Work and life are increasingly becoming interconnected. For people working remotely, the workplace has come into the home. For others, personal stresses may intrude at work and affect performance, or long work hours may take a toll on relationships and personal commitments. With the ever-increasing demands on working individuals today, employee well-being has emerged as the focus of organisations conscious of the vital role that mental wellness plays in company success.
55%
of employees in India experience depression,
emotional exhaustion, or burnout.
Holistic Well-being
Well-being implies that people have the tools, support, and environments to build and sustain lives that are worth living. From an organisational perspective, supporting well-being, and mental well-being in particular, must go beyond offering benefits like insurance.
Organisations that take a holistic view of employees’ needs know that personal and professional success are inextricably linked. When employees are set up for all-round success, you see measurable results in productivity, performance, loyalty, retention, and innovation.
Mental Well-being is a Spectrum
For many people, the term “mental health” has a negative connotation, evoking thoughts of mental disorders and chronic depression.
The World Health Organisation defines mental health as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.”
Mental health is not simply the absence of mental illness but a spectrum that encompasses wellness, illness, and everything in between.
Excelling
- Cheerful
- Joyful
- Energetic
- High Performance
- Flow
- Fully Realising Potential
Thriving
- Positive
- Calm
- Performing
- Sleeping Well
- Eating Normally
- Normal Social Activity
Surviving
- Worried
- Nervous
- Irritable
- Sad
- Trouble Sleeping
- Distracted
- Withdrawn
Struggling
- Anxious
- Depressed
- Tired
- Poor Performance
- Poor Sleep
- Poor Appetite
In Crisis
- Very Anxious
- Very Low Mood
- Absenteeism
- Exhausted
- Very Poor Sleep
- Weight Loss
Source: Delphis
Young professionals are at high risk of mental health concerns, with over 50% of India’s youth in the Struggling category in the mental health spectrum.
Truly understanding the full spectrum of mental health is the first step to providing your employees with the support they need to thrive at work.
See our articles and videos on workplace mental health for tips on how to support your employees.
Organisational Wellness Maturity Stages
Our organisational mental health maturity model provides companies with a roadmap for understanding and improving employee mental health. The model helps organisations determine where they stand in their ability to effectively understand, anticipate, and support employee mental health and what steps they need to take to increase their wellness maturity.
Interested in knowing where your organisation stands on the Wellness Maturity Scale?
The World Bank estimates that mental health conditions could cost India approximately 1.03 trillion USD in economic output by 2030.
MARG Wellness
We know that the prospect of becoming involved in your employees’ mental wellness can be daunting, especially if you don’t know where to start. That’s where MARG comes in. We offer a complete well-being programme with a range of training sessions and mental wellness support options to assist organisations in developing healthy, productive workforces.
Here’s how MARG’s well-being advisors can help you:
- Consulting
- Education & Training
- Counselling
- Policies & Benefits
- Trauma-informed Care
Employees who are able to seamlessly balance work and life are most likely to exceed performance expectations, come up with innovative solutions, and feel motivated. Our consulting services can help you and your employees leverage mental wellness to achieve professional and business goals.
- Assessment: Determining organisational wellness maturity and identifying critical areas of focus.
- Consulting: Ongoing assistance and consulting on implementing and sustaining mental health support practices in the workplace.
- Customisation: Tailored mental well-being programmes to fit the unique culture, dynamics, needs, and challenges of each business.
- Support: Resources and initiatives to alleviate employee concerns during periods of change.
- Evaluation: Regular assessment of mental health programme effectiveness, iterating as organisational needs evolve.
Through curated training programmes, workshops, and mental wellness literacy efforts, we create awareness, build a supportive, open culture, and equip managers and employees to improve their mental health and offer support to those who are struggling.
- Mental health literacy: De-stigmatisation of mental health by creating awareness on mental health issues, breaking down taboos, and fostering empathy in the workplace.
- Training for leaders and managers: Sessions on mental wellness and trauma to equip leaders and managers to recognise and support team members who need it.
- Work-life balance strategies: Setting boundaries, problem-solving, managing time, and prioritising self-care.
- Workshops on stress management: Identifying stressors, building coping mechanisms and adaptability, overcoming adversities.
- Sessions on managing change: Workshops on navigating major life transitions, planning for retirement, and adjusting to new roles.
Most people associate counselling with mental illness. The truth is that counselling is for everyone, and it’s fast becoming the need of the hour for organisations that value employee wellness and wish to improve employee experience, job satisfaction, and retention.
- Confidential counselling: One-on-one counselling for employees and their families.
- Strategies to tackle challenges: Addressing challenges that impact work, developing coping strategies, building resilience, and aiding personal growth.
- Expert guidance: Navigating work-related stress, interpersonal conflicts, career transitions, and more.
- Self-development: Mindfulness and meditation for emotional regulation.
Mental health policies provide a framework to focus on employee mental well-being and offer meaningful benefits. By introducing such policies, you can minimise the stigma associated with mental health issues and ensure employees facing these issues receive the resources they need.
We develop customised frameworks and protocols to integrate mental health support into workplace policies and procedures:
- Policies for new parents
- Trauma-informed care policies
- Policies for care-givers
- Work-life balance policies
- Policies for diversity and inclusion
Our Trauma-informed Care programme focuses on supporting mental health by cultivating a workplace environment that acknowledges and responds to the impact of trauma on employees, the organisation, and its stakeholders. This creates a more productive and positive workplace and supports improved organisational outcomes.
Here’s how we can help you build a trauma-informed organisation:
- Consulting: Ongoing assistance and consulting on developing trauma-informed practices that can be sustained over time.
- Policy development: Customised frameworks and protocols to integrate trauma-informed principles of mental health support into workplace policies and procedures.
- Evaluation: Regular assessment of organisational culture and practices to identify areas for improvement and continued growth in trauma-informed care.
FAQs
The success of any organisation lies in the hands of its employees. When employee mental health is compromised, performance, decision-making abilities, and ability to focus may be severely impacted.
Organisational mental health programmes strive to create a work environment, support systems, and company culture that prevent, alleviate, and support work-related mental health issues among employees.
Comprehensive mental wellness programmes for organisations are relatively new. Many organisations limit their wellness efforts to counselling, generally offered through an employee assistance programme. MARG’s Wellness Programmes aim to support and boost employee mental health through a range of services and solutions, including wellness consulting, training and education, counselling, and support creating wellness-friendly employee policies and benefits. Our programmes are customised for each organisation, depending on their wellness maturity and specific needs.
You can elevate employee mental health in various ways.
Build a safe and supportive culture: This lessens the stigma associated with mental health issues and makes employees feel comfortable discussing their struggles.
Offer relevant benefits: Help employees cope better with mental health issues through mental-health-focused initiatives like counselling, mental health resources, and support groups.
Provide flexibility: Introduce flexible work hours and full or partial remote work for happier, more productive employees. Through detailed assessments and on-going consulting, MARG Wellness creates custom wellness programmes that help you build a healthy workforce.
Build a safe and supportive culture: This lessens the stigma associated with mental health issues and makes employees feel comfortable discussing their struggles.
Offer relevant benefits: Help employees cope better with mental health issues through mental-health-focused initiatives like counselling, mental health resources, and support groups.
Provide flexibility: Introduce flexible work hours and full or partial remote work for happier, more productive employees. Through detailed assessments and on-going consulting, MARG Wellness creates custom wellness programmes that help you build a healthy workforce.
Mental-health focused education and training creates awareness, helps build a safe and supportive work culture, aids in managing stress and achieving a good work-life balance, and supports those with mental health concerns in the workplace. These training and education programmes also equip managers to recognise and support employees who are struggling.
Training creates awareness on mental health issues, breaks taboos, and fosters empathy in the workplace. Workshops and programmes on mental wellness and trauma also help leaders and managers recognise and address signs of poor mental health among employees.
Comprehensive programmes like MARG Wellness offer tailored initiatives to help promote
wellbeing—and, by extension, effectiveness—among employees. Such programmes may
offer wellness-focused consulting, counselling, education and training, and assistance in
setting up wellness-centred employee policies and benefits. By setting up a wellness
programme to manage your employees’ mental health, you’ll be able to truly understand and
anticipate their needs, create awareness, and build a culture that nurtures mental wellness.
This creates happy, loyal employees who bring their best to work each day, yielding high
returns in productivity and performance.
