Mental Health and Inclusion: 5 ways companies can support their diverse workforce
In the past two years we’ve seen the world changing like never before. Mental health has become an important topic of discussion, especially with reference to workplaces and diverse teams, where minorities have been struggling the most. Fostering an inclusive company culture can improve your team’s mental health: let’s see what actions companies can take in order to support their employees!
In the past two years, mental health has been challenged from multiple points of view: the recent and persistent acts of racism and violence, the health disparities highlighted by the pandemic, and the remote working culture – which in some cases (e.g. parenting and WFH, alienation due to reduced human interaction, etc.) has not been an easy breezy transition for everyone.
This is not only a personal perception, but is backed up by quite many studies and surveys. For instance, at the end of 2020, Oracle conducted a study across companies in 11 countries and found that 78% of the 12 000 interviewed employees were affected by some mental health issues. Furthermore, 85% said that mental health issues related to their work negatively influenced in some way their personal life, too (sleep deprivation, poor physical health, reduced happiness at home, suffering family relationships, or isolation from friends).
“The results revealed eye-opening shifts in thinking. […] Three quarters of employees believe their company should be doing more to protect the mental health of their workforce.”
(As Work Evolves, Stress Levels Rise, 2020, Oracle and Workplace Intelligence)
Another research by McKinsey points in the same direction. It also highlights the gap existing between developed and developing countries, where the severity and prevalence of the mental health challenge was far higher, and the fact that concerns regarding mental health were both higher in number and felt with greater urgency among minority groups across the world.
“Diverse groups—including women, LGBTQ+ employees, people of color, but also working parents—are having the hardest time, both in the workplace and with balancing work and home life.”
(Diverse employees are struggling the most during COVID-19—here’s how companies can respond, 2020, McKinsey)
A very important aspect we should be focusing on is indeed the relationship between mental health and minority groups (such as POC (People Of Color) and LGBTQIA+ communities, women, people with disabilities, etc.). In fact, different research completed over the years has shown that mental health is a very difficult discussion topic when it comes to racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities, who already suffer from additional cultural stigmas, biases, and even lack of access to mental health care (if compared to their white cis-male counterparts).
It’s not as easy as it seems, we get it: having a straightforward discussion about mental health in the workplace can be often uncomfortable. However, the only way to reduce the stigma around these topics is to address them, interrogating ourselves about what we can do to support people in difficulty and create a safe environment for them to express their concerns.
All these data brings us to the same sad conclusion: 2020 has been the most traumatic and stressful period ever, across all demographics and organizational functions, and it still influences our mental condition today. It is therefore now crucial for companies to make sure employees from diverse backgrounds have access to effective mental health support and are backed by an inclusive company culture. But how to address this challenge?
There are several important actions companies can take in order to tackle the issue and support their employees:
#1 Focus on the intersection of mental health and inclusion
Mental health and inclusion are closely connected. As we’ve unfortunately seen in the recent news about the Finnish start-up and scale-up ecosystem, employees coming from non-dominant groups can become an easy target: lack of representation, microaggressions, unconscious biases, pay-gap are only part of the challenges they need to face on a daily basis that obviously impact their mental health and psychological safety at work.
This means that companies’ Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiatives can – and should – support mental health, too (and vice versa). These two company culture elements are indeed just as important and contribute together to building a real, sustainable, and long-term sense of belonging.
Companies should ensure that employees from diverse backgrounds have access to any mental health support they might need (e.g. employee resource groups, counseling services, mental health screening tools, etc.). Therefore, it is safe to say that the success of D&I or mental health initiatives strictly depends on the company’s ability to simultaneously work on both aspects.
#2 Increase awareness of the topic of mental health and inclusion among employees and leadership
Organizations should educate their workforce about the topic of mental health across all levels. Employees should be taught about the importance of talking and taking care of their mental health, without any stigma or fear of being ridiculed.
An employee suffering from any kind of mental health issue like stress, depression, burn-out, or anxiety won’t be able to concentrate at work and deliver on the responsibilities. As a consequence, the overall productivity of the company could be negatively affected if some of its employees are struggling.
Managers, on the other hand, are most likely to be the first contact person for employees who want to address some sort of discomfort in a time of crisis. Managers will therefore be required to handle sensitive issues, help to answer questions, address concerns, and direct other employees to the best available resources (internal or external). To successfully do so, ad-hoc education and especially developed Emotional Intelligence skills are needed. Consequently, it is crucial to offer solid training to all leaders on both mental health and inclusion, in order to be able to offer support in particular to the employees belonging to weaker categories due to ethnicity, religion, disabilities, gender, sexual orientation, and so on.
#3 Include mental health in wellness & healthcare benefits
Taking care of mental health in the workplace is about more than providing free yoga or meditation classes. This is surely a good start and companies that provide this should be celebrated; however, it’s unfair and unrealistic to believe that these types of initiatives alone can solve the issue at its roots.
To build a real inclusive culture, quick fixes won’t work: this is why it is important for every company to build a consistent strategy with regard to employees’ wellbeing, too.
If possible, within your healthcare package provide mental health benefits that can be tailored to individual needs and make sure that therapists or psychiatric support are included in your company’s insurance plans.
There are also initiatives that you can develop internally, such as creating employee support groups, providing counseling directly in the workplace, regularly providing mental health check-ins and positive feedback sessions.
#4 Find creative solutions: Artificial Intelligence
In most cases, talking about personal struggles and mental health can require a bigger cultural shift, which hinders the process of addressing the problem. A good way to tackle this challenge could be to find creative solutions.
For example, AI and other technology could help meet the mental health challenges we are facing. If the pandemic has put ourselves in front of a lot of challenges, it has at the same time given us the opportunity of getting more comfortable with technology and with dealing with everyday tasks and activities through it (working, talking with friends and family across the globe, exercising, etc.).
The demand for technology solutions to support remote work is on the rise and organizations have already been turning to AI for a variety of workplace initiatives. The above-mentioned study conducted by Oracle revealed that “82% of people believe robots can support their mental health better than humans and 68% would prefer to talk to a robot over their manager about stress and anxiety at work”.
The survey respondents shared what are, in their opinion, the many benefits of AI solutions, which range from offering a judgment-free zone (34%), they deliver quick answers and information (63%) and therefore lower anxiety, and they increase the overall employee productivity (63%) and job satisfaction (54%).
The solutions that could be implemented in this sense are quite diverse: a chatbot to answer health-related questions, access to wellness or meditation apps, proactive health monitoring tools, on-demand counseling services, just to name a few.
#5 Evaluate the current situation and measure your efforts!
We cannot stress enough the importance of evaluating and measuring your DEI efforts: that’s the reason why we always strongly recommend to our clients to start with the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Survey when they want to analyze the state of their company culture. In fact, you need to first understand what are the areas you need to improve and only then create an action plan and assess the progress.
Pretty similar reasoning can be applied to well-being within your company, too: you won’t know how to improve it if you don’t know where things currently stand. Opening up the conversation through anonymized, company-wide engagement surveys will help you understand the actual state of employees’ sense of belonging, wellbeing, and overall satisfaction, as well as identify appropriate actions to help your workforce be happier and more productive.
Summary
Companies that invest in mental health are fostering positive work environments that win top talent. When all employees feel safe and seen and heard, the entire organization thrives. There are several important actions companies can take in order to tackle the issue of mental health and support their employees:
- Acknowledge the fact that mental health and inclusion in the workplace go hand in hand: focus on working on them simultaneously!
- Educate your employees in recognizing the signs of poor mental health and educate the leadership in dealing with possible crisis situations;
- Build a consistent strategy around mental health: include mental benefits in healthcare plans and provide internal support;
- Get over the perceived stigma around mental health by finding creative solutions: Artificial Intelligence might be the future!
- Take data-driven actions: assess the situation of mental health in your workplace, plan solutions accordingly, and don’t forget to measure their implementation!
About the author:
Aurora Grion is the Inclusive Marketing & Communications Specialist at BusinessWiz and a Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Studies enthusiast. She has been living and working in 4 different countries in the last 5 years and has therefore a very concrete take on Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in workplaces, especially when it comes to inclusion of international talent.
Aurora holds a MA cum laude in Cultural Management and is the Vice-President of PlusCollective, an organization which promotes equality and inclusion in Finland through events and media production.