How employers can raise awareness around mental and physical health

Erica Genda

August 28, 2021

With the world plunged into a pandemic and people being forced to isolate and socially distance themselves, physical and mental health has taken its toll on many. It’s important that businesses break down the stigma around mental health and promote healthy living to ensure their staff remain happy and healthy.

If you’re not already creating an environment to promote mental health and physical wellbeing, here are our tips to building a solid support foundation for your employees:

Have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Having an EAP program will help employees to have access to mental health resources, confidential discussions, and guidance. Ensure your staff know about the program and know how to access it easily. Whether your staff are struggling with/at work or issues affecting their personal lives, it’s important to demonstrate that there is additional support for them if needed, and that you care enough as a business to break the stigma and understand that it is okay for people to require extra help when necessary.

Break the stigma

Companies can break the stigma by normalising the concept of mental health. Unlike physical health, mental illnesses or issues are less obvious to identify and diagnosis is not as clearly defined. Although there is an increasing awareness and acceptance, cultural factors can influence how mental health is viewed and it is still considered taboo in many Asian cultures, especially among the older generation. As an employer, some steps to take to break the stigma could include:

Be proactive - mental health check-ins with honest discussion

Leader-led communication about EAP and other support services

Open communication and transparency (especially during times of global crisis)

Offer Mental Health First Aid training

Encourage ‘Wellbeing Ambassadors’ or create an employee resource group

At Chandler Macleod, we have created a Wellbeing Ambassadors group which is led by our HR team. This group is made up of people across the business from different departments and business units including Aurion, Peoplebank, AHS hospitality and Vivir Healthcare. The group aims to highlight special initiatives that are about health, as well as to share wellbeing tips and check in with their teams and colleagues. Having members from across the business allows this culture to thrive in many areas and ensure wellbeing remains a priority. Most recently, the Wellbeing Ambassadors created a cookbook that was shared company-wide, hosted a wellness webinar, published daily blogs, and encouraged wellness from every aspect.

Sometimes creativity and implementing regular wellbeing initiatives can be time consuming or exhausting in itself and bringing in an external vendor/company to manage wellness programs can relieve the stress from organising without impacting the effectiveness. However, it’s important not to be too hands off and make sure there is enough involvement and communication from team leaders.

Create a safe and comfortable work environment

It’s important to recognize that the culture of your company can impact an employee’s mental and physical health. If you expect your staff to work under micro-management and remove any flexibility from their workday, they will feel suffocated and unhappy in that role.

Work towards creating a safe and comfortable environment within the business by:

Encouraging short bursts of physical activity or movement during working hours such as a quick walk around the block or a lunchtime workout, especially whilst working from home

Encouraging regular breaks to refresh

Creating a good flexibility policy

Ingraining a flexible work culture and ensuring all your team leaders are on board

Avoid micro-management and focus on outcomes instead

Actively promote and share physical wellbeing initiatives such as STEPtember to encourage movement and the benefits of how such activities can help employees keeping and feeling healthy.

Implement training for leadership

Wellness training can be extremely helpful in cultivating change and awareness from the top down. Not only can training provide a positive impact to your employees, but it is also important to train leaders in how to improve key areas such as employee engagement, unconscious bias and promoting inclusion and diversity. Wellbeing can affect everyone differently and different strategies will be required for different people.

How do you currently support your employee’s wellbeing? What is an achievable goal for you to implement in the near future?

< Older Post Newer Post >

A man and a woman are encouraging each other while sitting at a desk.

How to overcome setbacks in your career

September 27, 2024

This blog explores the inevitable challenges professionals face and provides actionable strategies to transform obstacles into growth opportunities. Learn how to reframe failures, build adaptability, and emerge stronger in your professional journey.

Ways to empower women and girls into leadership positions

By Rhiannon Williams • October 24, 2023

Promoting female leadership does not mean undermining the efforts or positions of others. Instead, it is about fostering an inclusive environment that truly values diversity and equality. When we talk about encouraging female leadership, we’re striving for a balanced representation of a diverse society. Listening to ways to support women in leadership positions is about understanding the systemic barriers they often face, and not an indictment of individual situations.

Sustainable business practices to reduce waste and energy consumption

By Rhiannon Williams • September 27, 2023

Sustainable business practices aren’t a passing fad, they’re imperative to the long term viability of a business. Read on for tips for your business.

How outsourcing your hiring process can save you time and money

By Rhiannon Williams • August 22, 2023

If you’ve been looking for ways to make the hiring process easier for your business due to finding yourself overwhelmed with the administrative and operational processes associated with hiring and onboarding new employees, outsourcing your recruitment and talent acquisition activities is a great way to streamline your tasks, and save your business both time and money. Here are the ways working with a recruitment agency may benefit your organisation. The benefits of outsourcing recruitment processes In the fast-paced business world of today, businesses are constantly looking for ways to streamline their operations and improve their efficiency. One area where outsourcing operations has become increasingly popular is recruitment processes and talent acquisition. By entrusting this responsibility to a recruitment agency, businesses can benefit from reduced costs, improved quality in talent, and more time to focus on their core business activities and objectives. Outsourcing to a recruitment agency also allows companies to access a larger talent pool due to recruiters being able to leverage their expertise and networks to find the best candidate for the role. Outsourcing recruitment processes and talent acquisition is a smart investment for businesses looking to save time, money, and resources while still being able to attract top talent. How to find the right recruitment agency for your business Finding the right recruitment agency to partner with can be a daunting task. With so many agencies to choose from, it is important to select one that is experienced and reliable. A good recruitment agency will have a clear understanding of your business needs and objectives, and the type of candidate you are trying to attract. The right agency for your business will take the time to get to know you and your company culture and will align with your business values and ethos, which will ultimately allow them to present you with top-quality candidates that go above and beyond your expectations. Don’t be hesitant to ask for case studies and references as this will give you more insight into their success rate and the quality and breadth of services they offer. By partnering with the right recruitment agency for your business, you can trust that you’ll find the best candidate for your business needs, without the stress of taking the process on yourself. Maintaining a relationship with a recruitment agency Continuous monitoring and assessment of the performance of the recruitment agency is pivotal to ensure that the partnership is providing the anticipated results. Evaluating the relationship should be an ongoing effort involving not just reviewing the immediate outcomes such as the quality of candidates, timeliness, and cost-savings for the business, but also looking at the long-term indicators such as employee retention rates and the satisfaction of the hiring manager. Essentially, looking at these metrics will offer insights into whether the recruitment agency has a good understanding of your company’s needs, culture, and expectations. Over time, any patterns or trends that emerge through monitoring these metrics can help you refine your recruitment strategy and provide a more productive relationship with your recruitment agency. Re-evaluating your partnership with a recruitment agency If the recruitment agency your business is working with no longer aligns with your business objectives or simply fails to deliver satisfactory results, it might be time to re-evaluate the business relationship. Before deciding to stop using a recruitment agency, or to change agencies, ensure you communicate your concerns and expectations with your account managers. If performance doesn’t improve, consider looking elsewhere- one ill-fitting relationship with an agency doesn’t mean there isn’t a better fit elsewhere. Look for agencies with a proven track record in your industry, ask about their company culture and values to ensure they align with your own, and get a clear understanding of their candidate screening process to see how they differ from others. Remember, changing agencies can be a significant step towards business objectives, so take the time to make sure that your next choice will be a more effective and beneficial partnership. Looking beyond the hiring processes of a recruitment agency Taking into account the additional services provided by a recruitment agency and its affiliated brands has the potential to add value to your hiring process. For instance, a company may have sister brands specialising in in different areas than what you were initially looking for such as executive staffing, temporary staffing, or different specialist industries, which can greatly broaden your options in the hiring process. Furthermore, some agencies may offer additional services such as onboarding support, HR culturing (not sure what this one is), managed services, business consulting, or technological services that can assist in enhancing your overall recruitment strategy and employee experience. Looking at the full scope of a recruitment agency’s services and the strength of their affiliations can be a significant aspect to consider when choosing a recruitment agency to partner with. There are many benefits to outsourcing your company’s recruitment processes through the right recruitment agency. By considering your business’ needs and establishing a strong relationship with a recruitment agency, your business can benefit from access to a sizeable talent pool and network, and an increased speed for filling open positions. Taking the time to find the right fit for your business, as well as evaluating all of the offerings of the recruitment agency, and their affiliates, and monitoring the progress can ensure not only great results for your hiring strategy, but also benefit your business by saving you time and money. Why choose Chandler Macleod? With our history as Australia’s first business psychology firm, the ability to assess your candidate and employee potential is at the heart of what we do, and we treasure the value this can add to your business over the longer term. By understanding your needs and the requirements of the role, our consultants use our BestFit Assessment tools to provide you with confidence in your hiring by delving deeper into the candidate's psyche. Beyond the recruiting stage, Chandler Macleod Consulting delves into understanding your employees’ lived experiences. By teaming up with our human and organisational behaviour experts you can help your employees and business achieve their full potential. Chandler Macleod is part of RGF Staffing APEJ, an ecosystem of brands that work together to create opportunities for life, using digital tools and solutions for insights and processes, putting the individual at the core. Find out more about what RGF Staffing APEJ can offer your business.