The HR and Mental health at workplaces

A point of no return: mental health in the workplace can no longer be swept under the rug or be ignored.

In a personnel review, Bartram and his colleagues published an article in June 2024 on the need to advance the care for workforce mental health through empowering human resource managers (HR-the-person). They point out two issues that will shape the understanding of this topic and influence the approaches to mental health at the workplace. The first factor is the mental health prevalence in the general population both locally and internationally. It is alarming that in Kenya, 1 in 4 people seeking medical attention in an outpatient facility will present with a mental health illness. The wage workers are not excluded in this statistic. 

HR-the-person embodies the attitudes, beliefs and knowledge that drive the culture of an organization and provide leadership with matters affecting the human resource in the organization. HR-the-department provides structure where both the organizational needs and those of the employees can be met.

The second factor is the global shift of employment as indicated by a desirable employment by the labor force. More job seekers are placing an expectation on their employer to support mental health. One survey revealed that 84.6% of employees across East Africa consider employer support as important when evaluating job offers. The report further revealed that this desire is greatest for young professionals in the 18-24 age group at 89.5%. Gen Zs ring a bell? These factors mark what Bartram and his colleagues' term as a “point of no return” where mental health in the workplace can no longer be swept under the rug or be ignored. They further retaliate that for organizations to attract and retain a high-performing workforce, mental health must be promptly and meaningfully addressed. 

The role of HR-the-person in shaping the mental health culture

The question however remains: with such a heavy mental health burden in the local and international scenes, what makes individuals hesitate on mental health workplaces making the uptake very slow? What role does mental health play in ensuring workers remain productive and innovative? 

One very clear barrier that would answer to this gap is the stigmatizing attitudes that stall the self-seeking behavior of employees. These are mental beliefs and stances that have been adopted over time in our society due to a lack of knowledge of what mental health is. The Mental Health Task Force Report 2020 revealed that many Kenyans hold the narrative that mental illness and mental health are one and the same thing. When leaders themselves in an organization unconsciously hold this view, it shapes the culture of an organization on how everyone responds to mental health. There is important work to be done by HRs to reduce the stigma and fear of mental health disclosure. 

The second barrier is translating the knowledge of mental health into comprehensive initiatives and strategies in the workplace through HR department. Let's face it, Human resource managers are not mental health professionals and if they have received the training as such, their role to ensure productivity and performance can be equally overwhelming, not to mention the dual relationship that they hold with their employees that may prevent them from having that relationship. For a human resource manager with doubts on how to include mental health initiatives in the HR processes and training and development, here is a place to begin: 

1. Invest in your knowledge on mental health. Leadership requires courage and being able to adopt a servant leadership stance. Develop your own non-stigmatizing attitudes. A Human Resource Workbook can comprehensively build this knowledge by focusing on emotional intelligence, work-life integration, personal therapy and self-care. 

2. Consider the services of an In-house provider/consultant to reduce the stigma in the workplace and increase the uptake of mental health in the workplace. The benefits of an in-house provider are diverse. They will provide insights on what can be considered in your training and development, act as a coach to equip the workers with attitudes and skills that will prove useful in their personal growth and productivity. An inhouse therapy consultant also take off the burden of handling mental health issues that require professional help and help you focus on the functions of the HR that will steer the organization to achieve its strategic goals. This is not to mention the confidentiality space to handle issues in a non-judgmental way.

HR-the-person and HR-the-department: a clear distinction in adopting mental health initiatives in the workplace

When discussing mental health at workplaces especially on the function of the HR, I often want to make a clear distinction between HR-the-person and HR-the-department. HR-the-person embodies the attitudes, beliefs and knowledge that drive the culture of an organization and provide leadership with matters affecting the human resource in the organization. On the other hand, HR-the-department provides structure where both the organizational needs and those of the employees can be met.

Let me use performance management as an example to make this distinction. From a structural point of view, these are the systems that the organization adopts, which align with the vision and mission of the organization. From a HR-the-person perspective, it is the bridge between "theory and practice" that takes into account other subjective areas such as diversity or multigenerational influences on productivity. In view of mental health, the approaches and initiatives to be adopted will hugely depend on the structure of the organization, whether project based, matrix based or departmental and the design and delivery of the approaches will hinge on the attitudes, beliefs and knowledge of the targeted teams or individuals. This article focuses on HR-the-person as the driver of mental health culture in an organization. 

As Madhavi Lall asserts in an excerpt* that a holistic performance management process needs to be holistic focusing not only on the productivity and goals but a greater emphasis on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the employees. She further affirms that it is about moving from performance management to performance potential!

References

*Crawshaw, J., Budhwar, P., & Davis, A. (Eds.). (2020). Human resource management: Strategic and international perspectives. Sage. pg 327