A recent study, to coincide with “World Mental Health Day,” concluded that one in four Americans would do “nearly anything” to have a single stress-free day.
There’s no question: the stress on everyone, especially employees, can ultimately damage your business’s productivity and, in turn, its bottom line.
We asked veteran HR leader Linda Simon, PhD., about how to uncover stressors in your organization, and more importantly, how to address those stressors to retain employees.
Balancing Act:
How do you uncover the hidden struggles of employees in an organization?
Linda:
“I think step one is knowing they’re there. I think we learned a lot over the past couple of years that this stuff is real, everybody is dealing with something. And I think if you start off with that premise, as skilled HR professionals, I know you can go out there and you have a lot of tools to help uncover where it is. What is it? How can I get out there in front of people? How can I have my managers help me do this? You’ll gather some really good insights.”
Balancing Act:
How can employers encourage employees to talk and to share their hidden stressors and what actions can they take to address that to create a culture of trust?
Linda:
“I wish there was a silver bullet for you, I really do. I think it’s a multi-pronged approach to be honest, and each company’s probably going to be a little different in terms of how they operate and the environment they have. I would say a couple of things. As an HR professional, being around and making sure you’re available, and people know where to go, you can help promote that and various communications and that type of thing. The other one that I think is a big support for the HR team is your managers. They’re the ones on the frontline with all your employees, and how do you build capability in them to be able to notice or have conversations with their employees about this. If you can build their capability with either training or tools to help them with this, because they’re probably equally nervous about some of these discussions thinking they shouldn’t probe, don’t want to get too personal, or I’m not sure how to engage in this.”
Balancing Act:
What trends should employers be tracking?
Linda:
“We call it an engagement index, which really defines how committed your employees are. How likely are they to stay with you. That’s a great one to constantly track. Because when you start to see that dip you can start asking a lot of questions about what’s happening. And through a lot of those surveys, they can help you identify some drivers of what might be getting in the way of people’s desire to stay with you or not. So that’s one that I track closely. Turnover clearly is another key one to be tracking. I think we all know that. And then there’s also ways to track that you wouldn’t get it at an individual level, but you can look at your benefits and what’s happening there, where there might be more incremental spend Through the pandemic people saw a lot on mental health go up, and people were looking to get more support there.”
Balancing Act:
What would you say can attract and retain employees. And what can drive them away?
Linda:
“The first one is your manager. People stay with their managers, not their company. It’s a personal relationship. It’s one-on-one, it’s where you spend most of your time between your manager and your team. And if that relationship is safe and feels productive, and you feel empowered, then you’re more likely to stick around with your company. So that’s a key one. I would say the other one is the company culture, and does it align with what’s important to you?”
Balancing Act:
What role do benefits play in attracting and retaining employees?
Linda:
“Some companies are more inclined to offer a lot more on the benefit side than others. And again, if it aligns with the individual, and what they’re looking for, it can be a huge retention factor. You know, depends on where you’re at in your life. For younger employees, health benefits, elder care benefit, things like that may not be a top priority for them. But as your employee base ages, those things do become a lot more important to them. We call it “work well, live well”. It’s a combination of what’s happening from a health standpoint, for my for wellness, for example, your health insurance, but beyond that is what I think we’re seeing a lot more that people are interested in, whether it’s mental health, or the support that you get for both childcare and elder care. For the “work well” piece, offering from a flexibility standpoint a change in the work environment in terms of how often people have to go into the office, what their hours are, the flexibility they get, that’s becoming a very big priority for employees.
Listen to more of Linda’s advice in our podcast here:
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