As the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic draws to a close, many talk about a return to normal. Yet for some, such as those suffering from mental health issues, the old “normal” was an unsupportive and even destructive place that ought not be
resurrected.- BY MALIBU KOTHARI
One of the most significant social changes of the COVID-19 pandemic occurred between employer and employee. For a number of reasons ranging from lockdown procedures, considerations for employee health, union work stoppages in unsafe working conditions, and even the costs associated with operating physical office spaces, the relationship between employee and employer underwent significant alterations. A key alteration has been that employers had no real choice but to pay significantly more attention to issues of mental health and morale among workers.
As workers faced the frontline impacts of the pandemic, many found themselves facing catastrophic levels of burnout. Across North America there was a massive spike in job resignations, a trend that is only now being ameliorated by companies altering practices to attend to the mental health needs of a beleaguered population. Since returning to “normal” would recreate the same system that pushed so many workers to resign, a different approach is now needed. Here, a practical look at how employers can retain robust and effective mental health policies and benefits will be discussed with the aim of preventing a return to the often harmful “normal” of the pre-pandemic era.
It does no good to simply talk about mental health solutions for workers. Actionable steps are needed for employers to take in order to develop immediately effective solutions. Those employers that are able to effectively manage worker’s mental health in this way will be able to enjoy a competitive advantage as Canada moves forward into the next phase of life under the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, those organizations whose workers enjoy greater mental health will repeat the rewards of higher morale and greater productivity.
For example, in a 2020 article in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, researchers claimed that the increased level of physical activity enjoyed by workers who were no longer stuck in the office all day resulted in higher levels of both physical and mental health. The study looked at adults whose physical activities had increased since departing from the office, as well as those who were not able to leave an office environment. The results, as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale, showed that workers who enjoyed at least a light level of physical activity had significantly lower incidence of depression. For this reason, it might be worth trying to implement organizational capacity that allows for increased physical activity throughout the day, such as increased breaks, shorter workdays, or investment in incentive-based programs.
Another study, this one appearing in the Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education in 2021, looked at the many benefits enjoyed by workers who were able to adopt a work from home model during the pandemic. Because workers are able to spend more time with their families, less time commuting, and more work time actually working and focused on their tasks, they tended to report a much higher level of job satisfaction and happiness than their office-bound compatriots. These same benefits were borne out by a 2021 paper in The Economics and Labour Relations Review which emphasized the benefits of working from home but called upon employers to recognize that their worker’s dwellings must remain a sacrosanct site in order for these benefits to manifest. In other words, if employers are expecting workers to do things like take care of their children at the same time that they’re working from home, then the benefits associated with work from home may quickly evaporate and exacerbate an all new level of mental health crisis among the workforce.
Grabbing the Reins of Institutional Influence
Besides the above strategies for ensuring workers continue to enjoy the benefits of increased awareness of mental health and its importance in the workplace, it’s important to question the future plans of institutional leaders. How will institutional leaders in charge of benefits influence the overall structure of their organizations to keep mental health a high priority during what is sure to be a challenging time across Canadian business and throughout the world?
A 2016 study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior carried out a meta-analysis that attempted to track the relationships between different styles of leadership, their specific organizational focuses, and the happiness of the workforce under their influence. The study reached its conclusions by measuring six factors of workplace mental health that are in and of themselves worth noting: affective symptoms, burnout, the employee’s level of stress, their sense of well-being, their ability to retain baseline psychological functioning, and the frequency of their physical health complaints. The models showed that a transformational leadership style, highly popular among many western organizations, was correlated with a high quality of mental health among the workplace. This same positive correlation was shared by leaders who focused on relationships between leaders and workers, as well as task-completion as a metric of quality. Conversely, leaders who emphasize efficiency above relationships, and who seem focused on cutting human resources to attain that efficiency, correlated with a dramatic decrease in reported mental health and wellbeing among the workforce.
What studies like this ultimately show is that the responsibility for the mental health of workers lies in the hands of the leaders of the organizations that employ them. Thus, it behooves leaders to keep in mind which aspects of organizational structure altered by the pandemic could prove to be a long-term boon for mental health and the organization overall. With each step of reopening or “returning to normal,” leaders should consider whether their entities – and their workers – would be better served by a new normal, to prevent automatically returning to a status quo that actually offered limited benefits for all parties.