Why HR Should Be Mindful of Employees’ Mental Health

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, more people are becoming mindful of mental health. People are discovering that we have a mental health problem that we need to tackle. However, one group of people who have not seemed to catch up is the workforce, and that’s a problem. If you work in HR, you  and your team need to provide adequate mental health services. Here are a few reasons why.

A Mentally Well Employee Can Perform Better

This is just common sense. If an employee is performing mentally well, they can have a better output. Jobs don’t need to require intense brainpower for good mental health to be a factor. If an employee is stressed, anxious, depressed, burnt out, or has any other similar woes, it’s going to affect their performance. As a business, you do need to make sure that their problems are addressed in a way that can benefit both parties.

Mental Health Can Worsen if Left Untreated

If someone has mild depression, don’t write it off as a passing phase. Someone with mild depression may have depression that develops into something more severe. Severe depression can make someone so unmotivated they may just stop going to work altogether.

If left untreated, anxiety can prevent someone from going to work.

Also, the person may have an outburst if their problems are left unaddressed. This can turn a good employee into someone who was let go because no one cared about their problems, and that is a tragedy in of itself.

Obviously, it can be hard to treat mental health problems, but by providing adequate mental healthcare, you can reduce your chances of an employee having a breakdown or just not coming to work altogether.

Taking Care of Mental Health is the Law

You may have mental health laws in your region that tell you how you should handle mental health. There may be a chance that you’re not quite doing enough for your mental health, and if that’s the case, you could get in trouble.

Even if you don’t have any laws, treating someone and giving them respect is just the right thing to do, and it can lead to a happy worker and an improved performance.

Sleeping on the Job

One sign of poor mental health is not being able to get enough sleep. If your employee has depression, they may have insomnia. If they work long hours, this can affect their sleep schedule as well. Sleeping on the job is unproductive and could be dangerous. What you should do is make sure your employees get enough sleep. This will allow them to come back with a job that is better than ever.

External Factors

Your employees may be worried about external factors besides the job. School,  kids bills, the list goes on. Having someone handy to talk to your employees about this can help them have peace of mind and allow them to have the best performance possible. There are other ways as well to help with a person with a family, and you can check here for this information.

Counseling is Important

If your employees need to talk to someone about any questions or concerns, there is no shame in them speaking to a counselor or a therapist for all their help. A counselor can provide them with the answers to their questions and give them adequate solutions.

Plus, partnering up with online counselors may be able to help your employees get help on their own terms. Sites like Regain provide online counseling services that can get your employees the help they need through their devices.

Getting employees mental healthcare is the right thing to do, and your HR team should strive for it.

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