01 Dec Mental Wellbeing in a Business Environment
Prevention Is Better than Cure – Improving Mental Wellbeing And Productivity In The Workplace
For many years APeopleBusiness has assessed and improved the mental wellbeing of our people, through a series of Wellbeing Resources which measure and manage the symptoms of stress amongst the workforce. These materials include the proprietary audit and analysis tool StressFactor™ developed in-house.
But we need to go further by fully educating staff about how stress, anxiety and depression not only affects individuals but also impacts business.
We need to understand the root causes of workplace stress and create a clear pathway to prevention
A Look Back At 2020 And Wellbeing In The Workplace
2020 has been an unrelenting fight against COVID-19, with lockdowns, furloughs and remote working dominating our lives. Many of us have used wellbeing first-aid just to get through these challenging times. But what have we as leaders learnt from this? What do we do next?
From APB’s experience, we need to be fully prepared for the ’new normal’.
Building active strategic plans for improving wellbeing, culture and productivity – not making it a tick box exercise.
Reducing stress, anxiety and depression through root cause analysis.
understanding and setting organisational wellbeing benchmarks – an ongoing journey to continual improvement
Building and solidifying stress prevention plans.
reducing presenteeism and improving productivity through targeted support and effective management
Now Is The Time To Begin Again
As we tentatively come out of the COVID-19 Lockdown, we can prepare to ‘begin again’ to become stronger, more creative and productive, encouraged by new standards of care at work.
So, what do we understand by the term “prevention” in the world of wellbeing in the workplace?
Prevention begins with an understanding of the root causes of stress. If left unattended stress leads to anxiety and depression, negatively impacting productivity. A targeted approach, however, based on clear ‘stress prevention strategies’ creates an organisational pathway to improve both the wellbeing and work culture of your staff.
The biggest beneficiaries of this approach are not only you and your people as the positive impact on your business will also be enormous. Reducing stress levels in your organisation will improve staff wellbeing, directly reduce presenteeism and ultimately increase productivity.
APB’s studies with our clients have shown that even the simplest immediate actions to address just some of the core causes of stress, can make substantial improvements in both wellbeing and productivity. We have found that our data and measurements are key to actively driving strategic and targeted engagement, improvement and support.
Now is the time to move forward by discovering ‘why’ and fixing matters at source, i.e. prevention.
At APB we ask some key questions:
Do you understand why your people are stressed, or worse still, anxious or depressed?
Do you know if your people are themselves at work, and if not, why not? This is known as presenteeism and you need to know exactly what level of presenteeism exists in your organisation
Do you understand the impact of presenteeism on your business?
Can you identify the root causes of stress, understand the levels of stress and measure the impact on your business?
We Also Offer Advice For Leaders On:
What to do to reduce and prevent stress – what a programme of preventive action looks like.
How to understand and know if the support and care you provide is creating positive change
Why it is crucial to take action against stress and improve productivity
ISO/DIS45003 The International Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
ISO 45003 looks at the psychosocial risks. As an international standard, it will become the key focus for organisations in 2021 and will be on the leadership agenda with Two Key Questions:
How do we prevent mental ill-health in the workplace?
How do we mitigate the psychosocial risks within our organisation?
APB’s StressFactor™ can help you get ahead of the game:
We have reviewed what is already in the public domain on ISO450003 and can confirm that running our stress diagnostic tool StressFactor™ should give you the evidence base you need to comply with the standard and achieve ISO450003 certification.
StressFactor™ goes beyond just complying with the ISO standard. It also provides the ‘evidence base’ to be sure-footed as you plan on preventing stress in your workplace. APB’s studies with clients have shown that even the simplest, immediate actions to address core causes of stress, can make substantial improvements in both wellbeing and productivity. Our data and measurements are key to actively driving strategic and targeted engagement, improvement and support plans in your people’s lives and productivity, straight to your bottom line.
