Katie Lynch, Founder and CEO of Apiary Life, the leading provider of employer-sponsored life crisis support.
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Does your organization have a complete understanding of the corporate risk associated with the stress employees might be under when experiencing personal issues? My colleague, Liz Crilley, recently wrote an article for Thrive Global on the impact stress has on our brains and our work, and it got me thinking. Now, more than ever, we need to get a handle on where our organizations are exposed to risk, specifically when our employees are dealing with particularly stressful personal issues. We need to find a way to manage this risk both because it is important for the well-being of our valued employees and to ensure the health and safety of our businesses.
Let’s think, for example, about a portfolio manager in a hedge fund responsible for a $1.5 billion book of business. How is the performance of that book affected if her decision-making ability is significantly impacted by the stress associated with the recent death of her father? Or, how is the stability and safety of an offshore oil rig compromised if the rig superintendent is dealing with the stress of a divorce? How do we foster a culture within our organizations that allows us to know about the presence of this risk?
The first step is promoting an environment where people feel comfortable talking about these more challenging personal topics in the workplace. Companies can do this by developing communications that promote psychological safety, a culture that cares for the whole employee and by giving employees a place to go with these issues, such as a designated HR person, team or even their manager. It is also important that those designated individuals have the right training so that they understand how to handle these sensitive topics so as to not do more harm than good. Then, those trained HR individuals or managers can direct the employees to resources that are available to them as part of the benefits and well-being package. It’s important for companies to provide robust and meaningful programs that actually yield results and mitigate the significant financial impacts that their business will face as a result of employee crises. This includes mental health support, physical health programs and dedicated consultative crisis support programs.
While the workplace now accepts that supporting employee well-being makes complete business sense, there was previously a focus on fostering happiness, as opposed to stepping in to support people dealing with major life challenges. Thankfully, we’ve seen a shift in recent years with the realization of the depth of mental health issues amongst our population and the recognition of the condition of burnout amongst working populations. Covid-19 has now brought this even closer into focus. Some have referred to stress as “the health epidemic of the 21st century,” and the American Psychological Association Center for Organizational Excellence puts the cost of stress in the workplace at $300 billion. These figures measure the direct cost of care, absenteeism, presenteeism, loss of productivity and turnover, but I doubt it includes the cost of the impact of compromised decision-making when stressed. While it can be challenging to quantify these costs, they should not be ignored, especially when the cost on a case-by-case basis could be exponential.
Whilst there is little an employer can do to prevent personal life crises — other than offering health care plans, mental health support and relationship well-being initiatives — they can most certainly provide support at the time crisis occurs, both internally and via third-party providers. If they aren’t already, companies should look to appoint well-being champions from within their organizations and give employees a place to go if they are having issues. Additionally, companies should seek outside help from trusted advisors who can help with training HR and managers on how to respond and communicate in a crisis situation and should consider support programs that reach beyond what traditional EAPs offer and help the employee throughout the entirety of the crisis. As always, companies can also lead from the top and promote change by sharing their own stories when they encounter personal challenges.
We must encourage a cultural shift inside of our organizations led by executives in HR and the C-Suite that enables people to seek support at these challenging times, to talk about the issues they are dealing with at home and to expect empathy and support from their employer. Covid-19 has eradicated the work-life boundary in terms of our physical working location and we must now do the same for our emotional well-being boundaries. Employers must let their people know that they want to help during the hardest times, not just because they are empathetic, but because they have a corporate responsibility to be aware of the risk within their business and to employees. They must then own responsibility for managing those risks by supporting their employees whenever and however they can when they are suffering.
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