Fostering a Culture of Wellbeing: Strategies for Employers

How employers can foster a culture of wellbeing

We believe good mental health is a major driver for motivation in the workplace. Many companies focus on promoting physical activity, such as sponsoring gym memberships to promote regular exercise initiatives, implementing yoga sessions, or providing employees with healthy food in the office. But workplace mental health and well-being should be approached more holistically.

Workplace mental health starts at the top

Leaders must create an environment where individuals feel both emotionally safe and challenged to grow, by promoting freedom to express different ideas, failure culture, growth mindset, and consequence free vulnerability.

Employers play a central role in workplace mental health, so it is fundamental to communicate your own personal growth opportunities/areas of improvement as a leader, and show vulnerability and compassion. That helps leaders become more accessible and trustworthy, cultivating a feedback culture using benevolence and honesty. If you think someone is doing an amazing job and nothing needs to change, tell them that – and ask if they have feedback for you. Employees need to feel they can approach their managers as topics arise, not just during the scheduled feedback sessions.

Another impactful way leaders can improve mental health at work is by implementing company measures and policies when needed. If employees are suffering because they are still answering work emails at 10pm, implementing a “no email after hours” policy will positively impact that. If they don’t get enough proper breaks and/or exercise, having organization-wide “no-meeting days” or offering more flexible working hours could go a long way.

Effective resources and how to implement them

There are many aspects that need to be taken into consideration, providing mental health resources in a company environment.

Let’s take GetTilo as an example. This startup is part of BIA’s Future Health Accelerator program and provides a stress management tool that tackles mental health in the workplace. Our team has implemented its extension in our workflow and has been seeing great improvement.

Here is how it works: GetTilo gathers data on mental, physical, emotional, social, and creative aspects of an employee’s work life, and proposes activities that help address specific issues. Users also have the option to talk to mentors, coaches, and councilors. At the same time, upper managers get access to assessments and work together with GetTilo to create a roadmap/strategy on how to address problems in the company that are affecting productivity and engagement.

Maria Viola, founder of the platform, believes there are several factors to be taken into consideration when providing access to mental health resources. She believes companies need to address the topic strategically and holistically. In her experience, the implementation of GetTilo showed most success when the top team was involved and showed commitment.

Another major defining factor is personalization. Maria believes workplace mental health needs to be tackled with a no-size-fits-all mentality, so the general tool needs to be as personalized and individualized as possible.

Interested to know more? Get to know GetTilo’s resources to approach workplace mental health in a strategic and holistic way. 

Do you think your team could benefit from personalized training programs? Get in touch to develop blended formats, with experiences in Berlin, at a customer location, and virtually!