Mental health is an important part of anybody’s general wellbeing, and that goes for even your employees and any potential talent you intend to hire. Having your mental health strategies in place and offering support for your employees will help you to better gain and retain quality talent in your establishment. You will create a healthy workplace that your employees will want to work in every day and further attract otherwise out of reach talent with mental health benefits that can be otherwise neglected. Not convinced? Take a look at our reasons why mental health strategies should be at the forefront of your employee benefits.
It’s important to support mental health among staff
Before we get into why it will attract employees to your company, it must be addressed why mental health support in the workplace is important. It cannot be stressed enough how valuable mental health support is to any team. It not only helps your team members, but it helps managers. A struggling staff member is of no use to anyone. You could hire a very overqualified staff member and find that mental health is getting in the way of their work. If they are having trouble, that might affect their work performance. Offering mental health support is a good way to make sure that your employees can get by. It’s not a magic cure, but it might be support that they can’t get elsewhere, due to long wait times, being ignored by doctors, or having no at home support system, etc.
It’s a sign of a healthy workplace
Additionally, it will be attractive to any potential talent you’re looking to employ. In a sea of job descriptions, yours will stand out if it offers mental health strategies and support amongst its benefits. Signs show that professionals are paying more attention to mental health strategies when they are considering a job opportunity. It’s part of the reason why flexible and hybrid working options have become so popular.
Potential employees will be looking carefully at your job description and listening carefully when you are in an interview for an environment that might seem toxic or simply uncaring. Solid mental health strategies in place will assure them that you are neither.
You will better retain employees
A knock-on effect of this is that you will better retain the employees you have. No one wants to have to deal with replacing a valued employee, and if they have left due to their own mental health, whether it’s induced by the workplace or not, that is a waste. It’s a waste of money, time, and most importantly, talent.
You’d be better off taking a preventative approach and encouraging your employees to make their workplace situation the best it can be. A solid set of mental health strategies can help them cope with anything that is bothering them and you will stand out as an employer that cares with a benefit that they are not likely to want to give up.
New talent will see that the people you already have are healthy and supported and be encouraged to stick out their time with you.
Conclusion
Another statistic from the Robert Walters website says that employers are greatly underestimating the value of a good mental health strategy. Despite 88% of talent looking for it, only 42% of employers think that mental health strategies are important to candidates. That should be a wake-up call for any employers out there. Get your strategies in place and you will better gain and retain top talent.