(Source: https://makeadifference.media/) Mental health pressures in the workplace have been growing in prevalence for many years, and the pandemic has placed them under an even brighter spotlight. Despite increased public conversation and greater awareness, there’s an enduring stigma around mental health in the workplace. People are reluctant to express how they truly feel. It’s an opportune time for employers to review their workplace culture and wellbeing provision – and to look for innovative, flexible ways to bolster employee mental health.
Mental health affects everyone
Irrespective of employee position, poor mental health affects productivity. This occurs both directly, as it leads to increased staff absence, and more widely due to the issue of ‘presenteeism’ – being present at work but unable to fully function. Presenteeism is a bigger problem than staff absence. According to figures from the Centre for Mental Health, in the UK alone, the cost is double that of absenteeism and amounts to around £21.2bn per year.
We are all responsible for our own mental health, as Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur, author and podcaster puts it “Real self-care can’t be bought, it isn’t just spa days and facials. Real self-care is a series of tough decisions. The decision to be more disciplined, to address your recurring toxic thoughts, to prioritise your mental health and to put your happiness over your history”.
However, organisations have a responsibility to support their members too. Making sure your employees have the tools they need to maintain good mental health is vital to success. As Rebecca George OBE, Vice-chair and Public sector leader at Deloitte says “As our ways of working evolve, so do expectations of employers about how we should support our people.”
Special live event for World Mental Health Day
As the host of one of Europe’s biggest podcasts “Diary of a CEO”, Steven Bartlett is very familiar to the conversation around mental health in the workplace. Having learnt on his journey that success doesn’t guarantee happiness, he regularly askes guests on the podcast about their journey and the solutions that have worked for them and their organisations.
At 18, Steven wrote in his diary that he wanted to be a “Happy, Sexy Millionaire”, later the title of his book, but by 25 and a multi-millionaire having created a business worth $300 million, he realised his idea of success was wrong. Since then he has invested a lot of his time understanding how you attain fulfillment, love and success, why those things matter, and what those words actually mean.
In an unusual twist, Steven Bartlett will be the guest of a webinar to mark World Mental Health Day, on 10th October. The host of the webinar Dr. Carolyn Lorian will be talking with him about the importance mental health has in unlocking potential within your career as well as the importance of a company’s collective wellbeing and how it can drive overall business success.
They will also look at how business leaders can empower and support their employees to become the best version of themselves and further reduce stigma around mental health in the workplace. While Steven will bring his wealth of experience to bear on building resilience and removing anxiety, Dr. Lorian, as Head of Clinical Transformation at SilverCloud Health, will bring her knowledge of the application of cognitive behavioural science to support individual and organisational wellbeing.
Free to attend and open to everyone
SilverCloud, as organisers of the event, are encouraging people leaders to add the webinar to their World Mental Health Day schedules to raise awareness of mental health in the workplace and encourage the conversation in order to reduce the stigma.
Registrants to the event will have access to social media assets and prepopulated email templates to help them engage their employees. Registration is free to all and can be done online at https://www.silvercloudhealth.com/uk/steven-bartlett-webinar
