How do mental health and wellness plans differ?
When 30% of employees in Spain openly admit to experiencing burnout, having mental health and wellness plans in the workplace is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Fortunately, managers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of looking after their employees' mental health and wellness. They understand that an employee who feels well is more committed to their work, can concentrate better, is more creative, and is more productive, devoting up to 80% of their time to tasks compared to the 40% that unwell employees manage. Despite this, only 10% of companies offer a mental health and wellness plan to their employees.
It's never too late to implement strategies that promote greater psychological balance and wellness in employees. The first step in this process is understanding what a mental health and wellness plan actually consists of, the components they include, the objectives each one pursues, and their main differences.
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What is a mental health plan, and what are its main components?
As the name suggests, mental health plans are specifically focused on promoting better mental health among employees. This not only involves preventing and managing potential issues like workplace stress, burnout, anxiety, or depression, but also goes a step further to foster a state of psychological well-being that enables employees to manage their emotions better, handle stressful situations with greater ease, develop their potential, and grow as professionals.
Mental health refers to a person's state of psychological and social well-being. It includes how we think, feel, and act in daily life, as well as the capacity to manage stress, maintain healthy relationships, and make decisions. Mental health is affected by biological factors (such as genetics or body chemistry), life experiences (like trauma or abuse), toxic substance use, as well as psychological and social factors.
Workplace mental health is an essential aspect of overall employee wellness that directly impacts organisational productivity and has taken on unprecedented importance in 2024 due to the rise in work-related absences for mental health reasons.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) defines it, workplace mental health refers to a state of well-being in which a person realises their own abilities, can handle the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can make a contribution to their community.
For the WHO, it is a human right.
It does not just mean the absence of illness but being well enough to face daily challenges. Mental health issues should be seen as a part of everyday life, and anyone can experience episodes of post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, grief, or periods of discomfort at any time.
In practice, mental health plans focus primarily on fostering a state of psychological balance and equipping employees with psychological techniques and resources to care for and strengthen their mental health. These plans encompass a set of essential components that lay the groundwork for more concrete action plans. These components include:
- Emotional Well-being
One fundamental component of any mental health plan is emotional well-being, understood as the state where employees feel at peace and in harmony with themselves. This includes the prevention of emotional disturbances through courses on their impact, providing access to online therapy sessions, and the development of emotional self-regulation skills.
- Mental Balance
A good mental health plan must also consider and address employees' mental balance. This focuses on supporting and enhancing cognitive functions by promoting a suitable balance between workload and rest time, along with stimulating skills and professional knowledge. Encouraging positive psychological habits, learning to think optimistically, focusing on solutions, and stopping limiting thoughts are essential. It also includes techniques and resources to improve concentration, maximise creativity, and manage time effectively.
- Interpersonal Relationships
Another essential element in a mental health plan is the area of interpersonal relationships. These are the main source of conflicts and personal strain. Social relationships not only facilitate teamwork and positively influence work results but also greatly impact employee satisfaction and well-being. Addressing social relations in the workplace will help improve the work environment, creating a setting where employees feel comfortable. This involves not only addressing possible conflicts or sensitive areas but also promoting workplace relationships and developing communication skills within teams.
What is a wellness plan, and what are its main areas of focus?
A wellness plan refers to strategies specifically aimed at improving employees' overall well-being, understood as the perceived state of balance and satisfaction related to their work. Essentially, it refers to plans geared toward enabling employees to “realise their own abilities and cope with factors that may disrupt them”, according to the WHO. This may include actions to improve mental health, but it mostly focuses on other spheres of the work environment that also significantly influence perceived well-being.
Well-being is a subjective perception of life quality.
- Quality of Life
A principal component of wellness plans is the promotion of health and disease prevention. The focus areas may vary from one company to another and depend on professional profiles, but essentially, it involves strategies that encourage good health. This ranges from health insurance or regular medical exams as part of employee benefits and providing the necessary materials for work activities to planning activities that promote a healthier lifestyle or access to psychological support.
- Meeting Needs
Needs drive human motivation, so a good wellness plan should not only understand the primary needs of employees but should also have a strategy to meet them. This includes financial needs with appropriate remuneration, social benefits, and economic incentive plans, as well as meeting needs for rest and leisure through flexible hours and good work-life balance or protection needs with adequate legal support to safeguard employees.
- Social Recognition
To foster employee well-being, it’s also important to create strategies to recognise their work and contributions. A good wellness plan includes training sessions and workshops to teach managers how to motivate and acknowledge employees’ results and efforts. It should also establish channels that encourage this initiative, through which constant feedback is promoted at all levels.
- Growth Mindset
Promoting employees’ professional growth is another essential component of a wellness plan. This involves not only facilitating access to professional development courses and workshops in line with each employee’s profile but also encouraging career advancement or task enrichment within the company's structure.
- Inclusive Work Environment
This involves creating and promoting a work environment based on equality, inclusion, and respect for individuality, where employees feel comfortable and part of the team. This requires more than just creating equality and integration policies; it also means promoting team-building activities, training workshops, and feedback spaces where employees can express themselves freely.
Mental Health Plans vs. Wellness Plans
Mental health and wellness plans are often confused or used interchangeably, but they are actually different approaches that, while complementary, address distinct aspects. Mental health plans are primarily focused on employees' psychological health, whereas wellness plans aim to meet broader needs, especially in areas such as finance, physical health, or professional growth. Here are the main differences that every company should bear in mind when designing one of these plans.
- Components
Unlike mental health plans, which primarily focus on promoting employees' psychological balance, wellness plans cover other components that have a significant impact on employee satisfaction, such as the financial sphere, inclusion, or professional growth.
- Benefits
Mental health plans help prevent psychological issues among employees, enhance their emotional well-being, and stimulate creativity, motivation, and productivity, resulting in improved company outcomes. Wellness plans, on the other hand, primarily help boost employee engagement, reduce turnover, and attract talent, which also leads to greater performance.
- Resources
Both mental health and wellness plans require resources and efforts to achieve their goals. In this regard, the involvement of psychology professionals and financial resources are essential to implement these strategies in practice. Wellness plans generally require a higher resource allocation, but they can also offer greater returns in productivity.
The choice between these plans will depend on the needs of each company and its employees, allowing you to select the one that best fits your business reality. However, you can also combine both approaches for a greater impact.
If you want to support your employees' mental health, we can help.
You can count on an online psychologist at Therapyside to continue delving into your emotions, prioritize yourself, and take care of your psychological well-being. If this article has helped you better understand this topic, we hope you feel more empowered to live a life without limitations!
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