Episode 11: Workplace Mental Health

Now we're going to get into what is a mentally healthy workplace, how you can get it and maintain it. And of course, we're going to offer you some resources too. You know, Candace, what's really interesting to me about this topic is, I don't know, I'm going guess, like prior to eight years ago, I thought and maybe other people thought that workplace mental health was about an employer supporting an individual who has a mental health concern or a mental illness. And of course, it is a little bit about that, but it's also about so much more. So please tell us, what does workplace mental health mean?

But one study just last year that was conducted said that for every $1 invested, I believe it was $1.64 that came back in terms of positive business impact. And that was after one year. And then after three years of businesses implementing mentally healthy workplace strategies, they saw over $2 in ROI for every $1 invested. So what does that mean for a business? Does that mean,

And we've all had that experience where we've read the same thing four times over and we still can't quite get it. Or we're sitting in a meeting, but our mind is elsewhere because maybe we're thinking about some of the things that are impacting our mental health negatively. And so when we think about the mentally healthy workplaces, then there are strategies that could include anything that falls into the bucket of HR or compensation or benefits, those kinds of things. But there are also some of the social activities that happen or the training that we invest in our leaders leaders know how and when to have a conversation when maybe somebody seeming like they're not themselves.

Or as we also know, mental health has a really big impact on physical health. There have been many, many cases that we've seen where and we understand that if a person shows up with heart disease or with cardiac problems, one of the things that doctors and professionals will look at, care teams will look at is, why is your blood pressure high? What's happening to with how are you managing stress? How are you coping with life? What's going on?

How do we get that blood pressure down? You know, if we think about cholesterol levels and bad eating, those have an impact on our cardiac health. But a lot of the times the bad eating happens because we don't have other coping strategies. Those become ways of us medicating almost with food or just finding those things that I just need to feel good for a minute, even if it's this chocolate bar, right? And so people end up missing time from work related to physical illnesses that may have a mental health cause or because they just need to press pause on some part of their life and works the thing that they're most in control of.

And the question is that, I mean, you're director of people and culture here. So, you know, it's when you're in a workplace and you're addressing workplace conflict. Yeah. This must, are you examining this same kind of idea? I mean, not that, it's kind of weird because I feel like you don't want to kind of be like, oh, you know, they're not mentally well. Like you don't want

Unfortunately, there are so many times when unaddressed workplace conflict results in all these other extra super hard consequences. So I know if I've been having conflict with someone at work, you know, maybe I need to have a conversation with someone that's feeling a little hard, it's feeling stressful. The cortisol is going, the adrenaline's going, my sleep's messed up. I may wake up and I know I need to have this conversation with this person. Finally, see them, but then I'm trying to read the room.

There are other people around. Maybe I can't get private. Right? And we come up with those now is not a good time. Oh, they look like they've had a hard day. Actually, they've got a lot going on in their lives. And you know what, Maybe I've got too much of a headache. Today isn't a good day. And so then we leave it. And then it turns into often some escalated situation where the strategies need to be sometimes more formal.

They become escalated. And we're not saying it's easy to talk to a person when it's one of those crucial conversations, but the costs are even higher when we don't. And when we're not addressing things, also, you know, I start to think, well, you know, work's not so fun anymore because I've got this conflict going on with my coworker or maybe my boss or, you know, there are these things that are just hard about being at work. And so, you know what, maybe I just don't want to go in today. Or I'm so distracted by this workplace conflict that, you know, I'm not productive at work, or I start to go down a downward spiral, if I'm prone to anxiety or depression already, or if I'm already struggling with it, then on top of it, it's, there can be some other stories that start going on in my head about, great, another place where I don't belong or I don't fit in or this person doesn't like her or respect me.

You know, all these stories start going,

Because there's also, we hope as individuals, everyone is doing well in their mental health, but there's things that go on around in the workplace that need to happen to facilitate that.

Also, there are a number of players, but I'm really proud actually to be a part of a country that has taken this so seriously. We really have, I mean, maybe we weren't the first to be thinking about some of these things, but we really have been working hard as a country at looking at what are the pieces that help to contribute to a mentally healthy workplace. And certainly there are pieces of legislation that have shifted and changed, that have made it very clear to employers that there are responsibilities to ensure psychological safety, not just physical safety. And as well, there's been this research that has come up with a list of 13 different psychosocial factors that contribute to mentally healthy workplaces.

But the culture is really those shared values and behaviors that permeate an organization. So the way we do things around here, that you can sort of feel when something doesn't feel like the culture here. And so climate on the other side of that same coin is people's experience of it. So when we look at culture, we're really talking those values and those things about what's reinforced, what's celebrated, what's taught, what's within all of those intros and the things that we always start with. So those inform our organizational culture.

Clear leadership and expectations. And this one is one of the ones that I usually lead with the most as we support various workplaces around our community. It's such low hanging fruit. It's not to say for a second that it's easy because it often is not. But if we start with, how do you know what your priorities are?

How can we what are the priorities for this week? You know, noticing when there's been some role ambiguity, maybe there's been a business has experienced some growth or something like that, then taking the time to spell out, okay, in this one task, who's responsible? Who's going to be consulted? Who's going to be informed? So it's a version of what's called a RACI matrix.

But there are a number of different tools where you can go, this is the direction who's doing what and by when. And so setting those clear leadership and expectations. Many of us have had that experience where it's like, I'm showing up and I don't know what my priorities are. I don't have a clear sense. You've pointed out the window and said we're going out the window.

But like, are we going to the street? Are we going to the building behind it? Are we going to the mountain that's way off in the distance? I don't know. And that can be frustrating and hard to landmark and to try and figure out like, where do I fit and where am I going to make an impact?

Civility and respect. Psychological competencies and requirements. So do we have the abilities to be resilient? So do we have those skills to bounce back? Do we have the ability to identify and navigate the things that are coming at us?

Growth and development. And many businesses, you know, this is one that's maybe a little bit more familiar, but sending someone to a conference can signal to a person, We care about you and in your growth, we see your value. You're worth investing in. And there's also that opportunity to just stretch our brains, and that can have such a positive impact on our mental health and on the broader workplace. Recognition and reward.

Often people think about recognition and reward as pay. And that can certainly is part of it, but it's not the only thing. Then within that, we have just different personalities and different people. Like I recall a time when my boss very publicly thanked me for something that I'd done. And I recall feeling like, frustrated that that had happened. So part of it was a little bit of embarrassment. Like I, you know, I wasn't expecting it.

And oh, yeah, because I can imagine in that instance, everyone stops, all eyes turn to you, you flush, are you expected to say something? What do you say? You got to come across humble, but not boastful.

But those are to say thanks and a private high five is all I need and actually is really important to me. And so being aware of the kinds of recognition and reward, like not everybody's built the same way, but also finding those different ways that we can express that gratitude. And gratitude, I would suggest is probably one of the most powerful ways of recognizing people. And yet having said that, I've also known people that, and this was a mistake on me as a leader, I recall times when I thanked the person privately believing that that was what they wanted and what was going to be most meaningful for them. And yet I completely missed a public opportunity that they expected.

And were hurt by the fact that I didn't publicly recognize them. And I'm like, I missed that. Thank you for sharing with me so that I know how to recognize you in a way that's meaningful for you. So recognition and reward, involvement and influence, we want to have a say, don't we? All of us want to have a say.

I want to know that my voice matters. I want to know that I have the opportunity to bring my perspectives, bring my strengths, bring my concerns about maybe some risks that I see. And so that involvement and influences is critical. And again, a pretty low cost way to really make a difference in shifting the overall mental health and engagement of your staff. Engagement is the next one.

So are people feeling like they're part of it? Are they feeling loyal? Are they feeling connected? Or are they feeling like they matter? And feeling like when they show up here, they're given their version of 100%, whatever that is today.

They're bringing their best today and they aren't dreading and thinking about exit strategies every part of the day. They're really thinking like, I'm engaged. I matter here. Sometimes I think about engagement as gears that kind of go together. So, and when they miss, then everything doesn't run properly.

You know, if you think about the inside of a watch or a clock with those gears, like it doesn't, it won't work properly unless everything's sort of working together. And to me, when those gears are engaged, that's kind of how it feels when we're engaged within our workplace. I skipped over workload management. I don't want to miss that one. So how much work?

Like are we trying to put 50 pounds into a 20 pound bag, right? Like it's those days when we just feel like we're doing so much heavy lifting. We're pushing that boulder up the hill and it just keeps rolling back down. Workload management, super important. Balance.

So do I have the opportunity to have the kinds of breaks or pauses, some flexibility maybe within my life and work. And this was another one. I have stories for all these things, but I really remember this one person that I worked with and they were I just envied the extent to which they could set boundaries and that they showed up on time, they left on time, they got all their work done within the allotted time. For me, I'm a little more fluid. If the thing that I need to do is clearest to me at 8PM, then I'm just going to do it then because then I sleep better.

But I had to really just understand trying to make myself into someone I'm not also isn't mentally healthy. And we're not all wired the same, figuring out how do each of us manage our workload, find that work life balance, All of these things are intertwined, aren't they? Well, use that

Like what would be some of the challenges? I mean, I can imagine of not knowing even how to start. Yeah, but and fair enough. Like, that's a long list. There's I know I have to know

That's really, really tough. And I wonder if there's even after a while, I wonder how employers are feeling like, gosh, we're never going to get this right. Do they ever 100% get it right?

And it measures these 13 different factors. What we used to do here at CMHA Kelowna, we used to do guarding mines annually. We switched to every two years just because it's just factoring in it. It does take a little bit of time and work mostly because the first step is measuring. But then we want to report back to staff. We asked you to tell us what you thought and here's what we heard.

And so what it is, is you get a scorecard it's with some traffic light coloring that shows you where you're in the green. Everything's looking great. Here's some cautionary areas. But by asking people, how are we doing in these areas? How are you feeling?

How's it going? Then just by asking, we're making an impact. Now that impact is going to be short lived if we don't do anything about it. And if we keep asking people year over year for their input, but they don't really see any real change. But if we say to people, okay, like this happened, I don't mind sharing.

When I came here a couple years ago, it was looking like a lot of our staff were at risk for burnout. That's what showed on our Guarding Minds report, lots of risks areas. And so when we dug a little bit further into the results, what we discovered was that there was probably a big opportunity for us that would accomplish both clear leadership and expectations, as well as a little bit of growth and development. And we saw that we could really improve our onboarding processes and just train people better at the start. But we decided which metric we wanted to move.

We decided that we wanted to move the ones that were related to burnout. And we wanted to do that by focusing on this one thing, and really shining a light on it, and not just trying to accomplish 10 different things and do a wide and shallow kind of an approach. But we wanted to go deep on it. And I thought we would have got through it within about six months. But you know, I can say it ended up taking us close to two years before we really dug in because what we discovered was that job descriptions actually weren't really reflecting what the actual work was.

So we did some work on those. And then that had an impact on our job postings. And when we looked at our job postings, then we realized, oh, hey, if we do a better job of articulating in the postings what the job actually is, then we might do a better job of attracting more of the right kinds of candidates that we want. So we've seen reductions in turnover, and we've seen better improve, like we've seen improvements within these scores. I'm not going to rest if there's even 1% of people who are right.

These are the kinds of things I've experienced burnout. It's devastating and hard. So we're going to keep going. We will never be done. Okay. And we can celebrate that two years ago, we identified that this was a growth area and we decided we were going to tackle it. We were going to do what we could to try and shift this. And I mean, we also had fun while we were doing it, which I trust. There's what it is and what it does. I trust that it also made an impact because it was hilarious.

We had groups of leaders in rooms looking at the job postings, they were going, Oh, I've been Yeah, no, we need to spend some time. And then what happens when leaders start spending time at the front lines a little bit more and really looking at how things are going then, I mean, we also, we went in to accomplish these one or two things, and we came out with a list of 10 more things that we really want to be following up on, checking in on, appreciating, celebrating, considering, especially as we look at adding different services or growing as an organization too.

So we'll have to put a little pin in that and come Yeah, But there's somebody in a workplace whose senior leadership and employer listening now, they've just heard about this two year experience that CMH had. And they're like, oh, great, Yeah. Where do they start?

And there was a study that was done somewhere in Europe, and it actually was looking at the mental health of elite athletes. Now, all I did with it was I took it to a person in our community and I said, if we were to replicate this study with your team, do you think we'd find similar findings? And the findings were things like young male athletes were twice as likely to develop eating disorders as a result of being a part of the sport. And young girls, so in this case, I just looked at boys and girls, were four times as likely to develop eating disorders as a result of being at an elite level in this particular sport. And so all I did was I just presented the stats and I said, If we were to run this within your team, what do you think we'd find?

And initially, it was like resist, resist, resist. I think we got this. I've done all the things. But then when I just put those stats in front, then the conversation shifted big time. And this person said, We'd probably find very similar results.

And then the follow-up is, How can I help? And so I think, to your question around employers, you could pick anything that you find of interest. You're a senior leader. Take one of the stats. I think there's going to be a lot of resources within the show notes.

Have a look or take a snippet of something that maybe you've heard in this conversation and ask some folks. What do you think about this in our workplace? Because there's what it is and there is what it does. And so, sometimes just asking and beginning the conversation going first as a senior leader's huge stigma is still alive and well. There are so many people who are not asking for the help that they need because they're afraid of what people are going to think.

Maybe they've had bad experiences when they have asked for help. And it's been minimized or shoved aside or maybe they were made fun of. We don't know what people say. There are a lot of reasons why people don't say, I'm not okay. I'm really struggling.

And so, if a senior leader is listening, could even be something for them to say, At a meeting, I'm noticing I'm not myself these days. I'm thinking, like, I'm wondering if anybody else is feeling that way too. That would take a lot of courage. When we just begin the conversation, then amazing things can happen.