3 Ways to Support Positive Mental Health in your team AND why you should bother
- Claire Cook
- May 17, 2016
- 2 min read
Hands up, if you really take your employees' emotional safety as importantly as their physical safety in the workplace.
Use Team Building to support positive mental health in your team, through better relationships, commitment to a good cause and inspiring exercise.
Why bother?
From a business perspective, supporting positive mental health amongst your employees should be a moral obligation, a no-brainer. But, if you need more convincing, then how about the fact that according to MIND, poor mental health costs London’s businesses and industry £10.4 billion each year.
You have a responsibility to ensure your working environment is physically safe, but are you making sure it is emotionally safe?
So you have your 'Caution Wet Floor' signs out and your stairs are edged in yellow paint, but are your employees safe from bullying? safe from fear? safe from stress?
Aside from making you a wonderful person to work for (which should make you feel extremely good about yourself and keep your mental health in tip top form), by actively supporting practices which support positive mental health, you will reap the commercial benefits. Positive Mental health means less sick days and greater productivity.
1. Nurture Relationships
If your team have an open, positive and collaborative environment, then it follows that ideas flow, positivity grows and your team continue to strive for success. Open communication channels are key to success here.
If your team has a cynical, blame orientated culture, the crucial communication channels required for success are suffocated. Not only will your business under achieve or fail, but you'll lose great employees to stress, depression or simply another job.
2. Commit to a good cause
Supporting charity in a meaningful way is a great way to show employees that your business cares, and by allowing and encouraging employee involvement in charity support, you are meeting a very intrinsic emotional need for most people.
3. Support and Inspire Exercise
The link between exercise and positive mental health has been well documented for some time now. There are many ways you can do this, from issuing pedometers and having team challenges, to supporting Bike to Work schemes and allowing flexi-hours to incorporate exercise.
How?
Well one way innovative way do this, would be to
Use our Charity Bike Build team building event to launch an era of excellent team communication, collaboration and motivation.
Use the team building challenge to form a meaningful and lasting relationship with a local charity by donating the bikes to them.
Use the new found bike knowledge and enthusiasm to launch your very own Bike to Work Scheme.
Good luck and here's to supporting #PMHA16 - Positive Mental Health through 2016 and beyond.
Author:
Claire Cook
Marketing and proposition development manager at O3e.
O3e is the only company totally dedicated to developing and delivering team building events that drive CSR and bring tangible benefits to charities and communities.
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