Today’s opinion is by Stephanie Legault
It is no secret that mental illness rates have been steadily increasing with about one in every five adults experiencing mental health-related illnesses every year. Society has made no significant efforts to collectively destigmatize mental illness and offer better health coverage for those truly in need, so the responsibility now lands on businesses. If society isn’t brave enough to talk about and normalize mental health, then it’s up to the business world to make that change.
Expecting employees to show up to work to produce something valuable and meaningful to your mission when they are personally struggling with finding value and meaning in their life is an impossible reality. This describes the idea of presenteeism, which costs 1.8 times that of absenteeism. Your employees are assets to your business operations, and just like assets, employees’ work can depreciate over time if their mental health is declining. Not to mention how expensive it is to ignore. It’s estimated that mental illness accounts for nearly $200 billion in lost wages annually.
Gen Z is notoriously known as the leaders of the mental health, especially as more individuals report their increasing levels of stress and depression-like symptoms. In APA’s 2020 Stress in America Report, about 82% of Gen Z respondents said that they could have used more emotional support than they received that year. Gen Zers, with all our emotional baggage, are starting to make our way into the workforce, so what does that mean for the new era of business?
Start the conversation
Employers need to initiate the conversation of mental health in the workplace with empathy and understanding. Choosing to make mental health a more consistent part of communications from leadership will eventually trickle down the organization. Consider hosting empathy workshops for employees to work on their empathetic skills and active listening.
Encouraging open and honest conversation
Offering meditation or mindfulness workshops gives employees the opportunity to expand their mental health toolkit and discover what works best for them. You might implement compassion and empathy training for those skills on human interaction and crisis evaluation. Or even, doing monthly yoga as a team-building exercise.
On-site therapy
Consider offering on-site therapy as a benefit to employees. When Americans were worried about the increasing obesity rates, we brought gyms to the workplace. On-site therapy gives businesses the chance to invest in the increased productivity and wellbeing of their workforce while saving money in the long term.
Remember, mental health is not a one-and-done effort. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It takes constant work, dedication, and improvement. But, that constant work and improvement feels a little less daunting to a Gen Zer when they have the support of their organizations behind them. Be compassionate. Be understanding. Be patient.