When it comes to effective health and wellbeing programs in the workplace, an important factor to consider is whether the program is based upon individual wellness and/or organizational learning.
Many workplace mental health programs focus on just one or the other. However, the key to increasing employee mental health long term - and creating a workplace culture of resilience and well-being - relies on both.
Individual Mental Wellness Programs in the Workplace
Some of the most popular digital mental wellness platforms on the market today put the focus on individual wellness. This means the individual is responsible for assessing their own mental health struggles/needs and searching an app full of hundreds, if not thousands of meditations, to find one that could *hopefully* benefit them.
This can create feelings of overwhelm for the individual, when they don’t know what to choose. This can also create a sense of failure when what they’ve been choosing is not helping. And, much of their learning takes place on their own time, outside of work. Leaving too much of the mental health journey to the individual can often result in low utilization and minimal benefit for the user, and a low return on investment for the organization.
Organizational Learning for Mental Wellness
Other mental wellness programs focus solely on organizational learning. This could look like a mandatory group training event, webinars or even a retreat. Many employees have difficulty expressing their true feelings and struggles in these types of meetings and feel forced to participate. Resistance to these trainings means that the employees are not reaping the full potential for the training that they would receive if they felt more comfortable to participate in their own way.
Combining Individual Wellness and Organizational Learning
The key to offering the most effective employee well-being program is a combination of both individual wellness and organizational learning. When individual well-being is achieved, organizational health grows. And vice versa - when an organization adapts a culture of well-being, the individual is more likely to seek tools to improve their personal well-being.
Research outlined in the Stanford Social Innovation Review from Stanford University, determined that, “By supporting individual and team resilience, and by making small shifts to organizational life that enhance well-being, organizations can improve their effectiveness and contribute to a healthier overall culture for social change.”
MindWell’s Whole-Company Approach to Employee Resilience, Mental Health & Well-Being
MindWell’s whole-company approach focuses on working with your organization to integrate resilience training into your entire workforce. Unlike health and wellbeing programs/apps that focus on individual wellness and get low utilization, MindWell training is designed as organizational learning to infuse resilience across the organization as a core competency - critical for personal and business success.
Like any new skill, resilience is not just learned, but continuously practiced. MindWell’s solution begins with a comprehensive training across the organization that is completed in just 5-10 minutes a day. This training is followed by ongoing sessions throughout the year to exercise and retain resilience and mental health. These dynamic sessions help employees transfer learning sustainably into all areas of work and life.
6 Pillars of Workplace Resilience
Resilience does not function in isolation and is influenced by many compounding factors in everyday life. Therefore, the most effective approach accounts for and supports the diverse elements that make up one’s well-being.
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MindWell’s curated program calendar uses mindfulness-in-action to focus on a different pillar of resilience each month via live virtual classes and training. This provides organizations with an easy to implement solution that captures the diversity of the organization, while giving employees an engaging and straightforward path to building resilience.
Mindfulness-in-action helps your employees train their minds to gain the mental strength required to bounce back from and adapt to challenges more quickly, resulting in reduced stress and improved engagement, job satisfaction and mental health.
Talk to us today to learn more about how we can help you create an organizational culture that promotes health and well-being in all areas to ensure your employees are ready to take on the challenges in the workplace each day while feeling mentally well, healthy and engaged in helping your organization be the best that it can be.
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