When launching a startup, we all tend to feel stressed. There always seems to be a million tasks that we need to do, and we never feel like we have enough time to do them. Knowing that launching a startup is stressful we need to pay particular attention to our mental health and the mental health of our future employees. The best way to do this is to create systems from the very start that prioritize mental health. Without these systems we will find we are much more likely to experience burnout and will be less likely to handle business challenges that come our way.
Creating Systems That Promote Mental Wellness
We might wonder if we really need to create systems around mental health. It might feel like this is something we can put off until a later date. In truth organizations that have employee mental health programs are able to build a work environment where employees can perform their best. These programs can include organization-wide mental health training so employees can identify if they or their coworkers are struggling.
These programs can also include providing access to free or low-cost therapists who employees can process their mental health challenges with. In other cases, mental health programs are simply based around creating an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up if they are struggling and need extra support.
For example, one common mental health challenge is depression. We can equip our HR department with resources so if we have a depressed employee, they can be given a list of hotlines, low-cost therapists, or some simple self-care practices. We can also set up our PTO guidelines so if an employee needs to take a few days off for mental health issues they can know they have our blessing. Having these systems in place decreases the likelihood that someone’s depression escalates to become a major mental health crisis that will pull them away from their work for an extended period.
The Role of Empathy at Work
There are many ways we can work to strengthen the overall mental health of our employees. Often it comes down to making empathy the cornerstone of our leadership. This can be asking our employees themselves how processes could be improved or if there’s anything that leadership can do to assist them in managing their stress levels. Sometimes we discover simple changes we can make such as changing up the office layout, and can dramatically improve the mental wellness of our employees. For example, some employees thrive in an open concept office whereas others need to have a space where they can simply focus on work.
It is also important to be empathetic when it comes to discipline. This can take the form of being flexible with employee work times. Depending on other responsibilities, allowing employees flexibility in their hours can be helpful. For most jobs if the employee can get through their workload it does not matter when during the day, they do their work or how many breaks they take in order to create a good flow for themselves.
What Mental Wellness Looks Like?
Simply using key words such as mental wellness at a weekly meeting is not enough. Some of the recent trends in mental health include a rising number of individuals who are leaving their jobs for mental health reasons, an increase in both the prevalence and disclosure of mental health challenges at work, and an increased connection between demographics and mental health. Mental health at work is a holistic challenge but if we can support employee’s mental health our startup will experience more growth.
Workers who feel like their mental health is supported by their employers tend to be less likely to experience mental health symptoms, less likely to underperform and miss work, and more likely to feel comfortable talking about their mental health at work. In addition, these employees have higher job satisfaction and are more likely to stay at their company. This all goes to show that if we take care of our employees’ mental health everyone wins. It has been a difficult few years so the least we can do is recognize the experiences of our employees, and work with them to create a workplace where they will be able to do their best work.