How employers support mental health at the workplace
As an employer, it is your responsibility to look after your employees’ safety and health at work, including their mental health. With our model you can develop the work and work environment to support your employees’ mental health and arrange necessary support in case of problem situations.
Develop work to benefit mental health
Mental health issues in working life are a significant cause for work disability and the biggest reason for sick leaves.
In working life, there are usually two causes for mental health issues: issues related to private life crises or life management and job strain. The most common attempts to solve these problems is to offeri employees quick help, low-threshold services or protective and recovery strategies. As a preventive measure, employees are trained in self-management, stress-management and time-management skills. What is missing from these solutions is, however, the most important of them all: work itself.
What if you could develop the work to be beneficial for mental health?
We offer a clear approach
We will help you develop work so that it will promote and support mental health. We offer your workplace means to develop work to support work ability and prevent disabilities.
Timely mental health support and supporting an employee’s return to work are important measures, but they are only reactive solutions for problems that have already occurred. Make your goal to need fewer reactive measures in the future.
Let’s have a look at what you need for making work beneficial for mental health?
Six ways to support mental health at work
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An organisational culture that promotes mental health makes the development of values, structures, resources, timely support, supporting returning to work and vocatioanal rehabilitation possible. The culture should be based on trust, benevolence, open interaction and psychological safety.
Read more about organiuzational culture for promoting mental health
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Everything your company does, is built on values and will. When your company’s values promote mental health, it means that working in your company is, as a rule, beneficial for mental health. Additionally, it is important for your company to support the work ability of the employees with partial work ability. Consider, how you could act in accordance with your values and what it is that you want to achieve.
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Organisational structures that promote mental health are, for example, clear work arrangements, roles and targets, reasonably sized job tasks, clear leaderhsip and good management of cognitive and psychosocial stress.
Read more about organisational structures that promote mental health
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When talking about job resources the emphasis is often on the resources of the individual, such as professional skills, working life skills and general life management. Yet, the resources of the work itself are just as important. The most important of these is good workflow. Also the support of the work community and the balance between work and other important aspects of life support mental health You can support and increase job resources in your company.
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Offer support when your employee shows symptoms or experiences problems. Timely mental health support is based on the operating models of the workplace such as the early support model or on measures carried out with co-operation partners. These include, for example, occupational health services, low-threshold support and brief therapy services.
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Accommodating work to suit employees with partial work ability and several other methods supporting returning to work support your employees when they have problems. These methods include, among other things, using partial sickness allowance, alternative work, work trials and different options for vocational rehabilitation.
Read more about supporting returning to work and rehabilitation
We are responsible for promoting mental health together
Who is responsible for mental health at work? Everyone.
You and the rest of the management create the required conditions. This means that promoting mental health is an integral part of your company’s work ability management. You need a positive attitude towards mental health and you will allocate sufficient time and resources for promoting it.
Together, you will build the values, structures and organisational culture that promote and support mental health. Applying what you have built and putting it in action are, is 2in the other hand, the responsibility of supervisors, teams and the individual employees. Your job is to make sure that you monitor the actualisation of these aspects with jointly agreed indicators.
Apply these methods
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Build an organisational culture that supports mental health
Build for your company an open-minded culture based on trust.
Read more about workplace culture -
Make your company’s values clearer
Ways of working that are sustainable and promote mental health are built on values and will.
Read more about values -
Develop the structures of your organization
Make sure that the framework and structures in your company enable a good workflow and interaction.
Read more about structures -
Increase job resources
Mental health is often approached focusing on risks and problems. At least as important is for you to focus on resources that protect and maintain mental health.
Read more about resources -
Ensure timely support
Make sure that your company has previously thought-out models and instructions for facing mental health issues and for using outside help.
Read more about timely support -
Support returning to work
Returning to work after sick leave is an extremely significant factor in promoting recovery and vocational rehabilitation.
Read more about returning to work