Did you know that 65% of mental ill health cases are in some way influenced by work and work-related stress? As Internal Communicators it's important that we support our organisations to show our people that they truly matter at work. We need to demonstrate commitment, promote meaningful conversations and address the root causes leading to mental ill health in the workplace - not just stick a plaster over them by offering a token Employee Assistance Programme.
Last month the IoIC's FutureNet network came together for an evening of discussion and idea sharing around the generation of communication campaigns to promote positive mental health and wellbeing in our organisations. Following a break out session to put all the learnings into practice the attendees proposed their own mental health and wellbeing campaigns. FutureNet is all about having a safe and supporting environment to learn and develop skills and the teams presented to senior IC practitioners - Oli Howard, Head of Strategy Development at CIPD, and Jo Hooper, workplace mental health specialist and founder of Mad and Sad Club, who shared some very valuable and insightful feedback on the proposals.
Throughout the evening Jo and Oli shared their own personal experiences, answered many great questions and offered their thoughts on mental ill health in the workplace. As Jo said, there are over a third of mental ill health cases which are impacted by factors solely outside of work and it's important our businesses keep this in mind too and offer life skills and support in conjunction to work related support to have the greatest impact in caring for our people. Oli shared some insightful trends from CIPD research as well as supporting materials.
The group agreed that there is not much right and wrong in all of this. We are all human and we all have feelings. Managers often feel out of their depth and nervous about having open conversations due to fear of 'getting it wrong'. However, they're already showing empathy by being this mindful so we need to help them see that and reassure them that it's the simple things that can often have the biggest impact on someone who is suffering. Mental ill health looks different for everyone and every case is unique. Often the individual can't fully figure out from the outset what it is they need or how they're feeling so a more flexible and open approach is needed to support them.
As communicators there are subtle changes we can start to make to introduce more feeling and emotion into our communications and make things more human. Maybe for your next interview with an MD don't just ask, 'How were the financial results?', but ask 'How did you feel when you saw and heard the results?' We all have a responsibility as Internal Communicators to not only focus on mental ill health but also bring in the more preventative, positive health messages and help people realise that everyone has "mental health" and we all move up and down the spectrum just like we do with our physical health based on how much over-indulging or exercising we have done in any given week or month! As always, don't forget to think about measurement before you start too – this will really help you understand what it is you and the business are looking to achieve and if your ideas will have the desired impact.
Our next event will focus on the ways in which we can better embed diversity and inclusion in internal communication and will take place on the 11th of September. This event will be open to anyone who has an interest in the topic of diversity and inclusion so make sure you bring along colleagues and friends! You can book your free place here.
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