HR Tip of The Week: 5 Ways to help employees with anxiety and stress!
•Have a good employee assistance program (EAP), and ensure employees know about it and how to utilize it as well as an employee wellness program to encourage healthy habits.
•Have an open-door policy, and mean it. Employees should feel free to discuss their concerns and seek assistance. Consider allowing things like remote work, personal leave (paid or unpaid), and other similar benefits that employees can take advantage of when they need to.
•Train everyone that employee concerns are to be kept confidential. If an employee comes to someone to discuss his or her concerns or anything he or she is dealing with, that conversation should only be divulged on an as-needed basis. It should be treated as confidential medical information.
•Offer reasonable accommodations when an employee comes to you. Reasonable accommodations might include things like temporary adjustments in workload, additional days off, more frequent breaks, shorter work days, more private work space, or assistance prioritizing tasks.
•Train managers to recognize potential signs that employees are dealing with mental health concerns and to know what they should and should NOT do in this scenario. Managers should never make assumptions or attempt to “diagnose” an employee they suspect is having mental health concerns.