How to better support your employees with their mental health at work

New research is demonstrating the positive strides being made by many UK businesses to help tackle mental health problems at work. The improvements are not only addressing the UK’s growing mental health crisis but also ensuring companies can attract and retain the highest quality employees. This is likely to be of great benefit to aesthetic businesses and their staff going forward. 

For example, a UK-based study conducted by the social media recruitment platform Socially Recruited recently revealed that businesses are increasingly advertising their counselling and wellness-related benefits to new employees when recruiting. 

The research found that job adverts mentioning counselling services doubled in the past 12 months, emphasising increased formalised mental health support. Moreover, references to wellness budgets and discounts on mindfulness activities were up by 310%. Job adverts referring to a four-day week increased by 137% too, as employers work to attract candidates seeking better work-life balance. 

Many of the companies offering well-being bonuses in the research were in the hospitality sector, such as the restaurant chain Chipotle’s online wellness hub. But, with growing numbers out of work due to their mental health, and greater competition between aesthetic businesses to recruit the very best candidates, the research also indicates how important it is for aesthetic business owners to review the mental health support they provide to new and existing staff. 

“For many Brits, how they perform and are treated at work plays a substantial role in their mental well-being,” commented the founder of Socially Recruited, Ben Keighley. “It is vital that provision is in place, not only to support those already in employment, but also to attract the new workers and returnees needed to drive the economy forward.

“The emergence of recent employee trends such as ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘bare minimum Mondays’, particularly among younger generations, suggests a pushback against a culture where they can feel overworked and underappreciated,” Keighley continued. “Delivering corporate wellness and mental health benefits is a positive move that will not only help individual workers but have a collective impact and likely pay dividends by engendering greater productivity and loyalty.”

Moreover, in other pieces of research, Nuffield Health’s 2023 Healthier Nation Index found that 59% of respondents were less productive at work when their mental health was poor, while AXA’s Mind Health Report 2023 revealed that work-related stress was costing the UK economy £28 billion a year.

With a fifth of adults describing themselves as “struggling” with mental health and nearly half of employees reporting feeling overwhelmed, it’s never been more important to have the right resources in place for your business to help recruit, support, and retain your highly skilled staff. 

Luckily, Nuffield’s research also revealed mental health transparency at work is at least on the rise. The survey of over 8,000 people found that over one in four people now feel comfortable openly discussing with their employers if they need time off due to poor mental health. These latest findings suggest that, while a stigma still exists around discussing mental health at work, a positive shift is slowly happening. 

“As well as the day-to-day worries that come with our personal and working lives, employees have also had to deal with the impact of a global pandemic and now the ongoing cost-of-living crisis,” reveals Nuffield Health’s mental health prevention lead, Lisa Gunn. “All these stressors combined can significantly affect the mental health of employees, so it’s more important than ever that businesses find ways to create open, transparent, and connected workplace environments. When people feel supported and able to reach out to their employer, this can have a positive impact on their mental health alone and help them better address feelings of worry and anxiety.”

That said, employers must go about prioritising their employees’ wellbeing in the right way, as Keighley concludes: “These services [have to] become normalised within businesses and form part of a wider company approach to address mental health openly and without prejudice. Companies that practise ‘well-being washing’ — delivering counselling with one hand but unreasonable expectations with the other — must adjust their approach or else risk being left behind by employees increasingly willing to vote with their feet.”

To help aesthetic businesses create an appropriately transparent workplace, Nuffield Health has provided the following guidance as part of its #Find5 campaign:

1.     Notice when anxiety takes over.

Companies should be equipped to recognise signs of mental distress and anxiety, such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness. You might notice heightened emotions in the workplace such as irritability or tearfulness, or employees may find it hard to maintain a healthy work-life balance, meaning they cancel annual leave last-minute, work late at night or insist on coming into work when unwell. Luckily, just five minutes of conversation with employers can have a positive impact. This could be as simple as asking ‘Are you OK?’ or offering more regular catch-up meetings.

2.     Keep talking.

It’s good for managers to try and understand why individuals come to work despite experiencing reduced mental well-being. The more we know about the actions of our teams, the more support we can put in place. Aim to spend at least five minutes with employees each week, practising ‘active listening’ – a skill that requires reflection on what’s being said and providing a considered response. Employers may also consider offering Emotional Literacy Training – equipping staff with the skills needed to recognise signs of distress in others. This way you can nurture a workforce capable of recognising and tackling signs of anxiety. 

3.     #Find5

Nuffield Health is encouraging individuals to ‘find 5 with 5’ – spending five extra minutes a day focusing on their well-being. Encouraging employees to #find5 throughout the working day could be as simple as promoting regular exercise in morning meetings or creating ideas to be distributed around the office or over email. In just five minutes, managers can also arrange, or raise awareness of, physical health screenings available in the office.

4.     Be open about formal support.

Offering services such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) that provide direct and confidential access to a mental health expert can help employees understand and address feelings of anxiety. It only takes five minutes to signpost employees towards support, along with guidance and encouragement on how to access the help available. This may be via email, an office huddle or a virtual ‘wellbeing hub’.

5.     Allow individuals to choose.

Employers should be flexible with letting staff choose how they spend their five minutes of self-care each day, whether it’s simply stretching at their desk, going for a brisk five-minute walk between meetings or doing a short, guided meditation or breathing exercises. Similarly, employers need to be flexible in how their teams choose to communicate. Encourage individuals to use a communication style that works best for them – whether it’s an in-person meeting or a phone call – this will make it easier for people to share their experiences.