Why leaders need to shift their approach to workplace mental health in 2021

The global pandemic has brought our longstanding mental health crisis right into the spotlight. More than ever business leaders and managers are wondering what they can do to better support their people. We thought we would take a moment to share some of our leadership’s insight into what they foresee for workplace mental health, as we move through the New Year.

For this purpose, we had Leslie Bennett (LB), partner and human capital innovator at MHI interview Stephane Grenier (SG), our founding partner and CEO on this very topic. What he shares here is very revealing and profoundly shifts how many leaders have been approaching workplace mental health for decades now.

LB:

Before we turn our attention to the new year, what have you found to be the biggest shift in business leadership priorities over the past eleven months?

SG:

Well, from my perspective, I think the pandemic has shed a light on a problem that you and I, and many business leaders had noticed many, many years ago. The pandemic may have become the impetus that was needed for leaders to actually move from a stage of just talking about mental health, to a place where they're actually taking tangible, sustainable action for the mental health of their people.

Now more than ever, we are realizing the impact people can have on each other through connection and those simple micro moments that we used to have in the analog workplace before everyone went virtual.

All of this has been kind of a perfect storm of realization for business leaders to do more. And what they decide I think in the next little while, in the next couple of weeks and months is going to be critical.

LB:

Let's say you had to paint a picture of mental health in the workplace as we move through 2021. What do you foresee and how would you describe it?

SG:

Well, you're asking me to paint a picture, so I'm going to do just that. I'd ask all the business leaders to just go with me here. I think we have it all wrong.

“If business leaders really look at what their organizations have been telling people to do all these years, it has essentially been, ‘If you’re struggling, call this number,’ or ‘If you’re unwell, do this or that.’ While most services aimed at supporting employee mental health are well-intentioned, what we have to keep in mind here is when people are unwell, they have a tendency to isolate and not want to do the very things we are asking them to do. No one is getting the help they need this way.”

So we keep repeating the same thing over and over again. It’s as if we painted a picture of workplace mental health as a winter landscape, but instead of the snow being white, it’s green. It's a landscape all right, it's supposed to be winter, so then why is the snow green? Why can’t we just see it for what it is?

I'm here to tell business leaders, we really have to stop telling people who are unwell to go get help. We need to pivot and create a culture inside every organization where people who are well are capable of recognizing those who are unwell and supporting them. This is what we strive to achieve through many of our programs and services at MHI; empowering people within the organization to become a source of ongoing support for their colleagues by shifting the culture, providing them with the skills and tools required to reach out, and have supportive conversations with one another.

If you think about it, it’s exactly what happens when people get physically injured in the workplace. There's an automatic call to action for those around an injured worker, and we don't need extensive training to actually go deliver first aid, or call 911.

We would never, ever, ever put the onus on a worker who fell off a ladder to get help by saying, "If you ever fall off a ladder, call this number, or crawl to the emergency room." We would gather around the person and support that person to get them the help they need. Somebody would take the initiative.

So why is it different with mental health? Why have we turned the process inside out? That's what leaders need to ask themselves in order to start painting a very different and more accurate picture in the future. A picture where every human being in the organization is capable of saying, “Wait a minute, Leslie's not herself today. I'm going to reach out and ask her how it's going, and I'm going to be there for her,” end of story.

That's the picture we need to paint and that’s going to actually work.

LB:

Based on your recent work with clients, where would you say managers and leaders should focus their attention in the coming weeks?

SG:

Well, in the coming weeks and months, I think it is going to be a long haul. We are not out of the woods just yet. I think business leaders and managers need to look at pivoting some infrastructure costs. There are a lot of infrastructure and travel costs that are not being spent right now. They need to start shifting where the money is going and actually investing in their people’s wellness capital. The time is now to build that mental health infrastructure.

Have a look inside your organization; look at funds and where they used to go before the pandemic, and where they are going now. See how you might be able to reallocate some budgets to deal with and support what’s a priority right now, i.e. your people.

I know some businesses here in Ottawa are selling their brick and mortar, liquidating their office buildings, sending people home. But let’s not be naïve here. As this pandemic continues to evolve, as it comes to an end, and when it is all over and done with, how will you recreate an ecosystem where people still have access to those natural points of connection; those micro moments of interaction with one another? People need these to thrive in the workplace. They need to be connected and have the opportunity to look out for one another.

LB:

If you could give a single piece of advice to business and people leaders out there, what would that be?

SG:

I've been saying this for years, It’s important to stop talking about mental health, and actually start doing something.

Business leaders are constantly subjected to a narrative telling them, "Be very careful. Mental health is very difficult. It's very challenging. It's very complex," which it definitely can be.

However, what is also occurring as a result of this narrative is very problematic. I get bombarded with this all the time. In fact I was recently part of a global summit where a psychiatric researcher was saying, “we need to make sure we only do and implement evidence-based projects and programs.” Well, of course everybody's all for the evidence. However, mental health is a fairly new practice in the business world, and there is not a lot of evidence in this space, though MHI is committed to changing this in coming years.

And I would say that you don't need a whole lot of evidence to implement programs and services that are based on human nature and where you are connecting human beings and actually empowering them to be caring towards one another.

“Creating a culture where employees care for one another does not need to be evidence-based.”

We all know that's the right thing to do.

Conclusion

So business leaders, I implore you to listen to the professionals, listen to the researchers, but don't allow yourself to be paralyzed by analysis before you do the right thing. Yes, doing the right thing can be evidence-based, but you don't have to wait until all the evidence is there to start acting.

If you wait until all the evidence is there, you will be left wanting, and you will be left way behind those leaders who have made decisions and who have proactively rehumanized their workplaces.

Follow your gut. Don't use your people as guinea pigs, but do make decisions.

As I always say, 80% of something is a lot better than 100% of nothing. So that would be my advice.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and regularly visit supportyourpeople.com for ideas and ways in which your organization can better support its people and enhance its wellness capital.

Thank you for reading and for caring about your people.