Managerial Support for Well-Being and Mental Health

As the first point of contact for most employees, managers have an important role in the continued mental wellness of employees. While managers are not expected to become therapists in times of crisis, they can still follow established practices to create a psychologically safe environment, helping their direct reports constructively process the various stresses.

The Conference Board recommends that managers can help their team members in the following seven ways:

1. Start a well-being conversation. Simply creating a space for employees to share their own struggles and tell their personal stories can be extremely therapeutic.
2. Be aware of signs of distress. Managers should have regular check-ins to monitor employee well-being.
3. Be extra considerate of neurodivergent workers. Neurodivergent people tend to thrive with routine and a crisis often changes our work environments and habits, which can be hard on a neurodivergent worker’s need for structure.
4. Provide a wellness action plan (WAP). Wellness plans are designed to help employees support their own mental health by reflecting on stressors and promoting practical steps to address them.
5. Encourage positive habits. Another approach is to encourage employees to form positive habits to protect and maintain their well-being.
6. Provide resources if an employee doesn’t feel safe at home. Social distancing has the unfortunate side effect of essentially trapping victims of domestic abuse, or any other toxic relationship, with their abuser(s).
7. Provide mental health first aid training. Employees should learn mental health first aid to support themselves and their colleagues.

For more insights on how to deploy these strategies under adverse economic circumstances, see the following article written April 13, 2020, HC Management During COVID-19: Support for Well-Being and Mental Health, containing tactics and examples that are still applicable today.