We often get asked by clients for opinions on a range of incentive schemes all with the overarching aim to motivate staff to deliver great work and enhance the performance of the business; whether that be share options, bonus schemes or benefits such as ride to work.

However, perhaps one piece of the jigsaw that gets overlooked is emotional well-being and how this is balanced with delivering great work under intense pressure. After all mental health is the leading cause of sickness, with 70 million days lost each year in the UK. Therefore, it is an important part of the jigsaw when thinking about boosting productivity and performance.

Wellness Action Plans

The good news is that relatively small steps that do not necessarily involve a huge amount of investment or time can make a difference. On the strategic level, Mind recommend Wellness Action Plans which encourage employees to consider stress triggers in their roles and what can be done to reduce them. This can easily be included as part employee development plans in their annual appraisal process. Equally giving employees greater input in to how they do their job and the opportunity to contribute to the overall direction of travel of the organisation will help improve employee engagement, reduce days lost to sickness and enhance the overall productivity of the company.
On a more day to day basis, increasing shared experiences between staff designed to improve openness and understanding within teams should help decrease anxiety and enhance performance. Practical ideas to facilitate this include:

• Taking the temperature at the start of meetings, allowing individuals to introduce themselves and how they are feeling.
• Having a mentor scheme allowing staff to bounce ideas off each other.
• Monthly team lunches celebrating successes and reinforcing the drive towards the common team goal.

Overall the business case is a no brainer: given mental health is the leading cause of sickness any business that takes the opportunity to consider how it can improve emotional well-being amongst its staff should reap the rewards, not only increasing productivity but also through greater employee engagement.

Hopefully the practical ideas above demonstrate the relatively small simple steps that could make a big difference. So in mental health awareness week 2017 is it not time to start the conversation within your organisation?