In January, we welcomed Helen Moon (EventWell) to host our first campfire session of 2020, which looked at mental health in the creative industries. Following on from the campfire she’s supplied us with some fantastic resources to support individual and team mental health. Using these we have put together a short guide to promoting wellbeing in the workplace, just in time for Event Wellbeing Day.
Whilst the number of people struggling with their mental health hasn’t increased, the way in which people cope has got a lot worse. This article is full of resources to help identify causes of stress in the workplace, and suggest ways to cope with its impact. We’ve collated some of the top tips mentioned in these resources, into a short guide.
- Creating a safe environment for employees is vital. What does safe mean? That will be different for each individual and each company culture. But ultimately it means promoting a culture in which people feel they can talk about their mental health, so those conversations can begin more easily.
- Self-care is a really important way for us to address our mental health individually. A balanced diet and enough sleep are always helpful! Finding a passion outside of work may help to create an outlet which allows us to switch off from work when not in the workplace – anything from a painting class to joining a football team to volunteering!
- Regular touch points are helpful. Whether that’s asking colleagues how they are and really listening for the answer, or organising weekly one to ones with the people you manage, there’s lots of way to keep checking in on members of your team. People might not want to talk, but it’s always important to let them know that they can!
- Take the breaks your entitled to. A short walk in the fresh air during a lunch break is proven to be really helpful for mental and physical health.
- Use questionnaires (such as the ones created by EventWell, accessible below) to identify areas of stress, so you can focus on how to alleviate stress in these areas/ know where to ask for support.
With Event Wellbeing Day just around the corner on the 26th February, now’s the perfect time to start putting these top tips into practise!
Resources:
EventWell have put together a fantastic guide to mental health awareness, when it comes to yourself, your colleagues, and your teams as a manager. Access this here.
Mind has created a guide on how to support your mental health at work using a Wellness Action Plan. View this here.
EventWell have created a Stress Risk Assessment in the form of a questionnaire, which aims to identify the most likely reasons why someone feels stressed in the workplace. The questionnaire, which comes in several parts, asks you to assess your current wellbeing, visually emphasizing where you can make improvement to achieve a more balanced lifestyle. It then asks you to come up with actions to improve each of the different facets which make up our overall wellbeing. Access the Life Skills and Lifestyle Wellbeing Assessments here, and the overall Wellbeing Assessment here.
Glide Group have created a really useful resource on mental health when working from home/ remote working, which you can access here.
Sign up to/ encourage your employer to sign up to the EventWell manifesto to ensure that all event professionals are supported and protected. EVCOM are proud to have signed up to the manifesto.
Watch Helen discuss her top tips in the video below: