It was like living in the movie 28 Days Later. The normally bustling streets of London were eerily empty as I ventured out for supplies. A lady approached clutching her scarf to her face, then stepped off the pavement to avoid me, her eyes full of mistrust, fearful of even breathing close to another soul.
I was wearing gloves and a mask too, thinking the whole world was contaminated during those early days of Covid-19. Going outside was pretty depressing, but at home and work I was also surrounded by people suffering from extreme anxiety. One colleague went into complete meltdown, stocking up on baked beans and saying he was never going to leave the house again.
We had a flood at the office in the middle of lockdown and no plumber dared to venture out to fix it. Our cleaners were also frightened to go into the offices and set up a system where the whole place was sanitized every single time anyone went in to collect a piece of equipment. This was time consuming and expensive, so for three months we basically stopped anyone entering or leaving any of our buildings
I was extremely concerned about people at Argonon working from home with children. There was a sense of despair when we were told that schools were not going to be reopening and people couldn’t come into the office. People were struggling with limited space at home, having to battle on with meetings while children played noisily in the background.
I was acutely aware of this and knew we had to grapple with it head on.
Did the pandemic also impact your team’s mental health? What measures did you take to deal with this?
Endemic anxiety
These are worrying times, with pandemics, war, terrorism, economic, political and social unrest, and climate change. Throw in the daily stresses of family and work life and is it any surprise that people are so stressed and anxious?
Younger managers tend to be more affected than older people who have more experience to cope. A major crisis can leave your team suffering from shock, helplessness, worries about colleagues, fear about future incidents or guilt.
Years ago, the issue of employee mental health was regarded as something that was people’s own business, something you wouldn’t get involved in, but thankfully attitudes have changed.
Research shows that caring for mental health in the workplace is not a nice-to-have concept: it impacts your bottom line due to loss in productivity, or the cost of replacing staff who leave. It costs companies billions, so improving the management of mental health in the workplace, including prevention and early identification of problems, could save employers money.
Surveys show that one in six workers are likely to suffer from a mental health condition in any one year and that work related stress accounts for around half of all working days lost due to ill health (Lelliott and Tulloch, 2008; HSE, 2021).
In a crisis you are going to need your whole team to pull out the stops to get through it. They are not going to be able to do this if they are impeded by mental health problems. So as a leader, caring for your team’s mental health is a key task.
In my company, we are used to people getting sick sometimes and we do not judge or pigeon-hole them. Quite the opposite: we take physical and mental problems as part of life – difficult but unavoidable. We go out of our way to support our people and offer help wherever we can. Not only is this kindness and a vital human response to difficulty, it is also a reflection of the sort of company we are.
Barriers to mental health
While there is increasing awareness of the impacts of poor employee mental health, there is still a disconnect between employers’ intentions and what is actually done in the workplace. There remains a stigma about mental health issues in some quarters and it is our job to change that. We make it clear to all our team that diversity and inclusion include invisible conditions and situations. But still fear exists.
A British national employee mental well-being survey found a third of employees did not approach anyone for support when they experienced poor mental health. Around half of people with mental health problems said they would not be comfortable talking to their employer (Cholteeva, 2022).
People have concerns about confidentiality and the impact on their career if they admit they are struggling. People are worried that if they speak up about feeling traumatized, others might think they are creating problems. They fear being seen as weak if they ask for help and so they try to act as if they are stronger and more resilient than they actually are. As a result, they tend to bottle up their feelings, sometimes to the point where those feelings become so intense they can’t function any more.
I’ve already suggested that as leaders we may have a stronger impulse to hide weakness and struggle on in silence. But have you ever experienced someone in your team struggling and bottling up their emotions? When someone else is doing this, I think you can see the folly of it more clearly.
Have you ever allowed yourself to reveal your own difficulty if you are having a bad day at work? I admit that I have had to learn to do this. In my opinion it is important for us all to be able to reveal ourselves to our colleagues sometimes. Work is not a place to gush out all your problems, but it should be a safe place to be authentic, even if it means bursting into tears in a crisis. You may think that’s a step too far, but let’s cut each other some slack.
Another barrier is lack of knowledge and resources to address workforce mental health and well-being. Line managers are not trained psychiatrists. Nor should they be. It is a good idea though for your senior management team to have an understanding of mental health issues and have some training.
I would suggest you consider some of the following key actions:
- Put workplace mental health and well-being on the agenda.
- Establish a culture of proactive, preventative management of workplace well-being.
- Appoint a lead dedicated to mental well-being.
- Regularly survey your staff about their mental health.
- Monitor key performance indicators.
Resources
There are now many resources available to help staff, including 24/7 confidential support helplines and online therapy. Here’s what a few companies offered during Covid:
- The retailer Target offered its US employees a year of access to Daylight, a website and app designed to help users navigate stress and worry, and Sleepio, an app that provides self-help tools to improve sleep. Target employees already had access to a company programme offering benefits including five free counselling sessions.
- The assurance, advisory and tax services company PwC offered employees access to wellbeing coaches and an online community to discuss mental health topics. The firm already offers employees and dependants six free therapy sessions and free apps on guided meditations, sleep, breathing and relaxing music.
- The software company Salesforce offered employees a series of articles and webinars on emotional health, as well as a meditation app, in addition to free face-to-face or video counselling sessions.
- The assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services company EY offers its employees 24/7 resources through its program, which connects employees to healthcare professionals. During the pandemic it enhanced a suite of offerings around emotional well-being so employees could access free mobile apps for building emotional resilience and improving sleep habits.
- In addition to one-to-one counselling with clinicians, the company added daily group counselling sessions for parents and adult caregivers, a free 12-week course on mindfulness and daily scheduled practice sessions. EY also began daily drop-in sessions combining short mindfulness exercises with practical tips for managing anxiety, social isolation, feeling overwhelmed, etc. During Covid, EY’s global chairman launched a recognition program highlighting EY people doing exceptional things to support each another, their communities or clients.
- The energy company Chevron gives staff access to licensed counsellors to help employees cope with fear, anxiety and other emotions or concerns. It ran a corporate-wide mental health campaign to increase awareness and reduce stigma associated with mental health. Self-guided resilience resources are also accessible for all employees.
- The news organization the Financial Times provided regular one-on-one counselling and bespoke webinars for its employees on a variety of topics. Staff can already access meditation via the Headspace app, plus a weekly, virtual, guided meditation session. To counter the impact of reduced social connections on employees’ mental well-being, they held regular video sessions to chat and share tips on topics like staying active and great podcasts. An annual mental health awareness week has workshops on topics like better sleep. They also offered animal therapy for employees and their families.
These examples show how proactive care is now mainstream and taken seriously by major companies.
At my company, where diversity and inclusion are always at the front of our minds, we also put a lot of actions into place. Working closely with our HR teams in London, New York and LA we introduced the following for all employees during the Covid pandemic:
- employee assistance program with free, confidential counselling
- full sick pay if an employee was unable to work from home
- regular business town halls to stay connected through virtual working
- regular communications from senior management to all group companies
- regular communications from HR to all staff
- open (virtual) door policy from senior management to talk through staff concerns
- hybrid working to empathize with staff anxiety about return to office
- FAQ document with information on everything from tax issues to mental health
- trained mental health first aiders across the group
- annual departmental catch-ups with the CEO each holiday season. I found these particularly enjoyable as it was a chance to talk openly with each team about their year, the ups and the downs. It also provided me with invaluable feedback on changes that needed to be implemented
- an overhaul and update of family-friendly policies
- regular check-ins from head of HR to heads of business to ensure they had the right support tools for their staff.
Smaller employers may not have such a range of resources but will be better able to spot an employee who is struggling with mental health issues.
Psychological support in the workplace is often reactive rather than proactive. This is where strong interpersonal relationships at work become important sources of support, especially from managers.
Our line managers often sent little gifts to their teams during the pandemic – chocolates, flowers, drinks, etc. This made our teams feel valued. Their hard work was being noticed and appreciated.
James Burstall is the founder and CEO of Argonon, the US and UK-based global independent TV production group. He is the author of The Flexible Method: Prepare To Prosper In The Next Global Crisis (Nicholas Brealey, 2023).