How to Provide Mental Health Support to Remote Workers

Remote work came into our lives as a blessing in disguise during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of employees who struggled to meet their personal needs and obligations were able to strike a work-life balance after this option of “working from home” was made available to them. But there is a flip side to this situation. Remote workers often also face serious mental health issues and can feel isolated in their home settings while trying to achieve their work targets.

If you are a senior executive trying to solve this problem at your workplace and making sure that your remote workers get the mental health support they deserve, then you have made the right decision to read and learn from this blog.

What are some Challenges faced by Remote Workers?

According to the 2023 State of Remote Work report, covering the experiences of around 3,000 remote workers from across the globe, one in every three remote workers reported that they struggled with striking a work-life balance because they stayed at home very often and had no reason left to step out anymore.

Let’s look at some other challenges faced by remote workers while working from home.

Feelings of Isolation

Starting your work day with a cup of coffee in one hand and having a little chit-chat session with your co-workers can be a great way to feel both belongingness and motivation to get your tasks of the day done. In contrast to this, remote work can often feel like a lonely job where the employee doesn’t get to socialize a lot and these feelings can lead to a dislike towards the work and tasks your employees are assigned to do.

Difficulty in Unplugging

The most challenging feature of remote work is that it blurs the boundaries between work hours and personal life. A lot of remote workers are found to be working at odd hours and on weekends, making it extremely taxing for both their physical and mental well-being. Are your employees active over mail on the weekends and found to be working outside of working hours? If you resonate with this then it’s time you start taking care of your employees’ mental health and well-being.

Difficulty in Communication and Collaboration

For remote workers, working as a team on group projects can often get chaotic and tiring because of the lack of face-to-face interaction. This challenge becomes extremely prominent for teams that are co-dependent and need collaboration to thrive.

Fail to Focus

With the amount of personal distractions prevalent in a work-from-home setting, it becomes daunting for remote workers to concentrate on their tasks.

Time Zones are an issue

Yes, for MNCs with offices and employees spread across the globe, it becomes difficult for their employees to match each other’s timings and then work accordingly.

Wondering how to tackle these challenges and build a healthier workplace? At United We Care, we provide exemplary mental health resources that can help your employees feel psychologically safe and productive.

Check out Our Mental Health Experts

How to Build a Positive Remote Work Environment?

What does a safe and positive workplace look like? It is a space where all the employees feel comfortable enough to voice their concerns and are able to strike a balance between their work life and personal life. Building these spaces is the job of employers and should be done with great planning and conscious effort.

Still, thinking about how to make your workplace more inclusive of all the challenges faced by remote workers? Don’t worry, here is a step-by-step guide for you to navigate through this path.

Understand the challenges

Yes, the first step is to acknowledge that remote work also has some intrinsic problems that need to be addressed. Make sure to take regular surveys and feedback from your remote workers asking them about their mental health condition and how they cope with work-related stress. These mental health check-ins will create an entry point for you to understand the problems faced by your workforce.

Train your managers

Once you know what these challenges look like, it’s time to make sure that your managers are equipped with empathy and understanding for these challenges. This step will help you to create a safe communication channel between managers and remote workers where conversations are held more openly and freely.

Lay out some Guidelines

It is crucial to make a structure and let your employees know what is expected of them and what their work hours are supposed to be. This will help both the organization and the employee by providing a culture that supports work-life balance. So make sure your employees don’t overwork themselves and know when to stop working.

Provide Mental Health Benefits

Do you have Employee Assistance Programs, counseling sessions, and mental health insurance in place for your employees? Have you communicated about these benefits and facilities to your employees? Do they know how and when to avail them? All of these are important questions that you must ask yourself as an employer. So the next time one of your remote workers is struggling with their mental health, they know exactly how to cope with it.

Do all of this Consistently

Creating a safe workplace is like a journey that never ends and you have to keep on working consistently to make sure that your employees feel motivated and satisfied enough to contribute to the organizational goals. So make sure you have regular check-ins, your employees are aware of the various mental health services, the guidelines are clear to them and they are thriving.

Read more about: Remote Work Renaissance

How can we help?

United We Care is your one-stop destination for building a healthy and flourishing workplace. We believe that everyone deserves to prioritize their mental health and strive in both their personal and professional lives.

Want to learn more about how we have previously helped organizations create their mentally thriving workforces?

Here are some data points reported by employees after using our mental health services:

1. 80% improvement in employee mental well-being.
2. 70% of the employee reported an improvement in their sleeping patterns.
3. 75% of them experienced a reduction in stress.

Helpful Article: The Importance Of Good Mental Health In Labourers

So what are you waiting for?

Connect with STELLA and create an environment that supports the well-being of your employees.