7 Ways Managers Can Support Employees’ Mental Health and Well-Being

As a manager, you will want to do whatever you can to support your employees’ mental health and well-being. After all, employees who feel happy at work are 13% more productive and are much more likely to approach the inevitable obstacles of their job proactively.

Individuals who have a good work-life balance are also healthier and will thus require less time off. With their mental health and well-being nourished, employees are much more able to give their best every day. Here’s how you can help your team achieve it.

Understand Different Mental Health Issues

While not all mental health issues qualify as a disability, all of them will impact an employee’s ability to work in one way or another. They may “just” be feeling more stressed out, they may have a hard time prioritizing their task list, or they may be running late with most of their tasks. In more severe cases, an employee's burnout or suffering from a mental health issue may not be able to meet your expectations.

As a manager, your task is to familiarize yourself with the wide variety of mental health struggles your employees might be facing. Don’t expect yourself to become an expert, and don’t strive to become a psychologist. Your task is to learn how to identify when someone is struggling and know where to direct them for further help.

You should also teach yourself to be more empathetic, learn how to be a better listener and aim to provide every employee with the same level of courtesy and kindness. Don’t cut extra slack to your best employees just because they are good at their job. Build an effective communication strategy, treat everyone equally, and continually work on your communication skills. 

Be As Flexible As Possible

Mental health and well-being often depend on an employee’s ability to accomplish what is expected of them both at the office and at home. This will often require a fair amount of flexibility, most of which you can provide as an employer and manager.

Start by making flexibility a part of your contracts. You don’t have to go fully remote, nor do you have to have set work-from-home days of the week. All you have to do is make it absolutely clear to your staff that they can stay home when they want to if that suits them better.

Don’t make the mistake of believing this gives people the opportunity to slack off. Dedicated, committed employees with a strong work ethic won’t do that, no matter how many opportunities you give them. On the other hand, slackers will slack off, whether at home or in the office. You’ll be able to identify them by their overall results and level of interest in their work.

“Good” employees, those who get the job done well and on time, will appreciate the opportunity to run their errands during the day and work later into the evening. They’ll simply be much more efficient if you can save them the hassle of having to pick up a parcel just a couple of minutes before the post office closes and all the stress that comes from finding a parking spot when everybody else is looking for one. Holger Sindbaek, the CEO of World of Card Games, says "As we embraced a remote team across a different time zone, I realized the mental strain it could place on our members. To support their well-being, we prioritized flexibility, allowing them to choose hours that suited their natural rhythms. This reduced stress and fostered a culture of trust and understanding, crucial for mental health in a remote setting."

Lead By Example

While this may be the hardest to achieve, also do your best to lead by example. Don’t just advise your employees about mental health and well-being, make sure you show them your own example.

In a well-organized company, no matter how big or small it is, staff will look to their managers and top-level executives to gauge what is acceptable and expected behavior. In terms of mental health and well-being, that will mean observing the hours you work, the overtime you clock in, and the time off you take.

If you are feeling unwell, take a day off yourself, even if it’s just a mental health day where you do nothing but watch Netflix and nap all day. If you are ill, don’t come into the office or work your usual hours from home. If your staff does not see you taking a break, they will believe they aren’t allowed one either.

Show yourself the same courtesy you would to an employee and expect your higher-ups to treat you like you treat your own team. If there is any discrepancy, your employees will notice, and you can’t expect their mental health and well-being not to suffer.

Invest in Their Physical Health

As a manager and an employer, you can also spend a bit of money on your employees’ mental health and well-being. Don’t even think of it as a bonus or as something extra. Think of it as part of their monthly salary.

You can start by investing in their actual physical health. The mind-body connection is immense, and physical exercise is great for boosting mental health. Get every member of your team a gym pass, a monthly class membership, an online class, or pay for any other activity they are interested in.

Be very careful not to expect everyone to want and do the same thing. Some people love going to the gym, while others will hate it and do not want to go. They may, however, love an at-home class, a dance class, or even a monthly walking tour.

Ask everyone what their interests are and fund them accordingly.

Also, set aside a small amount for monthly supplementation and healthy food. A lot of people will hesitate before they buy something they think is an “extra,” but if they’re able to get a company discount or even a voucher from you, they will make the right purchase. A supplement like BCAAs is a great one to provide, as it will help the employees who do work out recover faster and feel stronger over time.

Help Them Adopt Healthy Habits

Your employees’ health and well-being will also depend on your ability to teach them healthy habits and help them make the right lifestyle choices.

Encourage them to walk or bike to work even with electric tricycles, or at least to walk a part of the way. You can gamify it and have a company leaderboard, tracking the steps of each employee. The person who walks the most each month should get a fitting reward.

Organize a way for everyone to get at least one supremely healthy meal a week. That may mean you are the one in charge of lunch, or maybe you organize every team member to bring a specific dish in on Fridays when you can all enjoy the food together. You can also use a veggie meal delivery service and declare Wednesday (for instance) veggie lunch day.

Help your staff get better sleep, too, by encouraging them to take a mattress quiz and figure out their sleep style. Fund a part of their purchase or at least lend them the money to buy a mattress that will suit them perfectly so that they can come to the office well-rested and pain-free.

Discover what everyone’s hobbies are and find a way to encourage them. If you have a lot of people on board, introduce those who have similar interests to each other, and help them have smaller team-building events based on their interests.

Have Various Communication Channels

Nothing can cripple an employee’s mental health more than having to deal with dozens of messages every hour. If they have to keep responding to them, they will feel distracted and overworked but won’t be nearly as productive as they could be.

To help preserve your employees’ mental health and well-being, establish several communication channels, such as an office chat app, Troop Messenger that helps to chat, call, conference, and meet on a unified interface. And make sure each of them is used for a specific purpose.

If something is urgent, have people call each other. This should only be done in emergencies and when a reply can’t wait. Use email or a project management app for the important things that need to remain easily accessible at various times and from various locations. This is especially important for all the data that multiple people need to have access to.

Don’t expect staff to read these messages more than once a day so that they can focus on their work.

For real-time and collaborative tasks, have a messaging app available. Make sure not to use it to chat about irrelevant things. Have video meetings when you need to, but don’t make everyone look at the app every couple of minutes.

Celebrate Occasions Together

Finally, make sure to celebrate all the important milestones together, whether they are individual or collective. For example, you can send group online birthday cards that everyone on staff has signed when someone gets a year older. And make sure to remember when people’s kids have their birthdays or when they graduate or achieve an important milestone.

Reward work-related efforts as well, even if they are not all that major. If someone finally manages to ace a task they have previously been struggling with, highlight their success and make sure the congratulations pour in from every level.

Feeling appreciated boosts employees’ mental health and well-being and helps them feel like a part of the group. This sense of belonging will then also help them do their best and fight for their team, as they are no longer just an individual working for a company. They’ll feel that they’re a part of something much bigger.

Wrapping Up

You can do a lot to positively impact your employees’ mental health and well-being. Start small and track how each effort is paying off. Remember to think of your staff as humans first and accept all their human flaws and quirks. It’s what makes them who they are, and it can help them become great at their jobs.