It’s no surprise to retail employees that the job comes with high levels of stress and anxiety. Long hours, physically intensive work, and conflicts with customers and coworkers can create a storm of ill feelings that negatively impact the mental health of every employee in the workplace. If these issues aren’t addressed, it can create a mental health crisis for retail stores across the country. In fact, 40% of retail associates report their mental health worsened from last year. Keep reading to learn five innovative ways you can improve mental health in your store to avert a crisis among your employees – or yourself!
Promote a Supportive Culture
The first way you can improve mental health in your retail store is to establish a workplace culture that is supportive of its employees’ needs and emotions. Setting a standard for a supportive culture in your store shows employees that you acknowledge how significant everyone’s mental health is, and you value their mental wellbeing while at work. Doing this lays out the groundwork for a healthy workplace culture with positive benefits that spread to everyone involved.
Loop Managers Into Mental Health Initiatives
Managers and supervisors play a gigantic role in workplace culture. Being in a position of authority inevitably increases their influence among employees. Getting managers and supervisors fully on track with your supportive workplace culture will make it easier for your employees to lean into the culture and reap its benefits.
Ask Others for Help
No one exists on an island to themselves. The lives we live and work we do, whether we like it or not, are connected to other people. Doing something simple such as asking for help at work can immediately improve one’s mental health as it divides a task’s stress and labor among multiple individuals. Furthermore, encouraging employees to ask for help perpetuates your support workplace culture!
Listen to Employee Feedback
Multiple studies confirm that employees feel happier at their job when their voice matters to their bosses. By listening to their concerns and using their feedback to inform your business decisions, your employees see concrete evidence that you value their input which, in turn, increases their mental health. Using surveys, town-hall meetings, and one-on-one discussions are easy and accessible ways to gather employee feedback.
Support Mental Health Accommodations
Millions of working-age individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. Providing reasonable accommodations to employees who struggle with mental illness, such as flexible working hours, more time to complete tasks, or time off for health appointments, can help your employees maintain their financial independence without sacrificing their mental well-being to meet their job’s needs.
Sources:
https://www.springhealth.com/customers/retail
https://www.naspweb.com/blog/how-to-improve-mental-health-in-the-workplace/
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/publications/how-support-mental-health-work
https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/improve-employee-mental-health
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work
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