As leaders or line managers, you cannot carry the burden of supporting every employee on your own. You can do your best. You can open up the mental health conversation, bring up mental health in staff appraisals and make it clear to every employee that you’re there to support them if they need you.
But if you’re going to effectively support every employee – you’ll need the help of your team. You’ll need your boots on the ground.
In an ideal team environment, everyone is empowered and able to support a struggling colleague. In this article, we’ll explore how to create that environment – and enable every employee to become part of your mental health support system.
Taking a softer approach
Many employers have taken the step of training mental health champions within their organisation – to create another point of access for struggling employees.
But for some, the title “mental health champion” might be a daunting prospect. They may not want to take on the responsibility of being a point of contact for struggling colleagues – which is very understandable. It’s a huge responsibility to take on.
Integrating these people into your mental health support system will require a softer approach. You need to create another level of mental health support, which every employee is empowered to be part of.
Not everyone can be a mental health champion. But every employee can be a friend and a support system. They can all be a mental health sponsor.
Empower every employee to become a mental health sponsor
Becoming a mental health sponsor is something that everyone can achieve. It does not mean giving guidance, training or advice. It simply means using your position to try and get struggling people the support they need at the right time.
By being part of your organisation, every employee is in a position to help struggling colleagues. Learning a little will go a long way.
Imagine if every employee knew these three things:
- The member of your HR or wellbeing team who should be contacted
- The point of access for your existing support offerings (e.g. the number for your EAP)
- The number for external services like CALM and Samaritans (included on the graphic below)
The numbers displayed above are for UK residents. Global employers will need to ensure that employees are signposted towards the services that are accessible to them. Wherever you are in the world, you can utilise this Global Signposting Directory to signpost your people towards free wellbeing support.
With this simple signposting information, every employee will be empowered to signpost struggling employees towards the support they need.
They will all be empowered to become a mental health sponsor.
Your employees want to help
By providing every employee with the simple signposting information outlined above, you’ll empower everyone to become part of a wider mental health support system.
There are various ways of circulating this information around your team. For example, you could regularly integrate signposting into your communication cycles, or encourage team leaders to circulate the information during team meetings.
However you choose to do it, make sure that you get this simple signposting information into as many employee hands as possible.
Most (if not all) of your employees want to support a struggling colleague if they can. By taking these simple steps, you will help them to do so.
