Uncover the significance of mental health support for HR professionals, and its profound influence on the overall well-being of your organisation.

Mental health support is, of course, an incredibly important feature of any workplace. In the current professional landscape plagued by burnout, post-pandemic struggles and LinkedIn posts wherein millionaire CEOs announce layoffs beside their own grinning headshots, everyone needs to feel like their business has their back.

And who are the people tirelessly offering this support? HR professionals.

In the mental health conversation, the onus tends to be placed on HR and how they can provide support to employees. And while that’s obviously important, we’re concerned that this expectation to always support everyone else’s mental health leads to them rarely taking care of their own. Instead of asking what HR can do for your organisation, we’d like to ask: What can your organisation do for HR?

After all, HR professionals’ work sees them interact with such a large cross-section of issues; anything from serious situations like grief, safety violations and mental illness, through to less serious - but still taxing - responsibilities like onboarding new employees, mediating conflict, and telling Dan in Marketing that his mint-green high top sneakers aren’t office appropriate.

Resilient as they are, HR professionals aren’t made of stone. Regularly bearing witness to these issues (and wearable eyesores) can have a cumulative effect that eventually impacts their mental health, so what can your organisation do to help?

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Why is mental health support so important?

Hopefully you’re already aware of the reasons why mental health support is so essential for HR professionals, but let’s go into some further detail.

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HR experiences stress, just like the rest of us.

As we’ve already touched on, the HR department is no stranger to stress. Their job sees them deal with a cocktail of emotionally exhausting issues - and to top it all off, the morale is statistically low.

According to 2021 research by HRD Connect, one in ten HR professionals report feeling undervalued in their role. The same research saw 74% of participants confirm that they were under stress, with 33.84% feeling burnt out.

It’s a disheartening picture. As the statistics are all working against HR’s mental well-being, keeping this context in mind is so important when it comes to offering support.

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HR’s stress levels have real impact on the company culture

You could argue that HR is the benchmark for the wider company culture. If they’re not supported, a crack starts to form that spreads out and fractures multiple departments. Simply put, if they’re stressed, so are the rest of your employees.

If we follow this logic long-term, HR’s domino effect eventually impacts your ability to attract (and retain) new talent. 78% of participants agreed that the strength of the culture influences the company’s attractiveness to potential candidates.

That’s before we even mention the most obvious point: If HR professionals are suffering, it’s harder for them to do their job effectively. And, working in tandem to that, it sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of your team. If HR are struggling through when they need help and support, what’s to stop everyone else from doing the same? Prioritising mental health sets a good example for the rest of the company.

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The ethical implications of HR stress

Your organisation has a legal and ethical responsibility to all your employees, including those in HR.

If you’re perpetuating a culture that glorifies sacrifice over rest and productivity over mental wellness, you could be setting yourself up for trouble. When it comes down to it, it is ultimately on the company to foster an environment that is safe and healthy for everyone.

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How to provide effective mental health support to HR professionals

Now that we’ve set out why it’s so important to provide HR with their own mental health support, let’s explore what that actually looks like in practice with these six actionable steps.
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Normalise mental health support, and provide training for everyone

The first step to offering mental health support is normalising it.

You won’t be surprised to learn that at Thrive, the all-in-one LMS for business, we’re advocating for mental health awareness training. Our mental health and well-being topic contains resources that aim to normalise discussions of mental health in the workplace, for yourself and others.

That’s why it’s important to provide this training to everyone. The more aware everyone in the business is about this complex topic, the easier it is for them to spot warning signs in themselves and others - and band together to offer support.
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Communication, communication, communication

Again, this goes back to our point about company culture. An open, honest and supportive company culture is built on good communication, so make sure that staff feel empowered to bring any issue to the top.

Here are some easy ways to enable open communication for everyone in the workplace:

• Regular 1:1’s. Set up regular 1:1’s for every single employee, including HR, not just to discuss job performance but to check in on their own mental health and well-being. Make sure these 1:1’s have an agenda with action points to make it easy and efficient to discuss concerns.
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• Anonymous feedback. Sometimes people - even those in HR, whose job it is to facilitate these conversations - might not be comfortable putting their name against feedback. Enabling anonymous feedback allows them to do this without fear of being judged, and sets a precedent that everybody’s opinion is valuable.
  
• Regular group meetings. Along with 1:1’s, arranging regular meetings for everyone provides a floor for open discussion, and allows people to communicate with each other as well as the business.
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• Consistent, transparent updates. Whenever there is a company update, positive or negative, share it with everyone in the organisation. This sense of openness keeps everyone informed, and builds trust.
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Provide flexibility

We’re such big advocates of flexibility, we’ve written a whole blog on the many benefits of a flexible workplace.

As HR are at the forefront of employee sentiment and satisfaction, they know the positive impacts of flexibility better than anyone - and they should also be able to benefit. It’s easy to see the results: Work-life balance, productivity and business success to name just a few. Most importantly, flexible workplaces are proven to benefit mental health.

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Enable peer support networks

While formalised, top-down mental health support is a great thing to provide, don’t overlook the value of peer-to-peer support. This doesn’t have to be specific to HR professionals; peer support groups can be for any need such as new parents, menopause support, LGBTQ+ colleagues and so much more. Talking to like-minded peers, or colleagues in a similar situation, helps people to feel less isolated.

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Make sure the workload is realistic and manageable

According to recent research, workload is the number one cause of workplace stress. It goes without saying, then, that managing HR’s workload is a step in the right direction when it comes to preventing stress and mental health issues. Set clear expectations, and regularly check in to ensure the workload is manageable.

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Provide access to resources

These resources can take many different forms. We’ve already mentioned Thrive Content’s wealth of mental health and well-being resources, but we’ll shout it out again here. (It’s that important!)

• Mental health resources. Build a mental health conversation into your Learning and Development materials. By providing well-researched, non-judgmental resources on mental health and well-being, you once again normalise it and embed it into your company culture.
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• Employee Assistance Programmes. Offering confidential counselling, support and 24/7 access, Employee Assistance Programmes can be an easy, accessible way to help with mental health. HR professionals will, of course, know all about these - but how regularly are they actually taking advantage of them themselves? Make sure they feel free to make use of these services.
  
  Keep this in mind, though: Always, always do your research on Employee Assistance Programmes first. Not all EAP’s are created equal, as recent events in the news will tell you.
  
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Thanks for reading our guide to the importance of mental health support for HR professionals. If you’re looking for further resources on mental health and well-being, explore the Thrive Content service here.

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