Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink

33 - Building a Mentally Healthy Workplace

• Leah Fink • Season 1 • Episode 33

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Ever wondered what it takes to create a truly mentally healthy workplace? Well, you don't need to guess any more!  In this episode, we explore the the Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, and the 13 factors it highlights as critical.  From clear leadership to nurturing a supportive organizational culture, you'll gain clarity around which specific actions you may be taking or not that are promoting or reducing health. 

Do you know if your employees are experiencing a mentally healthy work environment? 

Join us if you would like to know what you need to do to ensure a psychologically healthy and safe environment.

If you are interested in assessing mental wellbeing in your workplace, go to https://meetleah.ca/ to book a complimentary consultation and learn more.

To have your questions answered on the show, submit your story here: https://allthrive.ca/share-your-story

Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink is live every week at 12:00pm MST.  Please join us to get answers to your leadership questions! https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-fink-all-thrive/

Speaker 1:

Every action you take as a leader has a ripple effect, starting with your team, going out to the organization and even out into people's personal lives. Here we offer you the chance to learn from real-life stories of leadership so you can gain a deeper understanding and level up your own skills From communication to culture, to power and equity, to feedback, to resolving conflict and more. Join us and make sure you're creating the ripples you want. Welcome to Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to Leadership Ripples with Leah Fink. Today we're going to be discussing mental health in the workplace and what kind of components need to be in place in order for you to have a mentally healthy, psychologically safe workplace. Instead of a story this week, I wanted to base this off a conversation I was having with CJ and I asked her if I could use it in the show. Now, cj is a manager at a midsize company and her focus has really been on ensuring that her team is doing well, especially in a mentally emotional space. So we were discussing how you create a mentally healthy workspace and what that actually entails, and I wanted today's episode to talk about some of those primary factors that contribute to either mental health or stress in the workplace and share a fantastic tool with all of you. And we're going to start with the tool.

Speaker 2:

So, in 2013, the Mental Health Commission of Canada commissioned the Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, and it has since been used by a wide variety of Canadian organizations. It was reaffirmed in 2022, and it is just a fantastic way to start looking at how you might apply this to your workspace Now, no matter where you are in the world, this tool is applicable, I would say, and you can access it for free through either a quick Google search or through mentalhealthcommissionca You'll find it on there. So what I'm sharing today is obviously not only my own opinion and experience, but what's been discovered through a lot of studies about how people are operating in the workplace, what's helping them, what's hindering them, and I think it's really important that we recognize how big of a challenge this can be and how many people it's affecting in different workplaces and in different situations. Now, the standard has identified 13 key factors that are really the core of how we are impacted in the workplace, and so I want to share just a little bit about each one and how you would see them if they were being fulfilled in a healthy way, and you can guess the opposite would be if they're not being supported. We'll start with clear leadership and expectations. We'll start with clear leadership and expectations, and that is basically how well are employees being supported by leadership, in order to know what they're supposed to be doing and how to be effective at it, and this should really also include an understanding of how an employee's work contributes to the organization, how they can understand changes within the organization all of those components. When an employee feels they have clarity in their role, they're given quality, timely feedback, they're informed about important changes in a timely manner, they're receiving quality communication, this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being in the workplace.

Speaker 2:

Next, organizational culture. This is focused on all the values, beliefs, expectations and norms that drive the behavior of staff and are commonly agreed upon or understood by the majority of people in the organization. So when employees feel that they're part of a community, like everyone in the workplace is accountable to each other, that people respect and trust each other, and that difficult situations in the workplace will be addressed, this factor would contribute positively to that mental well-being. Engagement is focused on ensuring that employees feel connected to their work, that they're motivated to do the job well and even enjoy it, and that might be in a physical way, a cognitive way, an emotional way. When employees are enjoying their work, they're proud of what they do and how they contribute to the organization, and when they're even willing to put in a little extra effort because the work is important to them, that would mean this factor is contributing positively to that mental well-being. Involvement and influence is focused on creating an environment where employees feel included in decisions, not only about their work they're doing, but also how they're doing it. When they're able to control a little bit about how they do their work, have their opinions considered, when they could talk to their supervisor about how they want to do their work and they feel like their organization will take input from them about that, this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being. Growth and development is focused on building an environment where employees are supported in developing their technical skills, their emotional skills, their interpersonal skills. When employees believe that their organization cares about growth, when they see opportunities to advance, when their leaders let them take on new ideas and challenges, when they get to develop their skills and get regular feedback, that's when this factor would be contributing positively to mental well-being.

Speaker 2:

Recognition and reward is focused on ensuring that employees are acknowledged and appreciated for their efforts in a timely manner. So when employees are receiving appreciation for what they do, for their commitment and passion for the work, not only from their leader but also from the organization, when they see shared accomplishments being celebrated and when they feel they're being fairly paid for the work they do, this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being. Civility and respect is focused on creating this space where employees can all be considerate and respectful to each other, as well as customers, as well as stakeholders. So when employees perceive respect and fairness, regardless of background or situation, when they feel that inappropriate behavior is addressed effectively and that conflict between stakeholders is managed well, then this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being.

Speaker 2:

Psychological and social support is focused on the social interactions between co-workers and supervisors and the agreement of emotional integration and trust. So it's also present in the assistance provided by others when you're performing your tasks. When employees believe their organization cares about mental well-being and supports that has supports in place to help those in need, both when they're at home, maybe on a leave, or when they come back to work. That they believe that others will check in at work if someone looks like they're not doing well or appears distressed, that there's support given when employees are facing some of those personal issues and that people help each other out in the workplace, that's when this would contribute positively to mental well-being. Psychological protection is based on building this environment that protects your psychological safety and that's when you feel safe to ask questions, to seek feedback, to make mistakes and to bring forward ideas without worrying about a potential negative consequence. So when employees feel that their supervisor cares about their well-being, that their organization makes efforts to reduce stress, that they'll protect them from harassment and bullying or address it effectively if that does happen, then this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being. Protection of physical safety is focused on ensuring employees are physically safe and protected from any hazards that might be in their physical environment. So when employees feel physically safe, they have reasonable rest periods, they receive sufficient training, they can refuse work if it feels unsafe, and if they believe that the organization regularly is assessing these things because they care about how physical safety affects mental well-being, then this factor would contribute positively to that.

Speaker 2:

Psychological demands are focused on assessing whether a given activity might negatively affect an employee's health or well-being. So when their employees believe that their organization is regularly assessing worker demand, job control and autonomy, work systems, management systems, management accountability, and they're focusing on this interpersonal competency and value employee input, this factor would contribute positively to employee well-being. Workload management is focused on creating an environment where employees can complete assigned tasks successfully within their available time. So when employees believe that they have the time and resources needed to complete their work, that they can do their work uninterrupted, they can prioritize the tasks they need to do and can go to their supervisor to discuss any pieces about workload. That's when this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being.

Speaker 2:

Work-life balance is focused on accepting the need for this harmony between workplace demands and personal demands. So when employees believe that their workplace cares about this work-life balance, they're given the breaks that they're entitled to. So not just breaks in the workplace, but things like parental leave, paid time off, when they feel like they can meet workplace and personal demands and they have energy left at the end of the day for their personal life. And, finally, that they could speak to their supervisor. If they are worried about this balance between work life and personal life, then this factor would contribute positively to mental well-being. So that's it.

Speaker 2:

Those are the factors that the Mental Health Commission of Canada found and created with this standard, and it's really wonderful to get to see this, because it really does show some of the things that I hear a lot from the leaders I work with, things that they're worried about or things that employees tell me that are really affecting them negatively or positively in the workplace, because when these factors are met, you're probably getting positive results, you're getting mentally healthy employees, and when these factors are not being met so the opposite of the things I was saying then you're really going to see how mental well-being is not thriving in the workplace, that people are going to be burning out, that they're going to be leaving. So you really, really want to focus on this. It makes a huge, huge difference in your organization and in being able to keep quality employees. Now, of course, this is meaningful work. It's complex work to make sure that all of these pieces are done.

Speaker 2:

So if you are wanting to make sure that this is happening in your workplace as a leader, maybe you were thinking to yourself yeah, I think we're doing pretty good Be very curious to know how your employees are experiencing this, because it can be hard to match all of these factors and ensure that this is actually what employees are experiencing. So what I would do first of all is go take a look at this. You can find it, as I mentioned, just by searching online or at mentalhealthcommissionca, and you can start going through some of these factors. You could talk to your employees and figure out what their perception of this is. If that's feeling like a lot, you're not confident in it. You don't know if you'll get maybe the most honest answers if you're talking to your employees, because that power differential can make things a little more nerve-wracking.

Speaker 2:

Then I was also asked to create a tool specifically for this, to be able to help assess mental health in the workplace, and I have this as an online assessment tool.

Speaker 2:

I can offer it within interview or within a focus group form, based on what your organizational needs are, because the first step to this is really understanding your employee experience and however you want to do that, if you want to do it yourself or if you want to seek some support, I would obviously be happy to help you and please reach out if you're interested in that.

Speaker 2:

It's a really great tool and I'm super happy to be able to offer it now and I hope that everyone listening got some great ideas. Thought to yourself oh, we're really thriving at that factor. Oh, there's a couple pieces there that we might be missing that I could really help support my employees with. Maybe have a better sense now of what psychological health and safety in the workplace looks like. Maybe have a better sense now of what psychological health and safety in the workplace looks like. I want to thank you so much for listening and learning with me and otherwise. I really look forward to sharing more with you next week, learning more with you next week and, as we close, remember to ask yourself what kind of ripples are you going to create this week?

Speaker 1:

We hope you enjoyed the episode. Make sure to subscribe, comment and connect with Leah.