Mental Health in the Workplace

A mental health policy is a resource for you and your employees.

Use it in dealing with issues that arise in relation to the well-being of all members of your organisation. A mental health policy is not a document that should be introduced at orientation and put away in the cupboard, never to be visited again.

Employers in the past have not been accustomed to assisting their employees with their mental health. This is changing. Innovative employers are introducing free gym membership, relaxation breakout rooms, and the other initiatives that have been proved to contribute to better health for their employees.

As far as mental health is concerned, more often than not it takes a mental health issue to arise before anything is done in respect of that employee. And this document deals with how an employer or manager should respond to such situations. This document however also offers opportunities for employers and managers to become proactive and to promote mental wellness in the workplace.

What does a mental health policy look like?

Your individual mental health policy can be as small as a paragraph or a multipage document, depending on the size and complexity of your business. Use the template that forms part of this document to cut and paste as you wish, so that you end up with the policy that will work for you on an ongoing basis.

Why do you want a mental health policy?

Look at the following aims and consider which ones are relevant for your organisation. You might have others.

• So that I’m covered if something goes wrong
• Because I want my employees to be operating at optimum level as much as possible
• Because I want to know how to handle a situation should it arise
• Because I want there to be transparency and openness between owners/managers and employees.

Choose your reason(s) now and this will form the basis of your objectives in building the policy. Feel free to add and subtract as you go through this introduction. Whatever your motivation, you have a much better chance of optimising the health and wellness of your employees if you have a living, breathing culture that deals with mental wellness. No two organisations are the same, so feel free to adapt the parts of the following template that suit you and add others that might not be here. The parts in italics are where you should add the name of your company. Just remember that this is not a document for owners and managers to hand down to employees from on high. If you want buy-in, you will get more value by inviting your employees to participate in the formation of the policy from the beginning.

This should not be hard, as a positive culture around physical and mental wellness must benefit all parties involved

Things change in the workplace. Once you have developed the policy, make sure it is at hand when you are developing activities in pursuance of the aims of the policy. Once you have developed it, put your branding on it and make it available for everyone to review, have as a reference and utilise in future activities and relevant discussions.

An owner manager should understand that a mental health issue can arise due to workplace circumstances or independently of the workplace. It doesn’t really matter what has caused the issue. The most important thing is to be aware of it and take steps to ensure that the staff member is as soon as possible back to better mental health and becoming a more productive team member.