Impact of Mental Health at the workplace

Discuss the impact of Mental Health at workplace.

Health is a subject that has been given paramount importance in the recent in the research study. There have been different key movements to ensure proper health and well being for people all over the world. In this scenario the definition of health given by World Health Organisation becomes key as it says it views health in a broader sense which is “Health is a state of complete physical and mental well being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. Practically there are numerous situations when the definition of health is compromised which means it is not made properly applicable especially in workplace which creates a number of problems for employees and companies. It is important to mention that health at the workplace is very important subject as it will help to ensure that all the employees are in good state of health which will help them to deliver the best possible service to the organisation (Mclean, 2012).

Over the years it has been seen that mental and physical health of employees have been compromised by different companies all across the world which has not only affected the mental and physical well being of the employees but has also affected the performance of the organisation severely which is a clear indication of the impact that ill health can create on employees and organisations. One of the recent cases that have emerged pertaining to this subject is the treatment of Fly in-Fly out employees and its impact on their mental health. The Argyle Diamond Mine in the East Kimberly Region of Western Australia has recently made decisions to employ local people in the mine due to the growing concern with the FIFO workers. The FIFO working practices of employees has been seen to affect the mental health of the employees directly and hence it becomes extremely important to comprehend issue of mental health on FIFO working practices (Torkington et al., 2011).

Mental Health is one of the key factors that have significant impact on the productivity of the employees. It is important to mention that most of the problems that employees face become tough for them to survive in the market. Having a proper and professional work environment is one of key aspects to have in order to develop the potential mental health of the employees.  Having a stable mental health of the employees is important for the effective productivity of the company. In the recent past there have been different cases where employees have not been able to cope up with the growing pressure of the workplace. For instance if we see case of FIFO workers in Australia it will be clear. Argyle Diamond Site is one of the first in Australia to appoint FIFO workers  but in the recent past there has been number of suicides of FIFO workers which clearly state that these workers were vulnerable to mental health issues and has clearly affected them which has led to the increase in number of suicides of FIFO workers. Mental Health definition given by WHO is placed as a mental state of an individual where he or she is able to realise their potential and can cope with the normal stresses of life and work productively and fruitfully to contribute for the development of welfare of the community (Joyce et al., 2013).

Factors Constitute Mental Health at the Workplace

Mental health at workplace is extremely important aspect for both employees and organisations. Mental Health at workplace could be defined as the process of keeping one’s self mentally healthy and eliminating all kinds of mental disorders and keeping in a perfectly well balanced mental state and well being. Mental health at workplace will involve taking care of one’s mental health at workplace, caring the surroundings of the workplace and also keeping in mind to keep the colleagues well being intact. Keeping effective mental health in the workplace is extremely important for a company as it will help the employees to contribute to the growth and success of the company. It is said that loving or hating work and the workplace causes a huge difference in the performance of the employees as well as their mental health. Statistics say that unhealthy workplace largely affects the mental health of the employees. Similarly the workers tend to have huge amount of stress in their life which affects their mental health. In the recent study about FIFO workers in Australia it has been seen that the age group of FIFO worker is mainly constricted within 25 to 45 (Sundstrom, 2012). There are several factors which constitute mental health at the workplace and which are given below:

• Psychological Support
• Organisational culture
• Leadership and expectation
• Recognition and Reward
• Leadership and responsibilities
• Engagement at the workplace
• Involvement and influence

Different work practice has visibly taken a toll on the health of the employees. It is clear that most of the people working in different conditions do get affected due to the poor working environment that reflects on their mental health and productivity. People moving from one place to the other and work under contractual basis affects their work-life balance. It is very clear from the FIFO working practice that has affected the psychological support of the employees which stand to be the core mainstay of effective mental health of the employees (Carter & Kaczmarek, 2009). It is important to mention that Psychological support in workplace setting like in mines is highly poor in terms of physical environment and worker relations. Psychological support from supervisors and employees are extremely important for an employee to be in effective mental state. The key aspect of psychological support provided to the employees is preventing them from stress at work (Carrington et al., 2012).

The working practice of the employees has to be healthy. Key problems that arise are improper work schedules that pose high stress on the employees that affects the mental health of the employees. The regular and rigorous work schedule affects the mental health of the employees. They hardly get physical and mental respite due to their work schedule. For example a normal FIFO worker works constant for 8 to 10days work schedule creates a negative psychological impact on their mental health. The constant working practice creates fatigue for the employees who create absenteeism, lack of interest in work and loss of productivity for the organisation. Visible conflict among the employees is also a factor (Weeramanthri & Jancey, 2013).

Rigorous Work Practice vs Mental Health

The rigorous work practice of workers also affects the employees personally. They get detached with their families and staying away for long time affects their personal relationship with the close ones which send these employees to long term depression and make them vulnerable to end their lives through options like Suicide.  Workplace culture in places like mines tend to go against the workers as they get subjected to bullying, tortures and other physical and mental atrocities which affect the their mental and physical health. This also creates significant difference and forces them to think in a negative manner. Often workplace culture results to the ineffectiveness of performance and declines the overall productivity of a company and this has happened in Argyle which has led them to think local in terms of employee recruitment (Taylor & Simmonds, 2009).  In the recent past there are examples of workers attempting suicide who cannot cope up with bullying and workplace tortures.

Mental Health has huge significance for both the entities involved in business that is the employees and the organisations. It is extremely important to mention that the companies in the contemporary business environment has realised the importance of providing better working conditions to the employees after the recent incidents of suicide of the FIFO employees within the workplace. It could be said that it since the FIFO workers have constantly been deprived of their basic rights and rigorous work has impacted their mental health which has led to the death of so many FIFO employees in the recent past and has clearly affected the overall performance of the mines in Western Australia (Vojnovic et al., 2014).

Analysing the case it could be said that mental health of the employees have a huge role to play in the gradual development of the employees as well as the organisation. Since employees have not been able to cope up with the immense pressure and have succumbed to it the companies became insistent in recruiting local people especially in cases of mines. For instance FIFO as a working practice is more prevalent in Western Australia as compared to any other part of the country and around 67000 employees are involved in this hence anything which could damage this system of work will directly affect around 67000 families which is huge in nature and hence it is important that mental health is taken as a key aspect in the practice of FIFO. It can be assumed that if any employee is not mentally sound he or she might not be able to understand the importance of the criticality of a particular issue and hence might not be able to contribute with the full potential which will largely hamper the productivity of a company which will affect the personal development of the employee. Hence it is important that the concept of mental health is promoted effectively at the workplace all over the world so that employees could be in better mental state that results to productivity (Meredith et al., 2014).

Workplace Culture and Employee Mental Health

The role of human resource management is extremely in a workplace. Since the study mainly focuses on revealing the issues of mental health practices at the workplace it is important to mention that human resource management plays a key role in developing a favorable environment for work. This is responsible to interact with the employees and realise their problems so that it could be effectively mitigated. The key role of HRM is to focus on the effective communication between the upper management and the employees. This helps in lubricating the process of administration within an organisation and keeps a balance between the workforce and the upper level management. In the case of Mining operations and FIFO in an overall context the human resource management has failed to work effectively. The HRM is responsible to develop key ideas and plans which will help the company to effectively eliminate the grievances of the employees. Hence it could be clearly stated that the Human resource management at the workplace should be more consistent in the workforce handling approach and try to provide a better working condition to them (Meredith et al., 2014). The HRM should come up with effective ideas and plans which would help employees to be in a better mental state.

Conclusion and Recommendations

It is very important for Human resource management teams of the different companies to come up with effective measures to enhance mental health and create positive impact of mental health within the operation. In order to develop effective mental health within the workplace it is important for the HRM to rethink certain aspects which are given below:

• Rosters: The work schedule of the workers should be revised for workers giving weekly breaks after short term work schedules for 6 to 8days. This will keep them balanced handling their personal and professional relationships. This will be very effective for the companies taking up FIFO work practice.
• Psychological Support: It is a very important aspect for the employees. Appraising for good work and training and retraining for the people who lack skill is very important. Support from supervisors and employees all along are extremely important and should be made mandatory (Carrington et al., 2012).
• Work Culture: Effective work culture and equality in all respect will be a great movement to reduce mental stress and frustration. Also having balanced environment and brotherhood within the workplace is likely to develop the mental health and encourage employees to work effectively.
• Communication: Communication can bring out pain and grief and hence it is important to communicate with people whoever seems to be down will help to understand their problems and help to mitigate them.
• Added perks: Added perks like extra holidays, paid home travels and organising family tours will help to keep a balanced mindset for the FIFO workers which will keep in a positive frame of mind and better mental state (Taylor & Simmonds, 2009).

Overall it could be said that having these above recommendations implemented in this context will help to develop the scenario.

References

Mclean, K. N. (2012). Mental health and wellâ€Âbeing in resident mine workers: Out of the flyâ€Âin flyâ€Âout box. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 20(3), 126-130.

Torkington, A. M., Larkins, S., & Gupta, T. S. (2011). The psychosocial impacts of flyâ€Âin flyâ€Âout and driveâ€Âin driveâ€Âout mining on mining employees: A qualitative study. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19(3), 135-141.

Joyce, S. J., Tomlin, S. M., Somerford, P. J., & Weeramanthri, T. S. (2013). Health behaviours and outcomes associated with flyâ€Âin flyâ€Âout and shift workers in Western Australia. Internal medicine journal, 43(4), 440-444.

Sundstrom, K. (2012). Mental health issues for FIFO workers. Sunsine Coast Daily. Retrieved from https://www. sunshinecoastdaily. com. au/news/professor-warns-of-increase-in-mental-health-issue/1439435.

Carter, T., & Kaczmarek, E. (2009). An exploration of generation Y’s experiences of offshore fly-in/fly-out employment. The Australian Community Psychologist, 21(2), 52-66.

Carrington, K., Hogg, R., McIntosh, A., & Scott, J. (2012). Crime talk, FIFO workers and cultural conflict on the mining boom frontier. Australian Humanities Review, 53, 1-14.

Weeramanthri, T., & Jancey, J. (2013). Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) work in Australia: the need for research and a health promotion framework.

Taylor, J., & Simmonds, J. (2009). Family stress and coping in the fly-in fly-out workforce. The Australian Community Psychologist, 21(2), 23-36.

Vojnovic, P., Michelson, G., Jackson, D., & Bahn, S. (2014). Adjustment, well-being and help-seeking among Australian FIFO mining employees.Australian Bulletin of Labour, 40(2), 242.

Meredith, V., Rush, P., & Robinson, E. (2014). Fly-in fly-out workforce practices in Australia: the effects on children and family relationships. Australian Institute of Family Studies.