Why is positive "mental health" crucial among employees? How can organisations utilize it?
What is mental health and an Organisation?
Mental health - It refers to our cognitive (thinking), behave, and emotional well-being - it is all about how we think, feel, and behave and react towards various stimulus.Â
Keeping a track of these key aspects are important for the individuals themselves also from an employers perspective. (we will discuss this in detail in the later section below) and how it can be utilised towards gaining productivity.
Organisation can be defined as: Intervention of individuals working to attain a common goal, under an employer/management/ leader; be it startups, corporations, Universities, Schools. Common goal may vary yet the management style may remain similar or orthodox in the year 2020. Is it contributing towards positive mental health of employees/stakeholders?
In my opinion, keeping Delhi NCR, India. region in mind - It can be much better and productive in terms of taking care of the emotional need of stakeholders aligning with current trend in the global market.
Currently for this write up - I will be keeping my perspective closer to metro cities (tier-1) particularly in the country of India, however, the idea would mirror and be applicable with other world cities too.
How is it for the employees/stakeholders living in the busiest areas and giving Organisations a life?
From an employee's perceptive most of times individuals are working in teams with other individuals with similar goals to achieve or working solely, devoting time and energy towards an essential project. But, how does the individuals manage their cognitive, behavioral and emotional well being?
For some personality types work may seem to be a gateway to create an aspect of life meaningful, but, is it similar for other personalities who are working just for pay checks and learning more about experiences outside of the work environment for example- fulfilling their dreams in terms of retail therapy, that would bring them happiness, wouldn't it?
How about when that happiness goes away or these individuals are going through some tough times probably partly or fully due to addiction: gambling, technology, substance abuse, seems to be options out of many others.
Story of Gurgaon, Haryana with Alcohol Consumption. where you can find liquor available at every corner at T junction, Every mall - name it, it is there ,and these are the just the legal aspects.
(Read more on this article - https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/gurugram-set-to-end-new-year-eve-on-a-high-note-alcohol-consumption-to-triple-up-1117474-2017-12-28)
It is just one area that I have touched there are plenty more, you can read more here -
Question rises why people are turning up to such experiences ? The immediate answer to this question is to be, for these type of people (who holds large chunk in the society) may feel confused between alot of areas of life to have experienced, be it - Relationships, Growth, Happiness, Right Fit, Finding their niche, Disappointments etc. You name it and its their, different reason to feel disappointing
There is not one right answer for this particular question, it varies person to person and their different environments they are exposed to, one of them out of many is. which mostly crucial to these majority of people is their WORK LIFE, where the expense to uphold such desirable life style is stemming from.
Being a Psychologist in Gurgaon and Life Coach, I personally come across multiple cases of dysfunctional lifestyle, over-expectation, divorces, faulty behavior traits, Sexual abuse, etc- these being the most common troubles among individuals to be feeling depressed, anxious and low self worth.
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Why is it important for employers to take care of it?
Organisations are hiring every kind of individual bartering their skill-set for profit. In most of the cases they fail to assess the overall capability including personality and behavior traits and responses towards variables they will be exposed to within the work environment.
An immediate solution to that is - conducting psychological assessment of an individual including a psychometric test and a structured interview with an organisational/Business/ Industrial Psychologist. To assess the overall fit for the organisations, saving alot of the cost towards hiring & firing, employee retention, maintaining an organisational culture etc. and to probably decrease the number of employee turnover
However, What an employer must do to create a positive environment and the productivity flowing with the current employees?
1. Create a positive environment (nurture organisational culture) for the stakeholders to upgrade and focus on gaining required skills.
2. Creating a platform to vent out their negative emotions.
3. Tapping into the creative mindset of an individual by conducting brainstorming sessions (make them feel valued, their contribution matters)
4. Avoiding judgemental and taboo oriented work environment.
5. Focusing on the emotional need in terms of expression and monitoring their well-being.
6. Focusing on altruistic work behavior to promote organisational citizenship behavior.
7. Increase the level of communication for the employees to feel heard and valued
8. Hire the right candidate that aligns with company's vision and goal.
9. Timely training covering the current aspect of their job roles and market trend shall be a part of their day to day lives - so that they feel evolved.
10. Maintaining an emotional regulator/scale to monitor the stress level of the employees to avoid counterproductive behavior.
11. Take initiative towards raising the mental health awareness.
12. Nurture a positive competitive environment to grow & excel.
The mentioned points can be a tipping point to increase productivity among employees.
To read further on the topic area of employee engagement and performance you click below.
https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/achievers/hbr_achievers_report_sep13.pdf
Prashant Das