Getting Back to Work Safely

ENSURING EMOTIONAL WELLNESS IN THE POST PANDEMIC WORLD

 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Impact of Pandemic on Mental Wellness

Mental wellness is the state of emotional and psychological
well-being in which an individual is able to use their cognitive,
behavioural, social and emotional capabilities, to function in
family, society and organisation adequately and meet the
MENTAL HEALTH SPECTRUM
expected demands of everyday life.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global

mental health shift leading to increased cognitive impairment.
Pandemic Shift
Clearly, this is a time of uncertainty, unpredictability and
ambiguity. All of us are confused and worried about the situa-
tion out there. Most of us are going through a phase where we
do not know what to do.

POPULATION
As per YourDOST’s study on the mental health impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in
stress, anxiety, loneliness and frustration. This impairment has
affected working professionals severely at an emotional level.

Mental Languishing Mental Wellness Flourishing

Disorder

MENTAL HEALTH STATES

Source: Adapted from Huppert, Wellbeing Institute, University of Cambridge, 2011

 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The way the human brain is wired leads to our emotions,

Emotional
thoughts and behaviours being caught in a vicious cycle. Feeling Sad,
Anxious, Worried,
This causes a cascading effect thus leading to impairment. Tensed, Angry, AL
Irritated, Frustrated.
ON

RS
PE
Physical
Increased Heart Rate,
THOUGHTS FEELINGS Sweating, Feeling
Tired & Fatigued, FA
Headache, Pains,

M
Stomach Problems.

ILI
Tendency to vent

AL
their f rustrations to
family members.
Behavioural Increase in relationship
Avoiding social interactions
BEHAVIOUR SITUATION even virtually, Alcohol,
issues and domestic
violence due to
Smoking, Procrastination. minor triggers.

Social disengagement.

CIAL
Isolating both physically &
Our coping strategies seem to be inadequate and this leads Cognitive emotionally f rom f riends
Thoughts that include: and colleagues.
to impairment being all encompassing, affecting almost all

SO
Not being good enough,
Circumstances being
walks of our lives, the 4 major ones being personal, familial, like this always,

OC
Not being able to
social and occupational. For emotional management control situations.

CUPATION
Low productivity
strategies to be effective, they need to cover all these and job satisfaction.
Reduced interactions
aspects of employees’ lives. and emotional
distancing f rom work
and colleagues due
to the changed nature
of work and

A
L safety guidelines.
 Management Strategies
It’s very important to ensure emotional Professional Care
wellness of employees while getting back to
Research backed and timely interven-
work. The WHO estimated that India would tion by Psychologists/Behavioural
suffer economic losses to the tune of $1.03 Experts to help overcome high to severe
trillion between 2012 and 2030 due to mental cognitive impairment which is
health conditions. Considering that the manu- customised based on an individual’s
facturing industry and the services industry level of impairment and needs.
together account for 79% of the country’s GDP,
they’re also expected to be the worst-hit by this
economic loss. Thus, employers need to adopt
a holistic management strategy to ensure
mental wellness of employees returning to PERSISTENT
Functional Impairment
work. Depending on the level of functional
impairment of each individual, self-care, Significant difficulty
in dealing with negative
peer-support and professional-care interven- emotions; High
cognitive impairment.
tions would be effective.
Professional Self Care &
Care Peer Support
01 02 03 04
Self-Care
This involves inculcating basic ‘mental
hygiene’ practices into our lives to
reverse the effects of low functional
impairment as well as to prevent future
impairment. Eg. mindfulness, reducing
news & social media consumption and
limiting it to reliable sources of informa-
tion, sleep hygiene, etc.
SIGNIFICANT
Functional Impairment
Consistent low performance;
Mood swings; Frequent
unhealthy behavioral patterns.
Peer Support
This is characterised by people
providing their own knowledge,
experiences, and emotional, social or
practical help to each other. There are
many avenues to explore regarding
empowering employees to provide
effective peer support to each other -
support groups, emotional support
buddy system, regular informal
webinars to share personal coping
strategies, etc.
LOW
Functional Impairment
Periodic low productivity levels
& social interactions;
Occasional mood swings.
NO
Functional Impairment
Consistent performance;
Proactive peer support &
social engagement.
 Approach for ensuring Emotional Wellness with “Safely back to work”

The approach can be broadly divided into 4 parts:

Situational Intervention Execution Review &

Analysis Strategies & Improving Continuous
Adoption Improvement
A - Situational Analysis

Even within the same company, there might be verticals/

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
departments which would have very different
Identify Risk & Protective Factors requirements. For instance, the product and technical
teams can still manage to work from home, whereas the
Employee Pulse Check operational functions might resume working from office
earlier than others.
Work ∙ Job Control
Related ∙ Physical Presence Employees working from home are already experiencing a
∙ Resources & Engagement significant loss of ‘human connection’ in the absence of
office lunch, tea-breaks and the typical watercooler
Team ∙ Interpersonal Relationships conversations. This is worsened by the lack of a virtual
Related ∙ Peer Support
workplace culture as extended/ semi-permanent work
∙ Leadership
from home is not something that most organisations were
prepared for when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Infact,
Organisation ∙ Job Security
according to a YourDOST survey, 54% of corporate
Related ∙ Stigma
∙ Psychological Safety Climate
employees feel that due to work-from-home they miss
connecting with their colleagues

Personal/ ∙ Work/Life Balance Even the employees who start working from the office are
Home Related ∙ Major Life Events going to experience a “New way of working”. Safety norms
like staggered shifts, scattered workstations, absence of
watercooler conversations, etc. will result in reduced
‘human connection’ at work. All this would result in a very
When returning back to work, there will be 2 categories of
heavy emotional toll on the employees. Hence, it’s
employees:

A
important to analyse the situation and accordingly create
• Those who would continue to work from home.
custom intervention strategies for ensuring emotional
• Those who would resume working from office premises.
wellness of employees.
This split would largely depend on the industry and the nature

Situational of work. It’s important to identify and acknowledge the risk and
protective factors both at the professional and personal
Analysis For example, IT/ITES might see a disproportionately large first
category whereas the manufacturing sector cannot function
levels to create a holistic intervention strategy.

without the physical presence of employees.

 B - Intervention Strategies

Intervention Strategies

Reduce Risk Factors Promote Protective Factors

∙ Flexible Work Hours ∙ Building Individual Resilience

∙ Strict Safety Guidelines ∙ Peer-support & Team Culture
∙ Transparent & ∙ Psychological Safety Climate
Over-communication

Once we have identified the risk and protective factors, Promoting Protective Factors: This is an important part of
it's important to reduce the risks and promote the intervention strategy as risk factors might not provide a lot of
protective factors. flexibility to change.

Example of reducing risk factor: A better job control with

more flexible hours and a choice to work from home
(depending on the nature of work) can result in improved job
satisfaction among employees. This is also backed by
research. According to a study conducted by Stanford

B
University, flexibly working from home raised employees’
productivity levels by almost 13%. It also led to rise in
employee morale, job satisfaction, work efficiency, and

Intervention business profitability.

Strategies
 B - Intervention Strategies

PROMOTING PROTECTIVE FACTORS

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE OF TEAM NORMS

Start the day by 9 AM

Motive: Building Individual Resilience
End the day by 6 PM
∙ Introduce Stress Management/Resilience Training
∙ Facilitate Physical Activity Programs Not calling unless urgent past 8 PM
∙ Encourage E-Courses/Self Help/Wellness Programs
Virtual/Physical coffee break at 4 PM
Individual Level
Weekly Happy Hour on Fridays at 6 PM

Biweekly Yoga/Meditation at 8AM on Mondays & Wednesdays

Strictly no emails on Sunday

Motive: Building Peer Support & caring Team Culture
∙ Introduce Team Norms (illustrative example on the right)
∙ Facilitate Manager Trainings on Psychological First Aid
∙ Designate Rotational Team Wellness Champions
∙ Create "Resource Enhancing" Support Groups
Team Level

Motive: Create Open & Positive Pyschological Safety Climate

∙ Facilitate Realistic & Frequent Communication
∙ Encourage Sick Leave for Mental Health Issues
∙ Design & Implement Mental Health Policy for Organisation
Organisational
Level
 C - Executing & Improving Adoption

EXECUTION & IMPROVING ADOPTION

∙ Increase Awareness & Reduce Stigma

∙ Facilitate Early Help Seeking
∙ Consistent Communication
∙ Agenda of Peers & Managers
∙ Modeling from Senior Management

One of the biggest challenges facing employee wellness Organisations need to follow a 5 pronged approach
resources in organisations is their under utilisation. With to increase the adoption level of intervention
an ASSOCHAM report discovering that 42.5% of Indian strategies designed for getting back to work safely.
corporate employees are experiencing depression or
anxiety, a typical EAP solution only garners 1%-3%
engagement.

C
The reasons go beyond the cultural stigma and manifest in
the importance given to this by the organisation.

Execution &
Improving
Adoption
 C - Executing & Improving Adoption

01 02 03 04 05
Increase Facilitate Early Consistent Agenda of Peers Modeling
Awareness & Help-Seeking Communication & Managers from Senior
Reduce Stigma not just one time not just HR Management

∙ Facilitate Informative Webinars & Sessions
∙ Organise mental health first aid trainings
∙ Supportive language across levels
(CEOs to ground staff)
∙ Build dedicated relaxation chambers
∙ Build internal peer support groups and
manager trainings
∙ Organise regular well-being checks and
health screening
∙ Enabling accessibility (24x7) and ease of use
of counselling services through third-party
∙ Regular communication
(weekly/fortnightly)
∙ Create channels to facilitate regular
discussions like Motivation Monday
∙ Define role of peer supports ∙ Make wellness an agenda for
∙ senior management
Enable trainings and accreditation programs
∙ Introduce this into team/managers ∙ Senior management to walk the talk
∙ Introduce open forums to share feedback
∙ Deploy barometers for measuring team
satisfaction levels

The above framework can help increase adoption of
wellness interventions at a broader scale. There are a few
sector specific best practices whose implementation is
important - For instance, sectors employing blue collar
workers must focus a lot on in-person presence of
professional counselors along with native language support
Similarly, IT/ITES require a lot more focus on consistent
communication and modeling by senior management as a
majority workforce would continue to work remotely.
Remote working has its own challenges with respect to
identifying the need and encouraging adoption.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES TO IMPROVE ADOPTIONS
Renaming sick leaves to ‘wellness leaves’
Mandatory ‘burnout prevention’ leaves as employees
are taking fewer leaves and working longer hours
during the pandemic
Adopting language guidelines on the lines of PoSH
guidelines to prevent discrimination for mental
health issues
Strict confidentiality guidelines to protect information
shared in confidence
D - Review & Continuous Improvement

REVIEW & CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

∙ Constant Pulse Check on Employes

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for emotional Where to get started?

wellness. Periodic “Employee Pulse Check” and
“Team Happiness Barometers” can help organisations
identify the effectiveness of the strategy. A continuous
improvement is important to build an effective
solution for long-term Mental Wellness.
Depending on the current wellness interventions, it’s
important for organisations to analyse the gaps
caused by the pandemic, and act accordingly.
The following checklist could help as a starting point
to understand the area(s) which might require
rethinking.

D
Review &
Continuous
Improvement
 D - Review & Continuous Improvement

Illustrative Examples of Review & Improvement:

Frequent emotional pulse check through periodic anonymous mood Quarterly barometer check through anonymous questionnaire for a
charting by employees to track patterns of emotional change comprehensive measure of the organisation’s state of emotional wellness.

HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY? SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE

Not at all Mildly Moderately Severely

Numbness or tingling 0 1 2 3
HAPPY ANXIOUS ANGRY

Feeling hot 0 1 2 3

Wobbliness in legs 0 1 2 3

DEMOTIVATED SAD
Unable to Relax 0 1 2 3

Dizzy or light headed 0 1 2 3

Heart pounding/racing 0 1 2 3

Unsteady 0 1 2 3
 Where to start ?

Checklist for Organisations to evaluate the readiness of current mental wellness interventions

HR policies on mental health in relation with COVID-19 are Our team is aware of common mental health symptoms which
available in our organisation. can manifest during this pandemic.

We have a well designed mental protocol to We have prepared and circulated mental health awareness
prevent adversities. material to the team.

Our senior management prioritizes, focuses and Our teams are mandated to acquire points by attending
communicates on mental wellness frequently. programmes related to mental health.

We encourage open discussions on mental health. Our employees can take leave citing mental health reasons.

We have EAP support for our employee to access We have implemented self help groups.
counselling services confidentially.
We have the option of work from home for our employees
We have provision for 24x7, multilingual, multichannel if required.
counseling access for all levels.
We have deployed mental health professionals in campus for
We have periodic mental health seminars/workshops face to face consultations.
for our employees.
We have dedicated relaxation space in our orgaisation.
Our managers dedicate time for one on one meetings with
employees for discussing issues related to mental health.

This is a self - reflection checklist “for” the purpose of “evaluating” your preparedness related to mental health challenges connected to this pandemic.

If you are a corporate or a consortium of entrepreneurs who want to take care of your community, you can reach out to us for a
www.yourdost.com detailed management strategies for handling emotional wellness here - bit.ly/YDCorporateEmotionalManagement