The mental health of the worker directly influences their productivity. It is essential to establish mechanisms to detect depressive or anxiety problems before they cause large losses.
Mental illness is a risk that companies should watch out for: loss of job performance may be related to workers’ mental health.
The casualties depression usually last six months to a year. They are long, and the longer you leave, the more difficult it is to rejoin and slow down the recovery. Increasing efforts to avoid this problem would save companies and society millions.
Two-thirds of adults spend half their active time working. Where better than at work to detect a mental health problem.
Therefore, Human Resources teams must have the appropriate tools to warn which employees could be going through a bad time or suffering a crisis that affects their performance.
A survey software allows you to discover the concerns, aspirations, and fears of the workforce.
What is worker mental health?
In the current social framework; globalization and new communication technologies facilitate teleworking, almost at any time of the day. This brings with it multiple advantages: immediacy, innovation, etc.
But in turn, competition grows, anxiety about having to be available around the clock, or pressure to improve cost efficiency and increase productivity.
Why is the mental health of workers so important?
The business costs associated with psychological disorders such as depression in the EU are 620 million euros per year. Loss due to the low performance and low of enduring his post without receiving professional treatment.
Many organizations do not count losses from mental health problems at work and do not spend part of their budget to prevent them. The WHO estimates that every euro invested in the extension of treatment for mental disorders generates four euros in improved health and productivity.
Mental health risks at work
Work is beneficial for mental health. However, a bad work environment can cause physical and mental problems. The WHO has worked hard in recent years to raise awareness of these problems in companies.
In 2019, they drew up a list of the main risks :
- Inadequate safety and health protection policies
- Inefficient management and communication practices
- Little power of the decision of the worker or absence of control of his work area
- Low level of employee support
- Rigid work schedules
- Lack of clarity in organizational areas or objectives
- Excessive workload
- Psychological harassment or intimidation at work ( mobbing )
With survey tools, it is easy to design surveys with different question/answer formats. Afterward, it is possible to distribute the results, graphical reports, and heat maps. Many employees are afraid to voice their concerns so the system provides the ability for surveys to be anonymous.
How the coronavirus affects the mental health of your workers?
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of today’s work environment. Millions of employees have suddenly switched to telecommuting in precarious home offices, while the rest of the workers suffer constant stress from putting their health at risk.
Numerous studies warn that stress, anxiety, and isolation can take their toll in the coming months. In this environment, the mental health of the worker is not only an ethical obligation for employers, it is also a matter of substance.
Isolation, lack of light, fresh air, and physical exercise produce feelings of loneliness, concern for loved ones, and fear of the future after the health crisis. These problems translate into anxiety, depression, or irregular sleep patterns.
In the most serious cases, and without concrete data for the moment, experts from the Academy of Medical Sciences of the United Kingdom warn that the number of suicides is increasing. You can get to know about the best homeopathic doctor via reading online.
How to improve the mental health of your employees?
The key, both in detecting and improving mental health at work, is communication.
The highest world body in health matters recommends:
- Facilitate economic resources for the worker’s mental health
- Inform workers that they can ask for help
- Promote staff participation in decisions
- Implement practices to promote family conciliation
- Offer employees professional development programs
- Recognize and reward the contribution of staff.
Having a human resources software can help create that fluid communication environment or necessary to reveal the concerns of the workforce, which workers lose productivity, and how the problems could be solved.