In our post last week, we explored how organisations clearly benefit from improved employee mental health and wellbeing. While organisations should not be entirely responsible for employee wellbeing, the benefits to employee engagement, performance, retention, morale, and teamwork definitely make a case for why it’s important that organisations take a leading role. So, what are reasonable measures for a workplace to undertake to support employee wellbeing? What matters, what makes a difference, and what is cost effective?
Having spent hundreds of hours counselling employees around work-related issues such as stress, burnout, conflict, and anxiety, it is apparent that one of the most important factors impacting employee mental health in the workplace is their line manager. We estimate that employees seek counselling for issues related to their line manager as much as any other issue affecting them in the workplace, including workload demands.
There are several common issues with line managers that negatively impact on their direct reports’ mental wellbeing. These are:
– Not understanding that the role of a line manager is to enable employee performance by providing specific forms of support, not push employees to perform. The relationship is two-way. Line managers expect employees to perform, but at the same time, employees have a right to expect support, protection from unrealistic demands, and professional and respectful treatment from their line manager. This relationship requires line managers to provide what their direct reports need.
-Failing to provide clear direction, clear expectations, and timely and accurate feedback. Sometimes line managers are reluctant to direct, delegate, manage performance, and have difficult conversations because they find it uncomfortable.
-Acting like old-fashioned bosses who, when feeling frustrated or disappointed, resort to punitive methods such as scolding, silent treatments, shaming, belittling, sarcasm and other emotional tools to punish. Many clients have reported that their bosses shout, are verbally abusive, throw things, and act in ways that damage the working environment.
-Being inconsistent, unfair, unclear, or disorganised. As a line manager, it is essential that all actions and decision be transparent, consistent, fair, and always guided by policy and procedure. Sometimes line managers try too hard to make everyone happy, but in doing so keep changing the rules or apply them differently.
These issues cause employees to lose trust in the organisation and to begin to disengage. Employee disengagement is not normally a lack of motivation or caring, it comes from a feeling that their increasing efforts are not going to achieve the results they hope for. This leads to frustration, dissatisfaction, resentment, and eventually burnout if an employee keeps trying to achieve results in an environment that is not conducive to success.
As a starting point in looking after employee mental health and wellbeing, it’s critical that organisations ensure that their managers are trained in managing people. They must be equipped with the knowledge of what makes a good line manager, and the skills to enact the role. These skills can include relationship building, emotional intelligence training, providing feedback, performance management, and critical conversation skills. Without these, line managers themselves often feel ill-equipped and unprepared to manage others, and their teams can suffer, impacting the mental health of everyone. All the good intentions in the world do not make a good line manager – training is essential.
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