Companies Urged To Invest in Mental Fitness In The Workplace
Anxiety Remains Major Issue among Ireland’s Workforce – Vhi Corporate Solutions
23rd September 2015 - Companies were urged to invest in Mental Fitness Programmes in the workplace at a conference organised by Vhi Corporate Solutions held today. Data from Vhi Corporate Solutions shows that anxiety remains a major issue within Ireland’s workforce, with 29% of those presenting to the health insurance company’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) seeking advice around it. Workplace stress, difficulties with management and negative relationships with co-workers and peers are the top three employment issues raised through the service.
The ‘Mental Fitness in the Workplace’ conference, attended by 200 representatives from Ireland’s top employers, heard that a mentally fit workplace is a resilient workplace, which helps employees to easily adapt to change, overcome adversity, be more engaged and productive and can result in substantial benefits for both the employer and the employee.
Mental Fitness advocate and author Niall Breslin who spoke at the conference about his own experiences with anxiety urged companies to adopt a culture of mental fitness in the workplace “Mental Fitness programmes are proactive and similar to physical fitness programmes in that they promote strength, flexibility and resilience. We have known for some time that healthy employees make better workers than unhealthy employees do, and have seen companies make proactive changes to encourage a healthier workforce. But fewer have been as proactive in promoting and maintaining their employees’ mental fitness. I would urge organisations to take a genuine interest in the mental health of their employees, look into a programme that would suit their employees and encourage everyone to engage.”
He continued “Anxiety can be crippling and the fear of how employers or colleagues may react to mental health problems can impact heavily on the recovery process. A mentally fit workplace should also support those who are struggling with anxiety, recognising the difficulties individuals are facing and giving them a space to recover without stigma or shame.”
Professor Jim Lucey, Medical Director of St. Patricks Hospital addressed the conference on the challenges employees face in the workplace “Generally work is good for our health. It provides many of us with self – esteem, social inclusion as well as financial reward and the use of our talents and in the workplace. But it is also where employees can be faced by some of their biggest challenges – high pressure, time management issues, and stress conflict. Despite the multitude of benefits of promoting good mental health, there are plenty of workplaces that do very little to prevent or address emotional problems of their employees. Therefore when challenges arise as they invariably will – either at work at home – employees lack the skills to cope and come through it.
“The mental fitness approach nurtures an interest in the intrinsic importance of work and facilitates a culture of wellbeing among the workforce. It does this by connecting and engaging with employees, providing them autonomy and security as well as providing them with opportunities to learn and develop.”
Vhi Corporate Solutions is one of Ireland’s leading providers of Employment Assistant Programmes (EAP’s) and well-being services in Ireland, designed to help employees across all industries to deal with their problems before it affects their job as well as providing management teams with the skills to understand how to support their workforce.
Dr John McDermott, Vhi Corporate Solutions Clinical Director said " Our Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health services give us an unique perspective on the challenges facing Ireland’s workforce. We can see that anxiety, stress and interpersonal difficulties in the workplace continue to feature prominently among service users. These issues inevitably impact worker wellbeing as well as performance and productivity"
"There are a number of proactive measures that employers can initiate to promote physical and psychological wellbeing amongst their workforce. These include stress management workshops, life skills training, mindfulness/CBT training and physical activity programmes. The key is to raise awareness that employee mental health needs ongoing sustenance and support to remain resilient to the myriad of 'stresses and strains' in the modern workplace."
Vhi Corporate Solutions is a specialist team offering high–quality services on a range of employee health and well-being issues to corporate clients across a wide range of industries.
ENDS
Vhi_Press
23-Sep-2015