Retention & Recruiting - Mental Health is a "We" problem

E94: Mental Fitness II - Why workplace leaders SHOULD care about the mental wellbeing of their teams

“Mental health is one of the only areas where Return on Investment (ROI) is greater than a dollar straight out of the gate. At least 3:1 if not more.”
— Denis Trottier (KPMG Mental Health Officer)

Mental Health II - Why should corporations care?

By 2025, 25% of the global workforce will be Generation Z.

As Dr. Deepy Sur CEO of the Ontario Association of Social Workers notes, these young workers are demanding a better work culture and one that supports their mental wellness.

In this edition, we will explore where mental wellness intersects with the financial health of corporations. This issue circles the globe with comments back from India, the US, Germany, and Canada as we discovered in Mental Health I.

But first,

“How are you today?”

Wherever you are, I hope you are feeling at peace.

Have you been able to locate the number for your local Crisis Response Line? You may need it today, in the future, or (hopefully) never. You may need it for yourself or for someone in your circle of care. In Canada, you can access CAMH (Canadian Mental Health Association).

Are you in crisis? If you are experiencing a mental health or addictions related crisis, or fear you may become unsafe, please:

• Contact your doctor

• Go to the nearest hospital

• Find resources at ConnexOntario

• Call 911 or Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000

I am not a mental health provider and thank the numerous mental health professionals in Tribe Tilt (including Kathy Karn who pointed me to this text and

Dr. Lyssa Menard

) for their insightful advice after last week’s edition that focused on proactively setting ourselves up for mental fitness.

Recap

Recap from our last newsletter. It started with an essay - Could mental health become the diabetes of 2050? based on pre-calls as I prepped to moderate a panel discussion on Addressing Mental Health in Young Adults: Implications for Workplace Leaders. (All time stamps below reference the video.) The discussion was hosted by the Empire Club of Canada, sponsored by ProLink, and season sponsors Telus, Hydro One, and Bruce Power.

The three knowledgeable panelists who were advocating the benefit of supporting their staff with robust mental health packages to industry leaders:

• Dr. Deepy Sur - CEO, Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW)

• Denis Trottier - Chief Mental Health Officer, KPMG Canada

• Stephanie Jones - Mental Health Facilitator, Speaker & Author

Over this family of essays, we’ll be discussing:

1. Mental Health in Young Adults - what can we do as Individuals?

2. Why should corporations care?

3. What does this have to do with the Future of Work?

4. Is there a stigma to accessing care and support?

5. What can each of us do as part of Team Human?

Is this the new normal?

“… trust me over the last three years I've found that more than solving tech problems and issues (that I always did) I'm slowly but surely having to solve more and more mental health issues. At times I wonder if I'm turning into a counsellor here.” Tilt Tribe member Ricky Noronha’s comment reflects what I have heard from so many other leaders and managers recently.

We will explore why this might be in future editions. In this edition, for the benefit of other managers feeling the same way, we will focus on why it makes economic sense for workplace leaders to consider the mental well-being of their staff as they manage the deliverables for their teams.

Let’s do the math

• Managers invest energy in recruiting great teams. In this new work era, creating the space for your team to express their mental moods can improve your group's productivity and retention stats.

  There is this interesting visual from nicabm.com that discusses our personal Window of Tolerance. “When you are in your Window of Tolerance, you feel like you can deal with whatever’s happening in your life. You might feel stress or pressure, but it doesn’t bother you too much.” To counter that, when we have a shrinking window of tolerance, it doesn’t take much to throw us off balance.

  

• Presenteeism - listen to KPMG’s Denis Trottier at [28:00] discuss the gradually compounding effect of chronic stress on staff. As mental issues begin to gather and cloud our ability to interact, we are unable to bring our best, most dynamic and creative selves to work. That may happen gradually over time.

• Retention is cheaper than replacement. Beyond the energy, cost, and disruption to the whole team of interviewing, and onboarding new staff members, you may have to deal with staff walking away with their book of nurtured clients as they leave.

• This is a WE problem. Offering support for mental health issues has a direct positive effect on retention and productivity. It hits the bottom line - economically. Pre-pandemic, mental health absence cost the Canadian workplace six billion dollars CAD in lost productivity and accounted for 70% of all workplace disability costs. Every dollar invested in mental healthcare, therefore, is money well spent.

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SOLUTIONS

Walk the talk; Put it on the agenda; Advocate; Reduce the stigma - things managers and workplace leaders can do

“Have these conversations regularly at a team meeting.
You don't always need to be an expert to have the conversation”
— Stephanie Jones [30:56]

Accounting for the mental wellness of our teams may not have been a necessary management competency in the Industrial Era. But we are no longer in the Industrial Era. And given the choice, we lead rather than micro-manage.

Here are a few things managers and leaders can do that may pay back big dividends:

• Recovery is important: Remind staff to respect their boundaries and to take vacations so that they establish balance. Set expectations, particularly for young employees recently added to the workforce, who started their professional careers out of their bedrooms during the Covid crisis.

• Creating confidence: Counter-intuitively, these young adults who self-regulated during Covid sometimes need clarifying structure. They may also need opportunities to hone their EQ/ “soft” skills, like presenting in public, which they were not able to develop these past few years.

• Advocate the use of employee benefits package: At various points in the year (particularly holidays) encourage team members to trial-run their benefits package for mental health. When 80% of your team has accessed mental health resources once, the stigma is reduced. It is normalized just like getting regular dental checkups or taking parental leave.

• As leaders, make it easy for your teams to find and access their employee benefits packages. Work with HR to ensure that the contact numbers are not buried five levels down on the website. Invite mental health professionals to speak at team events/lunch-and-learns so that your staff becomes familiar with the idea of mental wellness. Let your staff know that their conversations with mental health professionals (in Canada) remain confidential.

• Remember that while your staff brings their whole physical self to work, they may be distracted by issues at home, particularly post-pandemic and in hybrid work conditions. The reality of the Future of Work is the blurring between home and work. Invisible factors such as loss, Covid, WFH, climate and inflation may be seeping in.
  Mental health struggles are not restricted to the person suffering. It ripples through the lives of those close to them too - disrupting the focus and work quality across various generations.

• Pay particular attention to high-performing staff struggling with deadlines and workload. They are often unaware that their productivity issues might be due to mental struggles.

• Young BIPOC staff often face a quandary as they make significant adjustments coming out of COVID. Like others in their generation, they are mourning a loss of the normal transition at their stage of adulting. But they often do not receive validation of this reality at home and don’t know where to turn to for support.

What would you add to this list? I’m sure there are simple suggestions that you have already been putting into practice.

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Make. Take. Talk.

Thank you for embracing this topic. I would like to follow the advice of Stephanie Jones and have “Frequent Conversations”. Your comments back are valuable indicators of what we should explore further.

Please share this edition with someone who needs to hear this message, today.

Pairings:

This essay pairs well with:

• Mental Fitness I: Proactive vs Reactive — Kit out your Mental Fitness Gym Bag

• Employers Must Pay Attention to Young Workers: Social Workers - press release from Dr. Deepy Sur OASW June 13

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Welcome to our three new Tribe Tilt members.

You join an engaged, collaborative, and supportive community that believes we can make a difference to the people and places that are precious to us. We respectfully engage each other in intellectually challenging discussions. We believe that the best idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. Our rich diversity adds texture to our conversations here. In this space, within this Tribe, you have permission to explore and voice your ideas.

Is this your first edition of our newsletter? Come join our Tribe and our regular discussion:

See you next week. Until then, stay healthy. From there all else becomes possible.
Karena