Benefits Of Mental Health Training In The Workplace
When we talk to Evolving Minds graduates, it is clear that they can feel the benefits of mental health training in the workplace days, months, and even years after participating in one of our programs. We’ve interviewed over 30 of them to learn more about the impact of our workplace well-being training on their daily lives and we heard a few key takeaways.
The three core benefits of mental health training in the workplace
When we spoke to our graduates, they identified the three core benefits of mental health training in the workplace as: nourishing a people-first work culture, promoting growth, and preventing burnout.
Nourishing a people-first work culture
Our graduates told us that they appreciate working for employers that support mental health. Studies show that is a common sentiment – 81% of individuals told the APA that they are looking for workplaces that support mental health when they seek job opportunities. When employers take the time and money to invest in an in-depth training like ours at Evolving Minds, they are demonstrating that they care about putting employees first. This nourishes a people-first work culture at the organization and builds trust. Our graduates said that knowing their organization cares about them as people was one big takeaway from doing a workplace well-being training.
Promoting Growth
Our graduates also told us that one of the benefits of mental health training in the workplace was a sense of increased support and empathy that made them want to grow within the organization. In our interviews, they said they saw themselves staying longer at their organization than they had at previous employers. This was largely due to the social connection they felt.
Preventing Burnout
Lastly, our graduates reported that they felt doing workplace well-being training equipped them with the tools to stave off burnout and made them feel valued. This is a particularly important takeaway because employees are much more likely to leave an organization when they feel overworked and under-appreciated. So one of the benefits of mental health training in the workplace is that it not only helps prevent burnout, but it can be a staff retention strategy.
What are the risks of not doing mental health training in the workplace?
Above all, our graduates said what they gained from Evolving Minds’ program was social connection in the workplace. This is a key benefit because, according to a recent U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on loneliness, the dangers of feeling disconnected are alarmingly high.
“Disconnection fundamentally affects our mental, physical, and societal health,” says the Surgeon General, “In fact, loneliness and isolation increase the risk for individuals to develop mental health challenges in their lives, and lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking daily.”
The report highlighted previous research saying lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
How often should employees do a workplace well-being training?
In another recent U.S. Surgeon General publication, the Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, Dr. Vivek Murthy makes clear that creating good workplace mental health involves five interconnected essential tenets and is not something that can be done in a day.
His five essentials for workplace mental health and well-being are: protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunity for growth.
These essentials need to be nourished week by week, month by month, and year after year. Just one workshop or webinar could not possibly address them all. That’s why at Evolving Minds, we offer 12 hours of mental health training in the workplace. In our experience, 12 hours is the minimum amount of training needed in order to start building camaraderie, empathy, and social connectedness.
What happens in a workplace well-being training with Evolving Minds?
At Evolving Minds, we address many of the Surgeon General’s essentials during our workplace well-being training, Connected Cultures. Our comprehensive program has five core pillars – the Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, a work health survey, an emotional intelligence curriculum, a culture-building meeting, and team support infrastructure.
The first pillar is the Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being.
The second pillar is the workplace well-being training survey. This is an awareness tool that gives us insight into the health of the organization we are working with and gives us a baseline of current employee mental health.
The third pillar is a curriculum. Our programs have an emotional intelligence curriculum made up of skills that can be built into the framework of any organization. Some of these skills include building focus, reducing stress, fostering empathy, and increasing social awareness.
The fourth pillar is establishing a culture-building meeting. A culture-building meeting is 20 minutes of weekly or bi-weekly dedicated meeting time where an organization comes together to work on the benefits of mental health training in the workplace.
The fifth pillar is creating team support infrastructure. We ensure that each organization walks away from our trainings with resilience ambassadors. These are people within the organization that commit to holding culture-building meetings and keeping the emotional intelligence skills alive at the organization.
We teach nonprofit, education, government, university, foundations, retail, and social impact organizations all about these five core pillars during our programming. To learn more or schedule a workplace well-being training with us, get in touch.