With many mental health conditions catalysed by stressful or difficult situations, it is difficult to ignore the role that the workplace can play in poor mental health outcomes.

Work environments have come on leaps and bounds in recent decades in their approach to employee wellbeing – and not just in response to the understanding of workplaces as stress-inducing environments. Mental illness is also a villain to businesses, with staff wellbeing crucial for company culture, productivity and even profitability; mental health has worsened on a national level since the pandemic, and today costs UK businesses £56 billion annually.

Tackling staff satisfaction and wellbeing within your own business is not a singular endeavour, though. It requires a multi-faceted approach, to ensure that your workers are comfortable and well-supported in every direction – making for a staff cohort with more longevity, higher productivity and better cohesion. What are some of the key steps to making this so?

Perks and Benefits

One essential piece of the puzzle lies quite simply in the way you recompense your workers. In times of particular economic strife, budgets are stretched farther than ever and employees are much more likely to be preoccupied with concerns about their outgoing costs – which can lead to significant mental distress. Not only this.

By offering a range of perks and benefits alongside the base salary for the role, you can signal to your staff that you appreciate them and are willing to invest in them, increasing trust. The perks themselves can also improve quality of life; buying up a small fleet of used Audis as a company car fleet enables you to offer private transport to staff members that might be struggling with their own vehicle costs, or with public transport. Even free breakfasts or lunches can be inexpensive but highly effective, and highly appreciated.

Flexible Working Provisions

Giving your staff greater freedoms with regard to their working day can also be revolutionary in reducing stress across your business. Remote work agreements have been a very public success in this regard, with a considerable portion of today’s workforce actively seeking to work from home at least once a week. Even the simple provision of flexitime, where workers can choose when to start and end their work day around core hours, can be deeply impactful for them.

Training

Training is a near-universally positive cause for investment within any business, not only to ensure that all staff members are upskilled to the same level, but that individual workers are given opportunities to grow and progress professionally. Investing in the worth of individual employees promotes trust and satisfaction, and lightens the burden – especially where talented staff members might be seeking a promotion, and might benefit from additional training to that end.