Stay Connected with Your Workforce, Now more than Ever
Click and signup to capture your company’s Employee Mental Health
Use BIS Training’s promo Code:
“BISWELL20”
Employee wellbeing now confronts employers around the world like never before. Although its relevance increased in recent years, the current global health event forced employers to rethink the importance of understanding employees’ state of mental health and overall wellness. Right now, employees are experiencing significant change with perpetually elevated anxiety and stress. Extensive research indicates that happier employees increase productivity from 12% – 20%. As stress increases, performance and product quality plummets.
What happens to highly stressed staff?
Cortisol is a naturally produced hormone triggered by stress. When cortisol is elevated, clear thinking is diminished, and decision-making is impaired. Mistakes and safety incidents surge. It’s not just for moments or minutes. Increased cortisol levels can last 48 hours after the stress event ends. And when exactly has this stress ended?
There is currently no device, pill, herbal tea, tiktok, or magic beans that turn off “home stress” when people go to work. So an incident in the parking lot of a grocery store on Saturday afternoon chemically still affects an employee’s mental state when they come in on Monday.
The focus on whole health of each employee is warranted. In the long-term, elevated cortisol is linked to anxiety, depression, sleep imbalance, heart disease, weight gain, decreased libido, and infertility.
Addressing employee’s mental health will be a top business issue for the next 6 to 12 months at almost every company, in almost every country on the planet.
In this article, you will find a few insights about how addressing employee mental wellness makes a difference in the workplace. We are also happy to say that our partner Retensa Retention Strategies is providing an employee wellness survey, for FREE, to connect, communicate, and support your workforce during this unprecedented event.
1. Employee Engagement
While workplace stress is widely recognized across different industries, if left unchecked, it eventually undermines employee engagement. In some cases, those paralyzed by fear and overwhelming life change, can appear “busy”, but are not focused. And right now, how could they be? When encountering great stress and uncertainty, employees can lose motivation which can overwhelm and cause under performance. Helping employees maintain good mental health is a self-healing loop perpetuated by employees enjoying their work and performing at their best.
When leaders show employees that they prioritize psycho-social wellness in the workplace, organizational commitment, job connectedness, and loyalty are reciprocated. Gathering feedback is critical to ensuring the organization knows how and where to support the best possible actions for everyone in a given location, department or team.
2. Business Outcomes
Psychological well-being is directly associated with both individual and organizational performance. As COVID-19 realities set in, an employer’s ability to turn from crisis to stability will determine survival. A 2010 meta-study presented that maintaining employee’s healthy mental wellness has a positive impact on business outcomes like customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability. Higher levels of mental well-being also correlates with lower employee turnover, and reduced sickness/absence levels.
As an employer, these measurable outcomes are now in jeopardy. Being alert to signs of changing employees’ emotional needs and ensuring the unexpressed concerns are captured, increases the likelihood an organization can deliver the goods and services to sustain a financially viable future. Alternately, if leaders are unaware of a location’s intensity or a division’s severity of stress, the outcomes can be disastrous.
3. Attract and Motivate Top Talent
The shifting labor market invites the opportunity to re-calibrate Talent Acquisition strategies. While many firms are holding hiring plans, or in some cases restructuring, there will be pressure on companies’ top talent to carry the weight. High performers are less motivated by monetary rewards. They care about employer’s emphasis on meeting their personal, professional, and emotional needs. Dialing into the high-potential/high performer population, in particular, will provide actionable intelligence with individuals who will bear the greatest role in recovery.
How can you leverage your strengths to attract the strongest candidates?
By inviting employee referrals from an existing well-supported workforce’s friends, family, and colleagues. Consider the interest from a laid-off employee when hearing from a loyal employed champion about how their employer provided respect and support throughout this challenge. That investment for future talent acquisition will produce high returns.
Now you have seen the importance of addressing employees’ mental wellness amid this upheaval. Are you wondering “What’s the first step?”
An Employee Wellness Toolkit from Retensa, the talent retention strategies experts.
During this turmoil, Retensa wants to help every company leader to ensure their employees are heard, helped, and have what they need to feel safe.
Take advantage of this opportunity and capture mental wellness of all staff in just 8 minutes. It will help your workforce, and leadership, navigate this unprecedented event.
Click and signup to capture your company’s Employee Mental Health
Use BIS Training’s promo Code:
“BISWELL20”
A. Employers pinpoint areas where to offer assistance or support
B. HR capture unexpressed employee concerns and areas of focus or need
C. Managers understand employee’s current state of mental health
D. Leaders stays connected with the workforce
As employee wellness permeates today’s company culture, the company that succeeds to develop and motivate staff is the one that understands and supports them. Alternately, imagine if you don’t. Take the first step by sharing this free employee wellness survey with your team.
