The transition to a hybrid collaborative environment has changed the workplace for many people and their living conditions. Many don't have time to adapt to the rapid changes, affecting their psychological well-being.
What’s the mental health of the hybrid team, and how to identify disruptions in it? How can we analyze problems and help hybrid team members develop robust mental health?
Tips on how to improve the mental health of employees and the atmosphere in the company.
The changes in our lives happen faster than we expect and can cope with. For example, the global pandemic has been lingering for years. And humanity has had to adapt to post-covid conditions of existence, including in the workplace.
To avoid the collapse of entire economies, many companies have begun to adopt a system of hybrid collaboration. It means that part of the team may work in the office or stay at home and work remotely. Often, remote workers may not even be residents of the country in which the company operates.
Therefore, the team faces challenges such as time and language barriers, establishing interaction, understanding, and support among hybrid team members, distancing the office team from the remote unit, or cyberbullying. In such an environment, HR team representatives must monitor both the healthy interaction of the entire team and each team member.
Hybrid team cohesion speaks to the unique communication within the group. Cohesion neutralizes external ways of relating, making the team members' internal, psychological, and social relationships more significant. In a cohesive team, its members are optimistic; they trust each other and feel secure, confident, and comfortable. They can give each other mutual support and show warmth and attention in relationships. Trustful rapport arises within the team and affects the emotional state of each employee. In a healthy team, open communication is one of the pillars for employees to work effectively. One can show confidence and cheerfulness, think freely, grow professionally, contribute to the organization's development, and make mistakes without fear of punishment.
A mentally healthy person can intelligently and adequately perceive, label, and filter information. In addition, a healthy person can quickly adapt to a new environment, see the role, situational, and positional changes.
The mental health of team members is affected by a variety of factors. Examples of organizational problems include ineffective communication and management practices, lack of participation in decision-making, long hours or inflexible schedules, and lack of team cohesion. It is well known that workplace harassment and psychological violence are causes of work-related stress and mental health problems. In addition, remote team members are more likely to suffer from poor health due to a lack of physical activity.
Pressures put on employees at work and externally can lead to mental health problems. Therefore, employees need to be as productive as possible, constantly strive for self-development, do their jobs well, and cooperate positively while avoiding toxicity.
Such high demands can lead to:
Anxiety
Excessive perfectionism
Excessive self-criticism
Guilt
Fear of failure
Fear of deadlines
Burnout, etc
And they, in turn, lead to a deterioration in mental health. It is essential to see the signs in time and assess the risks:
Signs of deteriorating mental health:
Increasing irritability
Inattention
Increased sensitivity to criticism
Isolation from the team, from socializing
Tardiness or, on the contrary, staying late
Rapid fatigue
Frequent illnesses
Misunderstandings in a hybrid team
The mental well-being of a hybrid team and its members is beneficial to the success of the organization as well as the health, professional fulfilment, and quality of life of employees.
Short or even long vacations often don't help. After all, employees can't get rid of their thoughts about work, even for a weekend on the verge of emotional exhaustion. So they keep worrying about work problems on the one hand and their unproductivity on the other.
The person in charge of human relations should form an environment where every team member, working remotely or in the office, feels present and engaged. Here are tips for maintaining employees' mental health:
Introduce mandatory training for company management. It will help increase their knowledge and interest in mental health.
Explain to managers what to do if they see signs of emotional distress and substance abuse.
Conduct employee surveys to determine how their health and stress levels affect productivity.
Reduce stigma and increase access to psychological help.
People need to feel that it's essential and that the topic is not stigmatized. So that it's okay for them to tell management that they have anxiety, they're going through a difficult time, or they're just tired.
For hybrid team members to keep their mental health in mind, it's important to remind them to do so and provide the right work environments. Working remotely is a severe challenge for anyone because it is difficult to remain a corporate employee from a distance. The hybrid work format itself requires additional team-building activities to relieve accumulated fatigue from social deprivation as well as the inability to fully communicate with colleagues and be in the community.
Employees should be comfortable working and interacting with each other. Offer flexible work schedules for all staff. Provide access to applications that help improve collaboration.
It is particularly relevant for hybrid teams. Building a solid team is possible through offline and online off-the-job events. Offer team activities that involve everyone.
Workload management is not just about coffee breaks and deadlines. Employees need to maintain a healthy work-life balance; have a clear understanding of their areas of responsibility, and provide feedback to each other and their superiors.
Be sure to acknowledge achievements and praise employees. Avoid public criticism, trolling and sarcasm in internal team communication. Resist all forms of bullying.
For many people, mistakes are still a tragedy. It is vital to develop an understanding that you can make mistakes, that you have flaws, and this is normal. Explain to employees their mistakes without negative emotional coloring.
Perfectionism takes a lot of energy and rarely positively affects a person's emotional health. There is nothing wrong with striving for the best. However, this aspiration should not take precedence over all other spheres.
Counseling with specialists can help take care of themselves and their loved ones, maintain their work-life balance, improve efficiency, the ability to see familiar things from a different perspective, and many other things that characterize mental health.
How can you recognize your employees on a day-to-day basis and in the long term? There are several ways to successfully show your appreciation. The following employee recognition examples demonstrate how you can achieve an effective employee recognition program. Remember, the better you know your staff, the better chance you have of rewarding them.
It is important to emphasize that a team where people are united by a common goal and joint activity brings effective, productive results and moral satisfaction to each member of the group; it has a positive impact on the individual's psychological health. One can describe a healthy work environment as the one in which employees and managers are actively involved in shaping the working environment by preserving and protecting the health, safety, and well-being of the entire staff.
It is necessary to create and maintain a healthy psychological climate because the profession, attitudes toward work, and atmosphere in the company have a significant impact on a person's ability to work and health as well.
Author Bio: Kyle McDermott is a web developer, blogger, blockchain enthusiast, and business analyst. He loves to write about new technologies, business news, and sports events. Kyle is also a proofreader atComputools.