Looking at the 2024 National Alliance on Mental Illness Workplace Mental Health Poll, we are inspired by the message around a “Culture of Caring in American Workplaces” and note that,
“About 1 in 4 employees report being dissatisfied with their workplace culture. Only 31% of employees say that they are ‘very satisfied’ with the culture within their workplace, with 45% saying they were ‘somewhat satisfied’.“
In 2024, Mental Health America hosted a webinar entitled, The workplace wellness program is dead – now what?
That question is quite an indictment that prompts many questions of which the following are just a few:
- How much of the responsibility for the mental health of its employees rests with the organization?
- Is there an inherent conflict between what works best for a business and what works best for the people in the business?
- Can good business practice not just support the mental health of employees, but can it be a powerful positive influence on the total health of the organization?
Let’s step back and look at where we’ve been for the last several years and where we can go from here. Prior to the challenges brought on by our response to the Covid pandemic, there was growing interest, concern, and some action in the direction of seeing the employee as a whole person rather than as only a “worker.” This tendency expanded rapidly and dramatically during the pandemic as organizations and workers alike struggled to find their footing on the shifting sands of the global response to fear, uncertainty, and constant changes.
Since 2020, how have we fared with the many strategies employed to improve mental health in the workplace? According to Mental Health America’s 2022 Work Health Survey measuring the perceptions of over 11,301 employees across 17 industries in the U.S., despite many valiant and well-meaning efforts, there is a great deal of room for improvement.
Here is a sampling of the symptoms noted in the 2022 report:
- 71% of employees find it difficult to concentrate at work, compared to 65% in 2021 and 46% in 2018.
- 56% of all surveyed employees spent time looking for a new position, compared to 40% in 2018.
- Companies that invest in developing supportive managers are correlated with overall healthier workplace scores, yet only 40% of employees agree that their company invests in developing supportive managers.
- Company leadership speaking openly about mental health and providing mental health training raises employee awareness about resources at work, but only 34% of employees state that their company’s leadership speaks openly about mental health, and only 46% of companies provide mental health training.
- 58% of employees disagree that their manager encourages them to take time off when needed.
- 66% of employees are not comfortable providing feedback to their manager about their performance, and 57% of employees cannot negotiate responsibilities or workload with their manager.
The executive summary of the 2022 report states that, “The findings reflect that positive workplace mental health requires investment (i.e., time, intention, and action) from all levels of an organization, including executive leadership, management, and employees. Survey findings reveal that the most important strategies to improve mental health outcomes are company investment, managerial support, and employee empowerment.”
We have case studies from corporate America that demonstrate great business practices of applying MIT-based Dialogue Discipline that improved business systemss while simultaneously improving workplace mental health.
Janet Werner, President of U Have My Word LLC, has been integrating MIT-based Dialogue Discipline since the 1990s to corporate business operations and strategic planning. In the pharmaceutical industry Werner facilitated senior leaders across business units in the discipline of dialogue during a 10-year-long organizational transformation process that included cross-functional team engagement from senior executives right down to the shop floor. This ongoing process of cultural change and transformation at all levels and functions within an organization produced new habits of healthy dialogue on business challenges while establishing a safe environment that positioned employees to respect each other and inquire into differences on challenging business issues in a way that promoted mental and business health. MIT-based Dialogue Discipline is our experience-based solution to establishing a sustainable mentally healthy workplace culture.
Are you familiar with MIT-based Dialogue Discipline and the application to great business practices that improve employee mental health? Let’s talk about it. [email protected] (3) U Have My Word, LLC: Overview | LinkedIn