Introduction

Before COVID-19, there was a crisis in mental health in the workplace, costing the UK economy almost £35 billion. COVID-19 has highlighted these problems, with mental health collectively suffering and deteriorating across the UK. Here is what we think workplaces should be encouraging to help support their employees and colleagues.

How can you make wellbeing a priority?

Doing 2 of these 5 things each week is said to make a huge difference to mental wellbeing.

  • Connect
  • Be active
  • Take notice
  • Learn
  • Give

Developing a routine that works for you:

  • Plan how you will spend each day including when you will take breaks and finish working.
  • Try to get as much sunlight as possible, work with the window open, and spend some time each day outside if it’s safe to do so.
  • Keep active, build physical activity time into your routine.
  • Eat well and stay hydrated.
  • Keep taking any medication you’re on.
  • Don’t overload yourself with information, take breaks from the news and try to stick with reputable sources.

Understanding your mental wellbeing

What keeps you well? – Think what helps you to balance your day and lift your mood. Is there a particular way of working that makes things easier for you?

What are some triggers and early warning signs? – What things create a negative environment and how can you work around this? If you can think of things that trigger your mental health then you can begin to eliminate these from your day or work on how to manage these triggers better.

Impacts of mental wellbeing on performance – How is your mental health affecting your work life and personal life and are you able to separate these two?

Negative coping strategies – Are you using healthy coping strategies and if not, how can you change these strategies for the better?

It’s important that you’re asking yourself these questions but also relating this to the people you work with and discussing it. This way, you can better understand yourself and others, therefore helping to promote mental health wellbeing in the workplace. 

Resources

  • Here you can find more information on how to work well from home during lockdown. This can be used to develop your wellness strategy or as an individuals guide.
  • Here is a great source of information that gives advice for staying at home, looking after mental wellbeing, support for work and checklists for staying at home.
  • Do you and your employees/colleagues know what mindfulness is and how to use it to your collective advantage? Find out more about what mindfulness is here.
  • You can also read our other article on taking care of employee and colleague wellbeing here.

If you have any further questions or require any further support, please do not hesitate to contact us by t: +44 (0)141 244 0181 or email: info@amalgamate-safety.com