According to recent data from the American Psychiatric Association, 41% of Americans admit that their moods get worse when the weather gets cold.
Worries about respiratory viruses, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and shifts in workloads are just a few reasons why someone’s mood might change in the winter. If your employees are feeling depressed, fatigued, or moody at the top of the year, they’re certainly not alone.
Fortunately, you can implement strategies to boost morale and productivity during the winter slump. From flexible work policies to wellness initiatives to paid time off and culture-building, discover a few tangible ways that HR professionals can support mental health and well-being during a notoriously tough season.
Strategies for Supporting Employee Mental Health This Winter
Helping your employees through the winter season doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are three practical strategies to support your workforce.
Encourage Healthy Routines
The APA’s survey noted that 35% of respondents said going outside would help them better cope with the winter season.
Encourage your employees to take frequent screen breaks and, when the weather allows, spend some time outside in the natural sunlight. Take a few breaks as a team to get everyone moving, which can release endorphins and relieve stress.
Compliance Tip: When encouraging your team to stay physically active, use inclusive language that takes all backgrounds and abilities into account.
Offer Flexible Work Options
Being under stress will affect an employee’s mood and overall performance. To combat stress, consider offering flexible work hours or remote work days when possible. These arrangements help support mental health, work-life balance, and productivity.
Compliance Tip: Make sure that your employee handbook includes clear policies for requesting time off and working remotely.
Host Wellness Workshop and Challenges
Use wellness workshops and challenges to educate employees on how to boost their mental health and encourage them to implement what they’ve learned. Consider healthy cooking classes, ergonomics workshops, or health screenings to remind your employees of the importance of self-care.
Compliance Tip: Avoid wellness-based incentives that could be perceived as discriminatory, such as financial rewards tied to specific health outcomes.
Building a Comprehensive Year-Round Mental Health Strategy
You don’t have to wait until winter to look for ways to help your employees. Here’s how you can offer mental health support to your employees in every season.
Cultivate a Culture of Awareness and Support
When mental health support is embedded in your company culture, it reduces stigma and creates a more positive, inclusive, and loyal workforce.
To push your culture in this direction, start with your managers and leaders. Train them to identify signs of employee burnout or SAD. They should take note if a previously upbeat employee lacks energy, has a consistently low mood, or says things that indicate a feeling of purposelessness.
Management should also be well-versed in leading empathetic conversations with employees whose mental health may be suffering and be prepared to direct them to helpful resources.
For employees at every level, normalize conversations about mental health in the workplace. Promote open communication through surveys and easily accessible feedback channels. Additionally, integrate mental wellness into onboarding programs and internal communications.
Compliance Tip: Make sure that managers know how to protect confidentiality when employees seek support.
Provide Stable Access to Mental Health Resources
Review your company’s health insurance plans to make sure they offer strong coverage for counseling and other mental health services.
To supplement these benefits, consider providing access to meditation and mental health apps, which can help employees obtain more immediate support when they need it. HR professionals can also spread the word about your company’s employee assistance program.
If you’re looking for something you can do in-house, consider promoting healthy habits with meditation rooms or quiet zones, healthy office snacks, a small office gym, or outside seating to encourage employees to enjoy sunlight and fresh air.
Compliance Tip: Ensure that wellness programs protect your employees’ personal health information and comply with HIPAA and GINA.
Implement Clear Accommodations
Some employees may need to make adjustments in their habits to improve their mental health during the winter. In addition to flexibility in work hours and locations, encourage employees to take mental health days. Taking time off when needed can improve morale and even increase productivity.
Make sure that managers are monitoring employee workloads during the winter, especially if your industry ramps up at the beginning of the year. Managers may need to adjust what’s on an employee’s plate if they seem (or directly express that they are) overwhelmed.
Compliance Tip: Engage fully in the interactive process of providing ADA-compliant accommodations for employees with mental health conditions.
Protect Your Organization While Supporting Your Employees This Winter
For many employees, winter is a tough time of year. However, with the support of their employer, they can more effectively handle mood and morale challenges and maintain their productivity, engagement, and performance.
As you consider your approach to employee wellness, keep federal, state, and local labor law compliance in view.
VirgilHR’s automated platform can help you determine how recent regulations might affect your wellness strategies. Schedule a demo today to see how we assist you in building supportive and compliant policies that promote mental health this winter season.
Sources:
1. https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/apa-poll-mood-changes-in-winter