Description
>Mental health awareness has increased within the workplace after the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, businesses in Egypt and around the world have made no significant efforts to put in place mental health policies that can help employees, raise employee morale, and foster a more healthy and welcoming work environment.
Supporting mental health in the workplace is no longer nice to have but a necessity. Companies should work to create wellness programs for their employees that will help them thrive and become more productive.
Since the majority of people do not comprehend the significance or definition of the phrase, let's first attempt to define what we mean by the word "mental health."
Mental health: This is the state of well-being, in which a person may function, work, and realize their full potential. They can also deal with common stresses.
When we talk about the improvement of health we talk about both physical and mental health besides the social well-being of the person.
To be clear when we discuss mental health, we are not talking about mental illness. You can have poor mental health without having any illness and you can have good mental health with a mental illness.
Mental health and human performance go hand in hand and should not be treated as two separate pursuits. They should be treated as one thing, and this is what makes humans flourish and thrive.
In today’s hectic and fast-moving world businesses should be a top priority if you want to hire performance employees.
To summarize the main ideas discussed here are:
• Mental health is more than the absence of mental illness
• You cannot have physical health without having mental health
• Mental health aids in coping with stress.
• Human performance and mental health go hand in hand
• Workplace wellness must be a top priority.
Positive mental health is essential since it increases people's capacity to overcome challenges. Additionally, it's crucial to remember that teams may remain adaptable when roles and responsibilities change if team members are in excellent mental health at work.
Thus, having a positive mental health will boost your resilience Finally, it is important to discuss the risk factors for not placing mental health as a top priority within the workplace.
1. Inadequate health and safety policies: Workplaces with poor health and safety policies may decrease employee mental health, lose staff, and risk prosecution.
2. Poor communication & management policies: Poor communication and practices create strain on the relationship which creates poor mental health and increased workplace stress.
3. Low levels of support for employees: Workers may feel overwhelmed and demotivated in a toxic workplace when management refuses to remove obstacles for its employees.
4. Performance pressure: Employees are under a lot of stress and pressure to perform at their highest level, which has a negative impact on their mental health.
5. Job Security: Job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major stressor for employees in 2020. The individual's mental health has decreased due to the worry of not being able to care for their family.
To conclude mental health is not a luxury for businesses before or even after the pandemic. Regardless of the location of the company or the sector it serves, all businesses should have mental health policies and solutions.