Due to the immense amount of workloads, long hours of shifts when working, job insecurity, the all-around working environment and the attitude of your co-workers in the office, it is no doubt why a person’s work affects their mental health so much.
It was proven that a lot of different factors could actually contribute to how an employee works and how productive they are: whether it is the design of the work spaces such as having less minimalist designs, having plain white walls, marble floors or a mezzanine office space, or even as far having indoor plants placed around the workplace, and many more.
These are just some of the physical factors that can affect how an employee works, or affect the employee’s overall mental health. Of course, there are so many more factors that could affect an employee’s mental health, considering how busy the entire workspace always is.
The stress from paperwork deadlines and just the stress of being around people all the time could be a lot to deal with on a daily basis, but of course, this could be prevented. There are strategies and necessary steps to be created to develop a healthy and comfortable workplace that takes care of the wellbeing of the employees, support employees that are experiencing mental health issues, and overall create a workspace that could minimalize the risk of a toxic environment and the risks of affecting an employee’s mental health.
These strategies involve the following critical factors to ensure success, and some are listed below:
Ensure commitment from the major stakeholders.
A true leader values its employees’ wellbeing and not simply take them for granted just because they are being paid. A true leader must be aware of what the environment is like to the workspaces of their employees to make sure each and every one of them is comfortable and could work at their fullest potential. A commitment from the upper bosses to ensure employees’ wellbeing is crucial to make all of this happen and come to reality.
Discover what the employees need.
A problem could only be solved if it is addressed and pointed out first before anything else, and the best way to do that is to hear them from the people who are experiencing them. Check in with the employees, and other organizational staff to examine how the environment is like at their workplace. Understanding how the working environment is from the employees’ point of view is extremely helpful.
Strengthen ongoing communication.
Just like any other problems, anything could be solved through thorough and consistent communication. Developing this strategy, not only between the bosses and their employees but among the co-workers themselves, could definitely lower the chances of miscommunication and also inevitably, stress.
In this way, it is healthy to talk openly about what could be affecting their efficiency in the workplace, whether it is a person’s rash attitude towards another or a simple miscommunication about whose shift it is.
While there could be more strategies (such as considering if the workload is justified and many more), these are the simplest and most feasible strategies that could be easily implemented in the workplace if you want a healthy and comfortable environment with your employees. It is also helpful to establish a good rapport between everyone working to lower the chances of mental health issues possibly.
