Tag Archives: mental health

Taking care of employee and colleague wellbeing

Introduction

Working during lockdown can be challenging for everyone – that’s why we need to be taking care of employee and colleague wellbeing, as well as our own. We’re being made more aware of the impact that quarantine and isolation can have on mental wellbeing. We need to look after ourselves, our friends, family, colleagues, employees, etc.

However, isolation doesn’t mean zero contact with the outside world. We are lucky enough to live in a time where we can talk to people from across the world within the safety of our own homes. There are so many different platforms designed for virtual contact; Skype, iMessage, Email, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Zoom, the list goes on.

Here’s a few things we’ve put together which you can do to help your colleagues, and yourself, stay on top of your social interaction and wellbeing.

Connect

Working from home means we don’t have the same opportunity to bump into each other in the office and have a quick, casual chat. It might be that conversations with your team feels scripted because your only form of contact is centred around work. Set aside some time to have genuine conversations with the people you work with and ask them how they’re doing. Do little things together that will improve your team’s mood, this could be making a playlist for work, collective coffee breaks or lunch group calls. Include people that may have been furloughed as a way to keep them involved in the team dynamic.

Be Compassionate

It’s important to understand that people who are normally very self-sufficient and focused may be struggling without the office structure. People might have young children that don’t understand the situation. This can increase stress and anxiety levels, resulting in a decrease of work quantity and quality. Lend a hand to someone who might be feeling overwhelmed by their workload and if possible, encourage flexible working hours. Emphasise that once their working day is done, work equipment should be put away. A healthy balance between ‘work’ and ‘life’ needs to be established to maintain mental wellbeing.

Listen

A team needs to know they can talk to each other and ask for help when they need it. Everyone is busy and trying their best to continue their usual workflow which can lead to people feeling that they’re causing a disturbance or inconvenience when asking for help. Take some time to let people know that even though you’re busy, you’re not too busy to help. Let each other talk and vent without being judgmental. Keep in mind that everyone has different tolerance levels and things that one person may not find a big deal, could be keeping someone else up at night. If you think someone may be struggling in a way that you don’t know how to help, ask them if they want to speak to someone qualified and direct them to help through ‘higher-ups’, HR or Occupational Health.

Give Direction

There hasn’t been a scenario quite like this one in recent history. Finding a good balance between giving direction to your team and smothering them can be a challenge. Decide who within your team needs more attention to keep on track and who is managing well on their own. Encourage group interactions such as, “I’m finished this task but can’t get started on the next until xxx has finished their part. Is there anything I can do to help anyone else?” Each person should have a clear objective and know how to work towards it.

Have Fun

Whilst getting work done is everyone’s main objective, having fun should also be a high priority. Find things that your team can do outside of working hours as a group activity. Things like online yoga classes, quiz nights, cooking competitions, starting a TV show together etc. can be great. Activities like this can really help to bring a group together and improve morale. Even though you can’t be together physically you can still have fun and interact virtually to prevent feeling alone/isolated.

This infographic is designed to help take care of employee and colleague wellbeing by showing 16 different ways to connect, support, and recognise teams in times of uncertainty — RewardGateway have created this infographic showing 16 ways to Connect, Support and Recognise Teams in Times of Uncertainty, click here for their full article.

To Conlcude

Taking care of employee and colleague wellbeing is important, but so is looking after your own. Click here to read our article on maintaining wellbeing whilst working from home during COVID-19. You can also click here to read the NHS’s Every Mind Matters article on mental wellbeing while staying at home.

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

Mental Health in the Workplace

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

World Mental Health Day 2016 – take time for Tea & Talk

Today is World Mental Health Day, and the Mental Health Foundation is encouraging people to take time for ‘Tea & Talk‘ – an initiative designed to raise awareness of mental health issues, raise money, and encourage people to have conversations with their friends and colleagues about their own mental wellbeing. It aims to tackle the still-present stigma around mental health, that sees many people conceal their problems, out of fear that they will experience discrimination at work and in social settings.

Up to 1 adult in 6 experiences a mental disorder, and it is estimated that a fifth of days taken off work in the UK are due to anxiety or depression. This is a huge problem, and it is predicted to only get worse. Research suggests that by 2030, mental health will be the leading disease burden globally.

It is vitally important therefore, that we have strong tactics to deal with it. In the workplace, this consists of two key strands – awareness and support. Firstly, paying attention and being aware of how employees are feeling, and ensuring that people know that their workplace will not judge or discriminate against people because of their mental health. Supporting conversations and openness around these issues can be a great first step in this.

Secondly, providing appropriate support, and access to services to help employees to deal with mental health problems, whether these are short-term or ongoing conditions. There are plenty of sources out there to help you with this. For example, the charity Mind has excellent free resources to assist organisations in supporting their staff, and helping improve mental wellbeing; and the HSE has a lot of content on work related stress and other mental health issues – these are a really useful starting point. Another important factor can be how your workplace values, and works to improve, employee wellbeing, and we can help you with that. For more information on our consultancy services, including Health and Wellbeing, contact info@amalgamate-safety.com or call 0141 244 0181.