We hope that you were able to join our team at Nonstop and Laura Green, HR Business Partner from Nonprofit HR for a timely conversation about mental health strategies in the workplace. If not, or if you just want to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of your employees and how your organization can act in a way that’s organized, passionate, and will keep your valued team members thriving—we’d love to take a moment to break down a few key points of that conversation, and tell you how to find out more.
Laura is HR Partner for Virtual Outsourcing and is a SHRM certified CP specializing in compliance and best practices for the nonprofit community. Laura stresses that the best place to start with employee mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic is to adjust your expectations. Realize that in a situation as extreme, as uncertain, and as ever-changing as the current pandemic crisis, productivity levels are going to fluctuate—and that’s okay.
Don’t expect to measure success in the same way you did before, and most importantly—
Communicate your expectations for productivity to your employees, and do it continually. Importantly, the leadership from your organization needs to take a moment to explicitly communicate to your employees that they aren’t expected to burn themselves out or overtax themselves during this stressful time.
Leaders and managers need to encourage employees to set self-care boundaries by setting an example. Encourage mentally healthy habits for yourself and your staff: things like hard stops for responding to emails, proactively encouraging employees to take a day off (and following up on that priority), and empowering them to take breaks during the day.
Audit your employee benefits, especially your employee health benefits. An audit will give you a clear understanding about what your employees’ access to health benefits might look like, and how it needs to change in the future.
To hear the whole conversation, click here.
