By Ken Maher, Director of Personal Systems at HP ANZ

With lockdowns, social isolation and blurred lines between work and home lives, COVID-19 highlighted the importance of protecting mental health. It is up to leaders and employers to implement mental health support programs for their employees to manage stress and anxiety at the workplace.

This was no different at HP, where we took many actions to create a positive mental health space for our employees. One of the key things we did was ask Melissa Hardy from the Wellbeing Campus to join our team as a mental health trainer.

I recently discussed mental health and its impacts with Melissa and spoke about what leaders can do to ensure good mental health at the workplace.

What is more important than our wellbeing?

This question wasn’t regularly asked or acknowledged in everyday life or workplaces before the pandemic. But the lockdowns, social isolation and the blurring lines between home and the office have changed how we value and care for our mental wellbeing.

Over the past 18 months, there has been a renewed focus placed on our mental wellbeing. With lockdowns, social isolation and blurred lines between work and home lives, protecting mental health fast became a key priority for leaders and employers. This was no different at HP, where we placed a renewed focus on ensuring our teams were in a positive mental health space. We took many actions, but one of the key things we did was ask Melissa Hardy from The Wellbeing Campus to join our team as a mental health trainer.

After 18 months of working with us, I wanted to speak to Melissa and delve a bit deeper into the topic of mental health in the workplace. Melissa has been providing us with wellbeing workshops focusing on all mental health topics, including how to manage workplace stress and anxiety, how to relax and wind down after a long day and the negative implications of drug and alcohol abuse.

The problem

Studies show 1 in 5 adults are estimated to experience a mental health problem every year and – this has only been increasing since COVID-19 induced lockdowns.

Many people are still working from home in-and-out of lockdowns, away from colleagues, friends and families, uncertain of when the pandemic will end. These limitations have put individuals under more stress and anxiety than ever before. I have been in several conversations where people have spoken about their struggles with balancing work and life, many people cannot log off and leave work like they used to. On a personal level, even though I am travelling less, that time has been consumed by work and meetings at the start and end of the day which is leaving less time for thinking and reflection.

Why is it important 

Maintaining workplace mental wellbeing not only benefits individuals, but it also benefits the organisation. Mental health awareness at an organisational level allows recruitment of the best staff available, increased employee engagement and increased productivity. At HP, we strongly believe that every organisation must invest in mental health for their employees.

By providing mental health programs, employees are content in the knowledge that they have a safe place to discuss all issues, while the organisation is providing enticing programs and structures to attract new talent to their teams. 

What to do about it

Personally, I utilised the lockdowns to develop new skills and I noticed that many people around me did the same. I decided to improve my skills on a wide variety of interests ranging from courses on robotics & automation all the way through to LEGO building, while others took up cooking, learned languages, or started a garden. By occupying your time with hobbies or learning new skills, you can reduce your stress levels and help bring balance to your work/ home life.

A key recommendation from Melissa is to take a holistic approach to mental health. She recommends people to focus on physical exercise, mind and spirit exercises such as meditation, consuming a balanced diet and getting quality sleep. For business, Melissa encourages to provide employees with information on mental health, training programs, flexible sick leave, anti-discrimination and bullying policy and participate in events such as ‘R U OK?’ day.

For many leaders, this can seem overwhelming. My advice would be to just start somewhere. This is not something that you can get right immediately, but acknowledging the need to address workplace mental health is the first step to helping employees. By developing an intentional workplace mental health strategy and letting it evolve naturally with employee input, you are well on your way to improving mental health within your organisation. Good luck.

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