Updated: Sep 8, 2022
What no one could have predicted was that things were going to get so much harder. The global pandemic would impact every person I knew. This made me realise that we should offer more to our friends and colleagues. I saw that many companies were already starting to offer a external counselling to employees, but I simply thought to myself, 'that's too late in the process'.
Seeing people reaching out so late in the day, despite probably feeling so unwell for extended periods, seemed so wrong to me! This spurred me on. I began looking into the idea of applying safety checks, using business tools, to minimise the need for late stage counselling.
Many businesses believe it is not their place to really intervene, that somehow, mental health this isn’t their problem. Other organisations talk about mental health, but as we all
know words and real action are two very different things. If you feel
your organisation is somehow immune to this, or you feel that you have other
commercial priorities, just stop for one moment. What would you
do tomorrow if an entire team was not available to come into work? This
is the magnitude of this ‘problem’.
Take a minute to think about what my 5-minute talk means to your organisation (from my previous blog post 'Men’s Mental Health' – A Personal Account). It means 3% of your work force have been close to committing suicide. So, if you work in an organisation
of 500 people how would you replace 15 of your associates? If you have
2,000 people – how would you replace 60 people? If you have 10,000 people
how would you replace 300? Still think this isn’t the organisations problem?
Those already in counselling are a lagging metric of the system, and it's possible several other employees will follow suit. Many are not working at 100% capacity, thinking rationally or being as efficient and productive as they could be. Imagine how effective your organisation would be if everyone was to be as close to 100% as possible. If everyone was on their 'A game'. how much better could revenue and profit be? How enriched would your pipeline of new business be? The health of your business would certainly be greater than what it is today.
We cannot change the people in your organisation but, assuming you have hired the right people, we can offer support. We offer a process that will uncover underlying challenges and
issues enabling you to fix problems now, before they spiral. Our system is built
around leading indicators designed to help you pin point areas for investment that will improve the health of your business. At the end of the day, your business is your people. If your people are not operating as efficiently as they can you are holding back your organisations
true potential.
Would you like us to help uncover the needs of your business? Recommendations for improvement? Contact Health of Business today for support with developing your Mental Health and Wellness strategy. enquiries@healthofbusiness.com