As the person responsible for HR and leadership development in your company, it's important to put mental health on the agenda. So how can we - you, me and all managers - contribute to better mental health at work?
By Camilla Caspersen
Leadership developer in FRONT Leadership
It often starts with the manager. In a workplace, the immediate manager is the most important person the employee relates to - for better or worse. Poor leadership can cause people to quit their jobs, call in sick and underperform at work. Academic Work recently released the Young Professional Attraction Index for 2023 (YPAI), which maps what makes an employer attractive to graduates and students. The survey revealed that 78% of the young talent who responded to the survey have experienced or come close to experiencing burnout - at such a young age! What was the main reason for this? Poor leadership.
Read also: Leadership development increases psychological safety
4 tips for better mental health in the workplace
With poor management so closely linked to mental health in the workplace, it's important to know what steps you can take to ensure a good working environment and employee wellbeing.
Here are four tips:
- See, hear and recognize your employees
It doesn't always take much. Say hello in the morning. Have lunch with co-workers. Talk about and respect differences. Make sure that the leaders in the company act as good role models and create the culture and openness the organization needs.
- Be curious and genuinely interested in your employees
We need to get to know our employees. How are they - really? Managers must dare to have the necessary conversations and show respect and care when employees open up.
- Customize your leadership
In a business, everyone is an individual going through their own thing - just like you. Leaders are never unlearned, partly because both people and the environment around us are changing. In order to adapt, leaders need to train every day to get better.
- Being present as a leader
Ensuring that managers have 1:1s with their employees, where they regularly have the opportunity to ask "how are you?" has a huge impact - both in the short and long term. The fact that employees feel that their manager is genuinely concerned about their wellbeing creates both trust and security in the relationship.