Mental health is a growing concern. The Singapore Mental Health Study conducted between 2016 – 2018 found that 1 in 7 people in Singapore have experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime, as compared to 1 in 8 people in 2010’s Mental Health Study.
International studies have suggested that work stressors were among factors associated with poor mental health1. This document sets out practical guidance on measures that employers can adopt to support their employees’ mental well-being, and provides resources employers, employees and self-employed persons can tap on.
Mental well-being at workplaces
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), work is good for health. A healthy state of mental well-being can also contribute to improved productivity. A negative working environment, however, can lead to physical and mental health challenges. While a person’s mental health is influenced by many factors, including both work and non-work factors, this Advisory’s focus is on what can be done in workplaces to support employees’ mental well-being.
Causes of work stress
Work stress can come from multiple factors and can relate to work content and work context. Work content refers to working conditions, such as job content, participation and control, workload, pace of work, and work schedule. Work context refers to organisation of work and labour relations, such as organisational culture and function, interpersonal relationships at work, and home-work interface3. During the COVID-19 pandemic, practices such as mandatory work-from-home and split team arrangements have been widely adopted, leading to drastic changes to work content and work context that can and have contributed to work stress for many employees. While some degree of work stressors will not have adverse effects, employers should be mindful that extreme levels of such stressors at work can harm employees’ mental well-being.
Employers can consider the following recommendations to prevent work stress from compromising well-being and productivity. The recommendations can be implemented at three levels –
Individual employees;
Team / department level; and
Organisation level
Depending on your organisation’s readiness and available resources, it can adopt the recommendations that would work best to support the mental well-being of its employees.
I. Recommendations to support individual employees
Appoint mental wellness champions to raise employees’ awareness on mental well-being and mental health conditions through talks and workshops.
Examples of mental well-being programmes include lunch-time talks on stress management, emotional regulation, relaxation techniques, mental health first aid, crisis management skills, etc.
Employers can tap on the Health Promotion Board (HPB)’s existing mental well-being programmes under the Workplace Outreach Wellness (WOW) Package or Workplace Safety and Health Council’s Total WSH Programme.
Provide access to counselling services such as through Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs). These services allow employees to speak to a professional on their work and non-work related challenges.
To encourage utilisation of the service, assure employees that their conversations with the service provider will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to the organisation without consent.
Individual employees should also look after their own mental well-being and reach out for help if they feel overwhelmed.
Employers of migrant workers should identify service providers conversant in their native languages. See Annex A for a list of possible EAP service providers. Foreign domestic workers (FDW) employers could remind their FDWs of the option to call the Centre for Domestic Employees if they want to speak to a third-party.
For companies with flexible employee benefits (e.g. medical benefits), consider extending the scope of coverage to include mental well-being programmes, mental health consultations and treatments. This signals the company’s desire to support its employees in overcoming their mental health challenges.
II. Recommendations for the team / department
Train managers / supervisors / WSH representatives / peer support leaders / union leaders to spot signs of mental distress, and on where they can refer employees to seek help from.
Employers may wish to tap on the service providers listed in HPB’s Mental Health Workplace programmes to equip managers and HR personnel with skills to be supportive leaders at the workplace.
Foster a psychologically safe and trusting work environment by having open and regular conversations on mental well-being.
Supervisors can schedule regular check-ins with employees to assess their state of mental well-being and review / prioritise their workloads where necessary. If employees share their mental health challenges, it is an act of courage and vulnerability. Supervisors should respond with sensitivity and provide assurance that their challenges will be kept confidential and will not be documented.
Teams could come together to share their thoughts / experiences related to mental well-being and their journey of overcoming personal struggles. Management can also encourage an open culture by sharing their stories. Such conversations seek to signal that “it is OK to not be OK” and aim to destigmatise negative associations around mental health challenges.
Strengthen the social support system at the workplace –
Form informal support networks such as peer support programmes, parenting support groups, mentor / buddy system, etc. Establish clear escalation protocols for these informal support networks to know when and where to refer their colleagues for professional help. It is also important to ensure that these peer supporters have their own network of support.
Set aside time and resources for bonding activities (both face-to-face and virtual) to strengthen relationships among employees.
III. Recommendations for the organisation
Review the state of employees’ mental well-being regularly as part of risk assessment for workplace health.
Conduct surveys to understand general state of mental well-being of employees and work stressors.
iWorkHealth - a confidential online self-administered assessment tool is one of such surveys that companies can tap on.
Employers should implement measures to address findings from the survey and track their effectiveness in improving the mental well-being of employees by monitoring the progress from survey findings and administrative data as proxy indicators (e.g. absenteeism / MC rates). Such measures could include upstream organisational changes to remove the source of the work stressor or minimise employees’ exposure to the stressor.
Review HR policies to ensure hiring practices, workplace practices and performance management systems are non-discriminatory and merit-based in nature.
The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) states that companies should not ask job applicants to declare personal information, which includes their mental health condition, unless it is a job-related requirement.
Employers should adopt appraisal systems that are fair and objective, with measurable standards for evaluating job performance. Please refer to the TGFEP.
Employers can also establish an internal channel (e.g. designated officers, survey links to send anonymous feedback) for reporting feedback and dispute resolution related to practices that erode mental well-being. Clear policies related to maintaining confidentiality for reporting feedback should also be articulated.
Implement and encourage take up of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) to help employees meet both their work and personal demands. Types of FWAs include (but are not exclusive to):
Flexi-place such as telecommuting and work-from-home, which allow workers to work offsite to also meet their personal needs (e.g. caregiving).
Flexi-time such as staggered working hours, compressed work week and time-banking, which allow workers to adjust their daily work hours according to their personal needs and productivity.
Flexi-load such as part-time work and job-sharing, which allow workers to reduce their workload as required to balance with other personal needs.
For more information on FWAs as well as resources on how to implement them, please refer to TAFEP’s guide on FWAs.
Establish a work-life harmony policy to provide clarity on after-hours work communication.
Understanding the need for proper rest outside of work hours
Adequate rest outside of work hours will help reduce work burnout and improve productivity.
This is particularly pertinent for employees who telecommute, where the lines between home and work become increasingly blurred.
Work-life harmony remains key to employee’s overall well-being and optimal business performance5.
Establish after-hours policy for work communication
Employer are encouraged to establish reasonable expectations for work-related communication after hours and have it communicated to employees.
For unionised companies, employers may discuss with unions (where applicable).
Examples of after-hours policy that employers can adopt as good practices:
Employers should set out clear position that for work-related messages (e.g. SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram) and emails sent after work hours6, a response is not expected until the next working day, except for messages / emails marked as “Urgent”.
For non-urgent messages and emails sent outside work hours, senders could include a header stating that no immediate response is expected from the recipient.
If employees are required to work after-hours, supervisors should consider giving time-off for employees to have adequate rest.
Establish return-to-work policies to support employees who are recovering from mental health conditions.
Returning to work can be a daunting experience for an employee who is recovering from a mental health condition. Employers can support their employees by practicing FWAs (i.e. Flexi-load and Flexi-time) to allow them to gradually transit back to work while still providing time for treatments.
Employers may wish to refer to the NCSS Mental Health Toolkit for Employers on return-to-work guidelines
