can help!