Step One is a local organisation that supports people across Devon, who may or may not have disabilities, with their mental health problems. Our vision is to help individuals live more independently and with greater confidence so that they can fulfil their potential.
The charity has an incredible 85-year history of capacity building across the county, and has supported countless numbers of people to rebuild their lives after crisis.
The pandemic highlighted the causes of mental health problems, as well as exacerbated them. With the adjacent radical changes in working culture, now is the perfect time for organisations to implement change and integrate mental health support into everyday working practice.
Not only will this positively impact on employee experience and working culture, but since mental health is the leading cause of staff absence in the UK and costs employers approximately £2.4billion per year, these changes can make a real difference to an organisation’s overall performance.
Here are five top tips from our valued course practitioners on how to help your employees maintain their mental health.
Introduce Wellbeing Activities
Whether your staff work from home, out and about, or in the office, there is a whole range of wellbeing activities that can be introduced across the workplace. From arranging time for a no-work catch-up with a colleague, to turning the conference room into a yoga studio, integrating wellbeing activities into the workday can increase productivity and quality of work.
Introduce Meaningful Supervision Sessions
There is still a stigma around mental health, especially in the workplace. Shockingly, 67% of employees fear potential discrimination or embarrassment from their employers and feel unable to open up to them about their mental health.
Meaningful supervisions are protected time for employers and employees to discuss any factors that are affecting them either at work or outside of it. These sessions create an opportunity for employers to directly address any mental health concerns, and introduce a safe space where employees can feel open to talking through any positive or negative emotions.
Implementing regular meaningful supervision sessions means that conversations around mental health are not just happening when there is an absence or incident, but that employers are creating a regular, open space for employees to talk through anything that is affecting them – thus paving the way for a more open working culture.
Know Your Staff
Recognising that your staff are more than just your employees and will often have varied lives outside of the workplace, can help them to feel seen and valued, as well as help you know how to enable them to work to the best of their ability.
Understanding how to cheer someone up when they’re having a bad day, or how to calm someone down after a crisis, shows that you care, and will improve an employee’s job satisfaction, as well as increase their focus and productivity.
Recognition And Reward
The value of recognising and rewarding staff achievement is huge and it really is worth the effort; for instance, up to one-third of employees would consider leaving their job if they didn’t feel valued by their employer. This can impact on recruitment, reputation, and business resilience.
By sending an employee something as simple as an email to say thank you for a job well done, you can boost their sense of recognition and validation, ultimately helping them to invest more in the work they do.
Access BeWell@StepOne Courses
Step One offers a free and accessible way to support individuals who are experiencing mental health problems, or who just want to find out more about supporting someone in distress.
BeWell@StepOne provides interactive courses that can help both employers and employees to understand the problems that people can face with their mental health, while equipping them to respond to difficulties with confidence.
Topics include Wellbeing and Resilience, Understanding Depression, Changing Negative Self-Talk, and Food and Mood. The courses focus on self-management and independence, enabling those who worry about their mental health to take back control.
As an employer, giving your team the time to learn about their own wellbeing can make a real difference to how they see you, your organisation, and themselves.
If you are interested in Mental Health First Aid training for your organisation, or would like to find out more about BeWell@StepOne courses, please visit
www.steponecharity.co.uk/bewell@stepone-online-courses
Alongside our courses, we can also help employers to create an open and supportive culture in the workplace.
Organisations can access our Mental Health First Aid courses and train dedicated Mental Health Champions amongst your staff from only £55 per person. All sessions are delivered by trained and experienced professionals who can work with your business to offer a tailored learning experience for maximum benefit.
Article by Step One
