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Quickly moving up the list in the last two years, mental health in the workplace is a top priority for organizations today. Business and HR leaders around the world are much more aware of the importance of mentally healthy workplaces, and World Mental Health Day, a global event celebrated on October 10, is the point of support of the efforts of many companies to promote wellness at work.
The theme of World Mental Health Day 2022 is “Making mental health for all a global priority”. If you are interested in participating in this worldwide movement, you should ensure that your organization’s plans also reflect the theme of #WMHD2022. Here is a ready calculation that your organization can use to plan your activities, events and campaigns around World Mental Health Day 2022.
On World Mental Health Day, employers can show a genuine commitment to wellness in the workplace in ways other than the usual emails and intranet banners. Some of them are:
town halls
Host a company-wide town hall that involves employees from all functions and locations. The goal of the council should be to recognize the mental health risks and challenges in your business or industry and discuss how the company plans to ensure better well-being for its people.
The town hall also provides a platform for people (especially leaders) to share their own mental health struggles or journeys with others. CXOs and function heads need to lead these discussions from the front; this will encourage people from all categories to open up about their experiences.
Policy Renewal
World Mental Health Day is a great time to implement lasting changes to your organization’s policies and processes. One example is rolling out an organization-wide mental health policy (if you don’t already have one).
You may also consider evaluating and, where necessary, updating your existing policies on diversity in the workplace, equal pay, anti-bullying and anti-harassment, flexibility, paternity leave, etc., as all of these policies have great impact. impact on workplace culture and attitudes towards mental health. .
wellness surveys
In the words of Peter Drucker, what gets measured gets managed. A good starting point for your organization’s wellness journey on World Mental Health Day is an employee survey. The survey should dive deep into your employee experience, covering key points like stress levels, resilience, risk of depression and anxiety, sleep quality, and other vital mental health parameters.
The survey data will provide valuable insights into the course of action needed to mitigate and manage mental health risks in your workplace.
Improve the work environment
Do your company’s health and wellness services make it easy or desirable for people to use them? For example, if your workplace gym opens only after your employees’ official workday ends, most people would prefer to stay behind to use the gym.
Likewise, if your cafeteria doesn’t offer healthy food options, it makes it difficult for employees to adopt better eating habits.
Making the necessary changes to the physical environment, including adding green spaces, child care centers, smoke-free areas, etc., can have long-lasting benefits for workplace wellness.
Expert-led workshops
Another way that companies observe World Mental Health Day is to engage mental health experts, such as psychologists or psychiatrists, to speak with employees. Experts can give your people the tools to identify signs of mental distress and seek (or provide) support for them.
Additionally, you can invite people with ‘lived experience’ of mental health problems to talk about how they successfully managed their disorders. Sessions like these go a long way to breaking down taboos and helping employees realize they don’t need to suffer in silence.
wellness retreats
A wellness retreat is basically an outside activity where teams engage in wellness-related activities such as mindfulness, yoga, art therapy, or games. Consider taking your team to a scenic outdoor spot where people are likely to feel more relaxed and participate wholeheartedly.
Action plan
On World Mental Health Day, you can ask each employee to create a “wellness action plan.” This plan, which you will only share with your immediate teams, will detail the steps you will take to promote your own health (eg, by increasing daily activity or spending more time with family) and to support each other (eg, by reviewing -on a struggling teammate and offering help if needed).
Reward Wellness Heroes
This may be more relevant to organizations that have declared owners/supporters of their wellness initiatives. World Mental Health Day is a great occasion to recognize and reward these people’s efforts to de-stigmatize mental health and enable their colleagues to gain support.
Even if you don’t have a structured wellness program, you can still seek out and reward people who are known for their positive, empathetic, and sensitive attitude toward their colleagues.
scope of activities
Your activities need not be restricted to employees only. Consider extending your mental health program to other stakeholders, such as your employees’ families, your vendors, administrative staff, customers, local communities, etc.
Attracting these groups to your World Mental Health Day celebrations ensures that you remain focused on the well-being of your overall ecosystem, and not just your full-time staff.
Means
Too often, wellness resources are shared in the form of wordy, formal PDF documents that aren’t exactly easy to read. Therefore, it is important to distribute mental health information in well-designed, crisp, and visually appealing formats, such as illustrations, infographics, or videos. Make sure the information is also distributed in multiple languages to make it easier to consume the material.
Conversations on social networks
Businesses should join the ongoing conversations around World Mental Health Day on social media. You can use the official hashtags #WMHD2022 and #WorldMentalHealthDay while sharing information about your company’s wellness initiatives, participating in online discussions or webinars, and tagging colleagues who are making a difference in the workplace.
You can also download toolkits and information provided by the World Federation for Mental Health, the World Health Organization and other agencies, and use them in your own campaigns.
group activities
On average, people spend 8 to 10 hours a day at their jobs. This moment becomes more enjoyable when people feel part of a larger community based on their shared interests. You can build and nurture such employee communities around interests or hobbies like sports, gaming, cycling, social work, etc., to foster meaningful connections between people.
In addition to the ideas above, you can come up with your own ways to commemorate World Mental Health Day, such as panel discussions, awareness programs, marches or vigils, events involving employees and their families, team lunches, etc. As the world unites in support of better mental health for all, employers can do much to support this cause and support mental health in the workplace for all employees and business stakeholders.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed above are those of the author.
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Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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