This is particularly concerning as mental health illness is the biggest cause of lost work days. Therefore, it is imperative that your business has foundations in place to make the working environment mental health friendly.

Apply a dedicated employee well being strategy

To tackle a huge problem like mental health, time needs to be taken to implement a strategy. This means committing to the causes and finding ways to relate to your employees and their struggles.

The main area to focus on is fostering a positive relationship with staff. The question to be asked is ‘are your employees happy at work?’ If not, steps need to be taken to identify areas that are causing these negative feelings.

Environment

Mental health charity Mind reports that 30% of employees do not feel they can openly talk about mental health to their line managers. Creating a healthy working environment and culture is a good place to start in improving mental health.

This can be done by encouraging employees to speak openly about concerns even if this is done anonymously. Furthermore, inviting a speaker to come in can educate employees on what to do if they are experiencing low moods.

Making sure employees are aware that you operate an open and understanding culture can also boost morale.

Trust

Following on from the previous point, building trust within employees is particularly important. A Google study found that ‘psychological safety’ was by far the most important factor in the formation of successful and cohesive teams.

By building a solid foundation of trust employees will feel safe in coming forward with problems. Investing in trust will lead to higher performances and better mental health.

Flexibility for Staff

Keeping a work-life balance is important for any employee. Remembering that your employees have a life outside of work and to make conscious decisions to give them manageable work will see them be much happier. Introducing flexible working policies will also make your team more productive.

We hope this blog post has highlighted how important mental health is to your business in not only affecting productivity but also morale. Employees are the heart, without them your business wouldn’t be able to function so take the time to make sure their comfortable and happy working for you.

For more tips and tricks to help your small business thrive, be sure to check back onto www.bonline.com/blog for more resources.