NH Business: Workforce Mental Health

NH Business: Prioritizing mental health of New Hampshire workforce

The pandemic has underscored the need for mental health resources, and New Hampshire businesses are struggling to serve their employees.



Welcome to Hampshire business. I’m Fred Culver. Now in the third year of the pandemic, mental health has emerged as a top five priority for businesses in New Hampshire that are laying off workers. I know there is an urgent need to focus on the mental health of the state’s workforce at the statewide conference on business and social responsibility in New Hampshire. This is what they found. Organizations from all sectors and sizes are being asked what are the most pressing concerns right now? What did they find? Mental health has become one of the top priorities. Now, that’s what’s launching in New Hampshire this month. Spotlight on Mental Health and the Workplace provides businesses with resources and access to experts and programs. Partners include New Hampshire Socially Responsible Enterprises, National Mental Illness Dartmouth Health Coalition, You and H. Brown Center, National Council on Mental Health and Spectrum Health. Now it’s up to me to describe the situation across the state is Zenat Jones, the program director for Socially Responsible Enterprises in Concord, New Hampshire. Welcome, Zena. Thank you. He also teaches sustainable strategy at Southern New Hampshire University, Harvard and Ross Gibson, CEO of the Refugee Group in Brattleboro in June, also consulted on employee benefit strategies. You both are welcome. Thank you, Zena. How strong is the sentiment among your business members that mental health is now a priority, and how strong is the workforce? We look forward to it. We expected it to come up as one of the issues, but we didn’t expect its priority and existence. Definitely the number one priority listed. So it came up as a really big issue, especially after the pandemic. The problem is getting bigger than in 2020. We’ve seen a trend of mental health issues in the workplace, but not discussed in the workplace, but after the pandemic, everyone is very quitting, and their priorities, along with changing work, home environments. Everything started to boil. We think, well, it’s a national sign, and you’ll recognize that from the National Employer Survey, where 86% say mental health, stress, burnout is a priority, and 49% don’t have a formal welfare strategy. So the point is, do you know how many New Hampshire businesses offer mental health programs for their employees? Know that our surveys are limited to our members. We do have some statistics. They do not reflect the full existence of New Hampshire. But we tend to think that’s the minority. And mental health of 30% or less is not a commonly offered benefit. What it is, it may not be considered to have more benefits than it. I think it’s more than just providing the benefits it brings. Structure, culture and more. Ross, your team is helping launch this initiative on mental health with a new business. What would that look like? So many things, Fred. One is that we are working. We call it Psychological First Aid training, and we’re helping organizations develop mental health first aiders so that people can identify employees who may be struggling with mental health and be able to triage instead of being therapists instead of being therapist consultants, But be able to be on the front lines and be vigilant before things get serious tomorrow. Another thing we’re helping organizations do is look at their level of psychological safety. This is a newer term. We do a great job of ensuring the physical security of the organization, ADA compliance and everything else. But the psychological safety and focus of our organization is on front-line supervisors and leaders, who make a huge difference between those with extensive work experience and underlying mental health issues that can exacerbate. So I think those are the two big initiatives that we are involved in or have been involved in. My old self, yes. I applaud you for what you do. I know what is needed. Many thanks to JONES of NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY and ROSS GIBSON of RICHARDS GROUP for this briefing. If you missed something, you can go to WMUR DOT COM

NH Business: Prioritizing mental health of New Hampshire workforce

The pandemic has underscored the need for mental health resources, and New Hampshire businesses are struggling to serve their employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for mental health resources in schools, at home, and even in the office. With this in mind, Zeina Eyceoz, Director of the New Hampshire Corporate Social Responsibility Program, joins Zeina Eyceoz, Director of the New Hampshire Corporate Social Responsibility Program, on the latest episode of NH Business, which features a new focus around the mental health of the state-level workforce, and Ross Gibson, chief operating officer of the Chaz Group, discusses what New Hampshire businesses are doing to help their employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for mental health resources in schools, at home, and even in the office. With this in mind, there is a new focus on the mental health of the state-level workforce.

In the latest installment of NH Business, host Fred Kocher joins Zeina Eyceoz, director of the New Hampshire CSR program, and Ross Gibson, chief operating officer, Richards Group, to discuss what New Hampshire businesses are doing to help their employees.

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