Refining Mental Wellness: How Oil and Gas Companies can Improve Workers’ Mental Health

Many factors greatly impact the mental health of working adults, like high workloads, poor working conditions, and other occupational stresses. This couldn’t be more true for oil and gas employees, since workplace errors can have serious consequences and working conditions are often harsh. Employees who don’t have access to mental health resources may experience missed work, lost productivity, and most importantly, deterioration of their mental wellbeing.
May is Mental Health Awareness month and now is a great time for oil and gas companies to assess the mental wellbeing of their workforce and take steps to improve it. Here’s five steps you can take to take to improve mental health among your workforce.

Review Mental Health Offerings
Even if you already offer some mental health benefits, it’s a good idea to review current offerings and ensure they meet the needs of your employees. 
There are a variety of mental health benefits and offerings employers can give to their workforce. Establishing a mental health committee is one way to focus on mental health initiatives. These committees often review how well mental health programs are working, provide resources and information to employees, and promote awareness of mental health strategies. Many employers also have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which handles a variety of employee issues related to mental health, the workplace, and substance abuse. And if it is in your budget, consider having a mental health clinician, like a therapist, regularly visit or work on-site. 

Normalize Conversations about Mental Health
If you already offer robust mental health benefits, that’s great! But it’s possible your employees don’t know what benefits are available to them or how to access them. 
To make sure your employees get the help they need, normalize conversations about mental health topics and resources. One great opportunity to do this is at new employee orientation. Since all employees go through orientation, it’s a sure-fire way of reaching every employee in the company and letting them know what benefits are available to them. But it shouldn’t stop there. 
Managers and supervisors should also regularly check in with their team. These check-ins should give employees the opportunity to share how they’re doing. Manager s and supervisors should also regularly remind their team about what benefits are available to them.
All in all, normalizing conversations about mental health and benefits creates a workplace culture where employees aren’t afraid to seek the help they need.

Offer Schedule Flexibility
When possible, offer schedule flexibility. With schedule flexibility, employees work their required amount of hours but at times when it works best for them, rather than being confined to a set schedule (like 9am-5pm).  Many employees appreciate schedule flexibility since it allows them to do things that often conflict with a set schedule, like going to doctors’ appointments or picking kids up from school. 
Besides reducing stress by making it easier to accomplish personal tasks, schedule flexibility has the added benefit of improving productivity and helping employers with retention. Many employees consider schedule flexibility a workplace benefit they wouldn’t want to lose.

Provide Breaks
Breaks are a great way for employees to briefly step away, refresh their minds and bodies, and overcome exhaustion. Ensure employees have regularly scheduled breaks that allow them to do what refreshes them, whether that’s a short walk, meditation, stretching, or other activities.  

Prioritize Work-life Balance
To many working adults, work-life balance is extremely important. Not having a healthy work-life balance can lead to excessive stress, burnout, and mental health issues. Fortunately, there are things you can do to improve work-life balance: 
•    Don’t expect employees to respond to work-related emails or messages outside of their work hours
•    Don’t allow working outside a set schedule to become a norm 
•    Ensure employees have adequate, uninterrupted time away from work

How can we help? 
EWN is the most trusted provider of OQ training and helps Operators meet their OQ and OSHA compliance needs. We have an extensive library of pre-written OQ courses. We also offer many other services, including custom content (training) to fit an Operator’s OQ program’s specific needs.  

But OQ and OSHA training aren’t all we offer. We have a variety of professional development courses designed to bring out the best in your workforce. These courses focus on developing a learner’s: 
•    Communication skills 
•    Leadership skills, including cross-cultural leadership 
•    Emotional intelligence 
•    Etiquette and overall professionalism 
•    Time management 
 
New to EWN? Interested in our professional development training? Contact us today! 

Already a client? Click here or talk to your account manager for more details on how you can get started with our professional development suite.