What HR Can Do Now and After the Pandemic to Improve
Employee Wellness
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the impact of work on personal
lives. Stress from the financial crisis, widespread layoffs, and high
unemployment have increased. Creating and maintaining positive and supportive
relationships with coworkers has become more difficult when working remotely.
Due to the lack of entertainment and socializing options, many people who work
from home feel like they live at work.
Recent research conducted by Oracle and Workplace
Intelligence found that 2020 was the most stressful year people have ever
experienced in their working lives. 78% of the employees surveyed
said that the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health
and 85% reported that new work-related stress is affecting their home
lives.
Companies must identify their overarching cultural challenges and design
holistic support systems that address specific forms of stress and anxiety.
However, as an HR leader, I can still make an impact remotely. As a sieve,
filter out and address manageable upstream issues before they become critical
for individual employees.
(Figure 1. "A Sieve Model of Addressing Mental Health Issues in the
Workplace.")
This
approach requires preempting work stressors by addressing the conditions that
generate mental health issues in the first place, detecting emerging issues,
and remedying identified issues.
As remote working from home intensifies, HRM has to cope with the stress of their employees associated with the removal of boundaries between work and family (Giurge and Bohns, 2020)
Preempting Work Stressors
Increasingly, employee must detach from work-life balance. Preventatively, promoting self-care principles and good work-life boundaries requires a focus on the corporate culture. Leaders may address these concerns in many ways.
- Model wellness and balance
for your team.
- Monitor workloads.
- Introduce a bookend to each working
day.
- Revisit
the company’s values.
Detecting Emerging Issues
A culture
of self-acceptance can help employees with mental health issues overcome their
fear of sharing their situation. Creating a culture of awareness can also
encourage employees to help colleagues in need.
- Collect data.
- Actively listen to employees.
- Embed wellness in the employee review process.
Remedying Identified Issues
While
nothing can replace trained mental health support providers, when employees and
managers have a better understanding of the issues, they can provide meaningful
support. Training HR practitioners and employees about ways to deal with their
own and others’ mental health is a good starting point.
Conclusion
Believe in the
importance of employee wellness but not sure how to persuade the rest of the
leadership team. Taking care of the employees will outweigh the costs.
According to recent research, companies that implemented five of these wellness
initiatives increased employee loyalty by 79%, reducing turnover and saving
time, money, and resources.
On the other
hand, less socialization during the pandemic has implications for the
employees’ mental health. Therefore, HR practitioners need to also respond to
this challenge by arranging virtual meetings or online relationships to
maintain the motivation and productivity of employees (Singer et.al, 2020).
Video Link: How to support employee wellbeing during COVID-19 - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVy8EyjKsa0&t=1s
References
Addressing Employee Mental Health, Now and Post-COVID - Health Designs
Available at : (online) Accessed on 20th August 2021
https://www.healthdesigns.net/addressing-employee-mental-health/
How Organizations Can Promote Employee Wellness, Now and Post-Pandemic (mit.edu)
Available at : (online) Accessed on 20th August 2021
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-organizations-can-promote-employee-wellness-now-and-post-pandemic/
Employee Wellbeing: HR’s Guide to an Engaged and Adaptive Workforce | HR Exchange Network
Available at : (online) Accessed on 20th August 2021
https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/employee-engagement/articles/employee-wellbeing-hrs-guide-to-an-engaged-and-adaptive-workforce
Influence of Covid-19 Crisis on Human Resource Management and Companies' Response: The Expert Study - Research leap
Available at : (online) Accessed on 20th August 2021
https://researchleap.com/influence-covid-19-crisis-human-resource-management-companies-response-expert-study/
(PDF) Mental Health and Mental Illness In The Workplace: Diagnostic and Treatment Issues (researchgate.net)
Available at : (online) Accessed on 20th August 2021
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7906889_Mental_Health_and_Mental_Illness_In_The_Workplace_Diagnostic_and_Treatment_Issues
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ReplyDeleteIt is important to be concern on employee wellness today than ever due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. People are being caged for Work From Home and not allowed to go out increases their stress level. Un attended stress for long time will affect the Employees and the Organizations badly. Therefore organizations must implement strategies on providing medical allowances, insurances and other necessary infrastructure facilities regarding employee health.
ReplyDeletePandemic has created not of uncertainties. Hence it is normal for employees to feel stressed or anxious during this difficult time. There are several work-related conditions that can increase stress and anxiety across all workplaces as a result of the pandemic, such as less human contacts, boredom, fear. HRM has vital role to play to ensuring employees’ safety and continuation of the organizations operations with proper precautions to prevent the pandemic. Specially employee mental well being is very important and less stressed employee can deliver better out come .
ReplyDeleteWell written article Kanchana.
ReplyDeleteWorkplace wellness is a requirement because enhancing workplace wellness improves overall performance (Herwanto, & Ummi, F.T., 2017).
As you mentioned in the article maintaining employee well-being is an important factor of the HR department and with this covid19 pandemic, it's must be a tuff task for the HR department.
It is fair to say that we have all struggled in our own way during the COVID-19 epidemic. Stress, grief, anxiety and uncertainty have weighed heavily on us, and many of us are constantly struggling to feel motivated to continue working with the same strengths we could have had before March 2020.
ReplyDeleteOver the past year, we've learned how far compassion can go, and how often we all win when we work together - and how we make things worse for us if we don't. Therefore, it is important for organizations to learn how to identify some of the challenges employees and team partners may face so that we can work better to move forward.
One of the biggest problems with staff is physical and mental health and well-being. great article.
Timely article Kanchana,
ReplyDeleteCompanies must proactively recognize their underlying cultural issues and develop comprehensive support systems that address many types of stress and anxiety that their workers encounter due the pandemic. Countless employees would have suffered mental health consequences as a result of this. These impacts necessitate immediate intervention as well as a thorough but strategic reconsideration of mental health care in the organization.
In a physical workplace HRM can take number of steps to enhance Employee well-being. But when it comes to remote workplace it is novel area to develop. Especialy remote workers operate in an isolated enivironment, and there mental health can be highly affected by the stress. Therefore HRM must come up with new strategies to enhance employee well-being, and healthcare during the pandemic. Thankyou for sharing this timely article Kanchana.
ReplyDeleteAn important topic. Workplace stress management is critical in human resources. The post-pandemic session will be more difficult in many ways, such as increasing productivity and managing absenteeism. You addressed mental health issues in a broad sense in your article. Employers, in my opinion, should place a high priority on employee wellness and welfare to increase workplace productivity.
ReplyDeleteThe COVID-19 pandemic has forced HR professionals to rethink the way they communicate with employees. The situation caused human resources managers to think differently about their role as they adjust to social distancing practices. The sudden shift in work culture has brought new challenges for HR. The top priority for HR professionals is now crisis response and how to keep the employees engaged and of course as you highlighted Kanchana through the article maintain wellness and consider on mental health of employee also a top priority.
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