It is incredibly important to take the mental health of your employees into consideration when running your own small business. Allowing employees to take leave to recharge and refresh can have many benefits. These can include:
- Increased productivity
- Work completed more efficiently
- Increased creativity
- Work completed to a higher standard
- Better relationships among staff
A recent example can be seen in America, when an employee emailed staff at the organisation she worked at to say that she would be taking a few days off to work on her mental health. The organisation’s CEO responded with “You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work.” You can read the CEOs entire response HERE.
This positive response highlights the way forward for many small business owners. Although it may be hard to justify allowing employees to take time off for their mental health, it could be the best thing you do for your business. Employees that are happy and in a positive state of mind may perform better and work more productively, leading to more work being completed to better standard. Allowing this flexibility can also build better relationships among your staff, as stressors will be reduced and allow the employee to focus on the job at hand.
Ensure you have clear policies and procedures surrounding mental health leave, and have strict guidelines to the use of personal leave. This will help prevent people from taking leave unnecessarily and ensure that you are doing as much as possible to support those employees who need the time off to recharge and come back to work better than ever.
For more information about mental health leave please contact us on (08) 9316 9896 or enquiries@processworx.com.au.
