What do your employees really need to help them maintain or improve mental wellbeing?

‘Movement: Moving more for our mental health’ is the title of the theme adopted for this week, being Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 (MHAW). You will no doubt have already seen much publicity around this over recent weeks.  This year’s emphasis is on the incredible value of physical exercise as part of our daily routine.

As a happy dog owner with some flexibility around my working arrangements most days, I am fortunate enough to be able to get out in the fresh air each day and I never stop appreciating the value of this opportunity to take myself away from my desk, even for only 30 minutes if I’m very busy, and doing a re-set.

The benefits of what Dr Phil Hammond has referred to as the “daily vitamins” which keep us healthy and can be summarised in the acronym CLANGERS, which stands for Connect, Learn, be Active, Notice, Give, Eat well, Relax, and Sleep have been highly valued now for some time but when we are have busy working lives these aspects of life can easily fall by the way side.

At OMhAS we refer to these important components of a healthy lifestyle as the SENSAGRaLPH factors, standing for:

Sleep – getting enough good quality sleep is essential for good health generally. (S)

Exercise – exercise raises endorphin levels and can also provide an opportunity to switch off from daily pressures and demands. Any form of exercise which you enjoy from walking or dancing to team or endurance sports are all good for us. (E)

Nutrition – eating the right, healthy food, avoiding over or under-eating is essential for all good health, including mental health. (N)

Spend time in nature – time spent in nature when you can relax, properly listen to the sounds, breathe in fresh air and pay attention to the sights and smells of your surroundings can all be hugely beneficial in improving health and wellbeing and reducing stress.  (S)

Activity – engaging in an activity which you enjoy and /or are good at boosts mood and self-esteem. (A)

Goals – having personal goals and things to look forward to can be enormously fulfilling. (G)

Relationships  - connections and interactions with other people. (R)

Learning & Development – trying new activities and learning new skills can provide stimulation and helps build up resilience. It can also widen your social networks. (L)

Purpose – doing things which are meaningful. Often this will be work, but it might include family and caring responsibilities.(P)

Helping/giving to others  - helping other people is rewarding in itself.(H)

They are each so important for our mental health too. When so many of us spend a considerable amount of our days working, it is really important for employers to promote a culture that enables its employees to make time to strike a healthy balance across all of these aspects of life and not just run the occasional week-long initiative.

What this also means is that employers need to know what is going on with mental health in their workforce so that as a business they can work out what sort of support people need,  and can then in turn prioritise their resources and future initiatives to meeting those needs.

The only way to really capture what challenges people are facing, is to ask your workforce. We know that this may seem daunting, but at OMhAS we can help you with this by providing you with a comprehensive workplace questionnaire that asks the right questions, in the right way about all of the factors which impact employee wellbeing. We will also support you as you decipher the results and design your strategy for the overall benefit of your workforce and ultimately your business too.

Good luck to everyone involved in positive initiatives this week, but to take steps to make really impactful, lasting change on workplace mental health, please do contact us at: help@OMhAS.co.uk.

Joanna Atkinson, Director

OMhAS Ltd