A lot has happened in the last three years. The COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in racist violence and hate incidents, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation, instability, the rapidly changing job market—all of these issues have exacerbated a growing mental health crisis and also made many employees and potential hires rank mental health support and benefits highly on the list of what they value in their workplace.
During Mental Health Awareness Month, the Health Action Alliance, in partnership with the Ad Council, has announced the launch of the brand new Workplace Mental Health Playbook. The playbook serves as a comprehensive guide to equip organizations with the tools to best support employee mental health in the workplace in 2022.
Below are a few highlights of what the Workplace Mental Health Playbook has to offer your organization:
Informative research on the impact of COVID-19 and mental health.
The risk for depression in the United States has more than tripled in emerging adults since the pandemic began. Many organizations have made the decision to make their remote or hybrid structures permanent, and while many employees see this as a benefit, this pivot has made work life and home life more intertwined than ever, creating difficulties in internal/external communication, burnout and an always-on culture, just to name a few. The playbook provides employers access to research that equips them to tackle the impact of COVID-19 head on.
Reflective framework for evaluating current organizational culture.
Research shows the internal culture at a company plays a large role in employees’ mental health. To best support your employees and their mental health in the workplace, it is important to have a lens to view where the organization currently stands. With the steps outlined in the playbook, organizations can reflect on current and established systems and begin planning a path forward to continue to build out and fortify comprehensive mental health support for their employees.
Actionable steps for prioritizing employee mental health in the workplace.
If there is anything to take away from the last three years, it’s that actions irrefutably speak louder than words. The playbook provides actionable and implementable steps to prioritize employees’ mental health and wellbeing through culture, support, and access to resources.
Insightful pro tips based on real-world success stories of workplaces that put an emphasis on their employees’ health and wellbeing.
From Zillow to Google to LinkedIn, the playbook includes robust real-world examples from organizations who’ve found quantifiable success by implementing innovative solutions that address employee mental health in the workplace.
Comprehensive mental health tools and resources for supporting employees.
In addition to a robust list of diversified resources for employees to utilize in times of crisis, the Workplace Mental Health Playbook provides links to conversation guides, sample internal communications templates and planning tools to help your organization support employees’ mental health.
Photo by Kampus Production / Pexels