Are you making room for the mental wellbeing of your teams?

How we act and communicate as leaders really makes a difference. It sets the tone and sends a signal. There was discussion at the event of a new term to me – Road Warriors, which stands for ‘Retired On Active Duty’. It’s a reference to those people who have management responsibilities but who turn away from their mental health and wellbeing accountability towards their team members, perhaps because they find it too hard or awkward to deal with. Giving managers the opportunity to learn and increase their confidence around mental health is an important part of the solution here.

The workplace should be inclusive and welcoming, somewhere that people can be honest about how they’re feeling. Managers are again crucial here in setting the tone. There’s lots that businesses can do to enhance a sense of belonging – things like Bring Your Child/Adult to Work Day (which we have done at KPMG recently), networking and social events, and fundraising/charity activities can all really help to form those bonds of trust and understanding between colleagues and help people feel secure.

It’s long been shown that the ability to work flexibly helps people balance their work and personal lives and supports wellbeing. At KPMG, as part of a long-term study with the University of Cambridge on the effects of hybrid working on mental health, we extended our ‘Jump Start’ scheme this summer that enables people to finish early on Fridays if they have done all they need to do – and it’s had a really positive effect. Embracing flexible approaches can help your teams to thrive and be productive. Whatever policy you have decided to follow in your business, one of the most important things of all is to make sure that it is clear. Then at least people know where they are and can act and plan accordingly.