Do mental health problems affect the workplace
productivity?
The entire world is facing difficulties
due to the pandemic crisis, and it has caused an increase in stress and anxiety
in the fast-growing human society. Every human being experiences a certain
level of mental health issues at some point in their life.
What causes mental health
problems at the workplace?
How many of us have to work in the
evenings and during weekends? How many times have we been forced to skip our
main meal because we were too busy working? or had to wake up in the middle of
the night to deal with work matters?
The competition in workplace has
increased and employees need to do their best to keep up to retain their job or
to move ahead to a promotion.
Workplace related mental illnesses can
be a result of increased work load, poor communication, inefficient management
practices, inflexible work hours, low productivity and workplace bullying.
How
do mental health problems effect the workplace?
Mental health issues such as
stress, depression and anxiety often lead to absenteeism, and the regular
absenteeism of an employee may affect the smooth work flow of team tasks in the
workplace.
Employees are responsible of the
task of taking the organization to its highest potential, so mental health
issues have a direct link to corporate productivity. Employees with mental illnesses are unable to focus on their
work, make the right decisions, and efficiently accomplish their assigned tasks.
This might result in low productivity and put a company's operations in
jeopardy
How
can HRM aid to overcome these challenges?
Initiate
the conversation
Employees are in constant fear of
how others may react if their healthy mental condition is disrupted. Mental
health issues should be discussed freely in the workplace, and managers should
create a safe environment that encourages these conversations.
Inviting an acclaimed guest speaker
with expert authority on mental health to speak about mental health issues
could assist the affected employee in initiating the discussion.
Managers should be ready to listen,
understand, and provide the necessary flexibility if and when someone requires
it
Divide
the workload
Management can also employ steps to
reduce the workload burden by recruiting a sufficient number of employees to
handle the assigned tasks. The best outcome can be achieved if the workload is within
the employee's potential limit, as an unmanageable workload can lead to mental
health concerns at work
Poor mental health directly impacts
employees and the organizational productivity, since it leads to
absenteeism, poor performance, less engagement in corporate activities, and inabilities
to make the right decisions. “WHO-led
study estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy
US$ 1 trillion each year in lost productivity”
References:
Howell,
D. R., 2020. Psychreg. [Online]
Available at: https://www.psychreg.org/mental-health-employees-productivity/
[Accessed 23 7 2021].
Kestel, D., 2019. World Health Organization. [Online]
Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/mental-health-in-the-workplace
[Accessed 22 7 2021].
Shaw, R., 2018. people management. [Online]
Available at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/what-is-hr-responsibility-workplace-mental-health#gref
[Accessed 23 7 2021].
The term "mental health" relates to how people think, feel, and act in the face of life's challenges.
ReplyDeleteOur mental health influences how we deal with stress, interact with one another, and make decisions and mental health has an impact on how people perceive themselves, their life, and those in their lives.Mental health, like physical health, is essential at all stages of life.
You have nicely arrange your post and proved that importance of mental health.Thanks for sharing Heamaka.
By receiving proper mental health care, productivity increases, absenteeism decreases, and total medical costs decrease. Having a healthy workforce that shows up to work in a good frame of mind, ready to work benefits everyone. It is very relevant to the current situation. Thank you for sharing Heamaka.
ReplyDeleteMental issues can be found in any human being upto some extent. When it turned to an organization there may be a large number of employers form different cultures. Social standards and values are different. Hence proper mental health care may definitely required. This will be further better if you could extent the practical methods of solving the mental health issues in organizational context. thank you for the sharing this informative article.
ReplyDeleteMental health has a huge influence on stressed workers and low productivity. I feel all the organisations must take nessecery actions to take care of the employees. Hence a good mentality is always beneficial for the employee as well as for the employer in many ways.
ReplyDeleteMental health is pervasive and costly. It is estimated that, at anygiven time, one in five working-age adults has a mental health problem,with the lifetime prevalence rate reaching up to 50 percent. To perform effectively in a workplace mental illness is so much crucial as it directly affect to the performance.
ReplyDelete