May is mental health awareness month, and I recently had the good fortune of attending the NEW Manufacturing Alliance’s “Future of Work” event about the topic. I jotted down a lot of notes during the four-hour session: Someone with a full-time job spends at least one-third of their life at work. Fifty percent of workers say work is the reason they have less-than-positive mental health. Stress is the number one reason people leave their jobs.
So if we’re going to be happy at work, we have to work at it — and so do our employers.
Turn to page 20 to read this month’s “Insight From,” which celebrates mental health awareness month with advice from Faith Technologies Incorporated’s Alyssa Kwasny, who has helped build an award-winning mental health program at her company. FTI is consistently recognized among America’s healthiest employers. Why? Well, lots of reasons, but as Alyssa writes in the piece: “When you put people first, everything else falls into place.”
People and connections matter a lot, and one of the most significant ways to combat workplace stress and burnout, experts say, is finding community at work. This includes the opportunity to connect over lived experiences, many of which affect our mental health, such as military service. Turn to this month’s cover story on page 10 to read about best practices for recruiting and retaining military veterans, including community-minded resources like the Oshkosh Corporation Military Network. As I was talking to multiple expert resources for the story, the creation of affinity/resource groups kept coming up as one of the best ways to retain and support veterans in the workplace. What opportunities does your organization provide for some of those 90,000 lifetime working hours to include meaningful connections for your employees? It could make all the difference.
It is always our goal at Insight Publications to spark ideas and provide those connections that can help keep us motivated and energized in our daily work. I hope at least one corner of this month’s issue will motivate you to meet someone new, explore a new path, express your gratitude or pursue a goal that improves your well-being.
Thanks for staying connected!
