Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM May 2020 | Page 26

HR CORNER
SHARON BAYUS, MA, LPC-S
TMCA Distinguished Mediator, President & CEO
Innovative Alternatives, Inc.
http://innovativealternatives.org
Take Care of Your
Employees’ Mental Health
Now More than Ever!
D
o you know how COVID-19 is affecting
your employees’ mental, emotional
and relational health—or your own for
that matter? What can you do as an
employer who never aspires to become
a counselor? Simply show yourself as a caring person.
Know that any change—even good change—brings
a level of stress and our entire country, home and
work-lives are changing globally. Predict the difficulties
of stress on folks’ emotional well-being and share
resources with them. Your EAP can supply those or
use the information below. Give them lists of things
to watch for in themselves and each other. People
show stress in different ways, but usually in one of
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these major areas: lack of concentration, withdrawal
from others, self-doubt, frequent errors, forgetting
things, becoming easily irritated or even in conflict
with others, frequent somatic complaints: headaches,
stomach ache, fatigue, loss of interest in previously
enjoyable activities. Employers see the latter as a lack
of previous investment in or passion for work…which
indicates either your employer, or you are already in a
state of exhaustion or burnout, which is dangerous to
your physical health and immunity as well.
Predict these things “as possibilities if we don’t
take care of ourselves as we should during this time.”
Normalize “the stress we are all experiencing with
kids at home, finding ourselves trying to help them
with school and trying to do our jobs, all the while
wondering what is going to happen in the future.”
Encourage them that “We need to keep an eye on
ourselves and each other. Can all of us agree to stay
open to any coworker letting us know if we seem
stressed and may need to change some things or
get some support? That includes me and all the
leadership at our company if you see it in us.” As you
normalize this practice, people are more willing to
hear when interventions become necessary and act
on the feedback. Let employees know that as a leader,
you are just as susceptible; maybe even more so to
stressors of this time, with concern for the same things
they are concerned with at home, and concern for the
whole organization and each of them as well. Show
yourself as a model for openness to input and acting
on it, just as you want your employees to remain open
to your feedback to them. They will gain some degree
of security knowing you are taking care of yourself in
order to take care of the organization and them as your
employees.
When you hold meetings, take some time to go
around and find out the following. You hand out the
questions so people can get ready when their turn
comes. Give only 3-5 minutes each so it is concise and
doesn’t become a therapy group.