The Five Mental-Health Triggers To Eliminate From Your Workplace

Quick fixes to mental-health triggers in the workplace are like seatbelts

My 21-year-old daughter and I were getting in the car the other day and without thinking, I told her to buckle up. “Thanks, Mom,” she retorted a little sarcastically. It’s second nature for her generation to click their seatbelts. But it wasn’t always that way for mine. When seatbelts were made mandatory, there was huge resistance.

It’s like having an effective mental wellness policy in the workplace. Your office is the highway, your job the car, and a thoughtful mental wellness policy is the seatbelt that helps keep your team members functioning well at optimum speeds.
 

And yet there’s still resistance among senior leadership to discuss mental health and wellness at work. As CEO of the Digital Wellness Center (DWC), I hear it every day from clients. It reminds me of Piers Morgan.

Mr. Morgan is a British TV host and, what I like to call, one of those “get over it” people. Like many executives, he believes there is no real debate about mental health. People are either mentally healthy or mentally ill; there’s no middle ground. The vast majority of us are mentally well and we don’t need to be pandering to a small subset of those who aren’t.

When seatbelts were about to be made mandatory, there were people, like Mr. Morgan, who said we don’t need this, why are you pandering to a few, not a lot of people are dying. And yet when seatbelts became law, they were proved wrong. Between 1960 and 2012 seatbelts saved an estimated 329,715 lives. 

Quick fixes to mental-health triggers in the workplace are like seatbelts. They don’t require a lot of change and these fixes add huge value. 

Here are five mental-health triggers to eliminate from your workplace now – for better mental well-being and a healthier culture all around.

Trigger 1: Wasted Media Screens

Walk through your office and take stock of the content on your media screens – the ones in the elevator, washrooms, hallways, elevator lobbies, lunchroom, etc. What content is playing on them? Is it just news or just company campaigns? 

If so, consider effecting change. Instead, think of projecting puzzles or brain teasers to stimulate parts of the brain that help regulate mental well-being. In conjunction with Indigenous Friends Association the DWC offers puzzle content called Droodles (visual art puzzles) that are designed to challenge your team’s creativity in 60 seconds or less, giving their minds a microbreak. But please don’t feel you need to use our services – create your own – just ensure you offer one puzzle every hour. Think of these microbreaks as speed bumps for the brain; they slow it down so you can be safe.

Taking microbreaks enables you to deal seven times more effectively with daily challenges and our research found that just a few minutes three times weekly of this sort of mental stretching can give you the mental energy to overcome exhaustion in your day.

Trigger 2: No Digital Wellness Policy

Think of a digital wellness policy as your car’s traction. It keeps the brain on the right track and prevents it from slipping off the workplace road.

Your brain is trying to adapt to the reality of hybrid work and digital communication and it’s having difficulty evolving because digital communication is still so new to us. Don’t expect immediate results with any program you initiate. 

The DWC follows the 60/20/20 rule — 60 percent of your team uses the wellness system once or twice a week, 20 percent uses it more frequently, and 20 percent will never use it. Your team members will only use wellness when they need it, so don’t expect 100 percent participation. But do expect a return on your investment. With a structured and measured program, you can expect a yearly ROI of $1.62 amongst companies with less than three years of establishing workplace mental health programs. (Deloitte) 

Trigger 3: No Data, Only Opinions

Working today can be like driving in the dark without your lights on. You don’t know what’s coming. Every day, employees are doing this and because they have no data. Use deconstruction to change that. 

On your intranet wellness site, post two questions to help employees deconstruct their week. This helps team members gather data on how they’re doing overall and helps them create a map of their work habits. They don’t have to do it digitally; just post the following questions and let the employees answer privately in their notebooks or on their phones. 
 

• When I got stuff done this week, it was because:
• When I didn’t it was because:

Deconstruction stops employees from guessing at what is stressing them up and gives them data to fix it or at least address it. It helps them see the road ahead.

Trigger 4: Watch for Warning Signals

Your car dashboard has red lights that come on when you need to do something, like add oil or change the brakes. What warning signs do you have at work? 

Start by following how many employees are taking extended sick leave, and how often people ask to take unpaid leave or extended leave/vacation. Total every hour request off or that was off. For every 240 hours, consider adding another mental health day to your benefits. If after you do the math and you find that there were 720 additional hours requested off leave, consider adding three mental health days into your benefits. 

More time-off requests signal something isn’t right at work. Do the investigation now before it’s too late.

Trigger 5: Get Out and Stretch

If you have ever had to make a long drive, you know that it’s easy to feel sleepy if you don’t get some air and an opportunity to stretch. Create a walking track at work, like a hallway or even in your lobby space. Tape the floor. Measure how many times it takes to walk a mile. Then challenge your people to walk a mile (or even half a mile). Make it fun. 

Quick inexpensive fixes to mental-health triggers not only save lives, but can increase productivity by 10 percent in as little as 30 days – like seatbelts. And remember, it doesn’t have to cost a lot to save lives, and your culture. Buckle up, it’s going to be a great ride. 

Dr. Mary Donohue is the CEO at Digital Wellness Center. Connect Dr. Mary Donohue Follow @DrMaryDonohue