1 minute read
Business Operations
By Mike Leigh
Executive Summary:
In case you haven’t heard, there is a mental health crisis happening in the U.S.
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Workplace well-being
According to a recent survey by Johns Hopkins, the percentage of people who report serious psychological distress has increased from 3.9% in 2018 to 13.6% in 2022. And for 18–29-year-olds, it’s even worse at 25%.
The crisis has gotten so bad, the U.S. Surgeon General has made “Workplace Well-Being” one of his five current priorities. With a mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our nation, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office will communicate scientific information and encourage nation-wide action on public health issues. For this crisis, they released a framework for workplace mental health and well-being.
The framework provides a plan to help organizations become “engines of well-being” and is centered on five essentials:
• Work-Life Harmony. Providing more autonomy over how work is done, making schedules as flexible as possible, and respecting the boundary between work and non-work time.
• Mattering at Work. Providing a living wage, engaging workers in decisions, building a culture of gratitude and recognition, and connecting individual work with the organizational mission.
• Opportunity for Growth. Offering quality training, education, and mentoring, fostering equitable pathways for advancement, and ensuring relevant and reciprocal feedback.
• Protection from Harm. Ensuring workplace physical and psychological safety, enabling adequate rest, and operationalizing DEIA (Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion, Accessibility) policies and programs.
• Connection and Community. Cultivating trusted relationships, creating cultures of inclusion and belonging, and fostering collaboration and teamwork.
The framework is excellent and provides good guidance and reference material on how an organization can improve mental health based on these essentials. And the benefits don’t stop there. Improving workplace mental health also improves productivity, creativity, engagement, and retention.
It is my belief that most successful organizations consider employee well-being a foundational core value. Using this framework is one way to help leaders enhance this core value throughout their company.
