“Our mind has a perspective of about three weeks,” said De Roos. “Planning something every three weeks gives you peace of mind and helps you cope better with stress.”
This approach can be traced back to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. “When carrying out a risk assessment, psychosocial risks are among the risks that a company is meant to evaluate for—it must include issues like stress,” said William Cockburn, head of the agency’s prevention and research unit. Unlike the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA], the EU organization doesn’t have an enforcement arm, but instead serves as a a hub for guidelines.
Just weeks into the pandemic, the agency told organizations they were responsible for making “home-based telework as healthy, safe and effective as possible,” and put mental health front-and-center with seven suggestions. The majority weren’t formal programs, but soft-touch efforts such as asking workers how they’re doing and arranging coworker buddies.
The agency’s Back to the Workplace publication has been downloaded over one million times in 25 languages. It suggests companies treat workers coming back to the office with approaches previously reserved for those returning from leave for depression and anxiety.
By comparison, a similar publication by OSHA makes no mention of “mental health” and addresses psychological wellbeing with a lone reference to healthcare workers: “Ensure that psychological and behavioral support is available to address employee stress.” (Spokespeople for the agency didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
“When there’s no strategic policy around hybrid or remote working, workers are less efficient.”
Messaging from the European agency has helped spur initiatives like those at the National M.S. Center in Melsbroek, Belgium, a 300-employee hospital for multiple sclerosis rehabilitation, which adopted frequent check-ins with employees on leave for any condition (including Covid-19 or mental health). “We know who is absent for longer periods, and we call them,” said Els Urbancyzk, the hospital’s director of personnel and organization. “At four weeks, we start a sort of reintegration program...so that employees feel comfortable and informed about their returns.”
Van Hoof said one common mistake she sees is organizations failing to firmly articulate a policy shift from remote to hybrid workplaces.
“When there’s no strategic policy around hybrid or remote working, workers are less efficient due to high levels of toxic stress, and the company loses productivity.” Companies reluctant to broach the topic should include employees in their decisionmaking, she said.
“A leader might commit to designing the future of the company’s work, and ask staffers, ‘How do we all want to collaborate in a more hybrid or remote way?” said Van Hoof. “That’s something that employees really like and sign on to. They are working towards a goal, and I think in the pandemic, that really facilitates more resilience.”
Personalized efforts are needed as well. Hilla Dotan, a professor of organizational behavior at Tel Aviv University in Israel, said that as employees return to the office, organizations need to help them feel valued and find meaning.
“Organizations should focus on really having that one-on-one meeting with every single employee and asking each, ‘how can I help you feel good here at work in our organization?’ For a lot of people, the pandemic provoked a lot of reflection time,” Dotan said. “People really want to feel that they’re doing something really important and is making a difference. Certainly people who’ve lost loved ones.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.