Have you ever thought about how employees’ issues at home are quietly undermining their performance at work?
Teenagers’ mental health affects their parents’ work performance
With so many teenagers struggling with their mental health (20-25% of young people) business feels it, even if they do not recognise it. Many employers regard young people’s mental health as a matter for their families and hesitate to intrude on their employees’ private lives. The reality is poor mental health in families is a business issue too.
Deloitte reports that 29% of employees lose work time because their teenager is experiencing poor mental health. Whilst nearly half of working parents say they lack focus on their work because of the constant worry about their teenager’s wellbeing.
Consequences for business of teenagers’ poor mental health
Thinking about the consequences for business of all types, the strain parents are carrying can have a major impact. A small business losing one skilled member of staff taking time off to care for a teenager can seriously slow development, team function and day-day running. Even in larger business, the stress can cause strain in teams, draining performance and productivity.
There’s a double-edged sword for employees. On the one side, parents are often embarrassed or ashamed to admit their home situation is causing them difficulties, they’re afraid of being seen as a bad parent. Whilst on the other, they’re worried their employer will see them as less than committed. Therefore, most employees who are experiencing this worry never mention it to their line manager, or even their colleagues.
The result? The stress, tension and inability to openly acknowledge the problem leads to burnout and rising absenteeism. Eventually highly experienced professionals, usually women, leave to care for their teenager, taking with them all that knowledge, skill and experience.
That’s a significant cost to employers, but with so many women affected, there’s the loss of diversity in leadership, which we also know affects profits.
The future workforce
A wider perspective needs consideration too. Today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s workforce, and at the present rates of poor mental health, there’ll be fewer skilled workers entering the labour market. At a recent mental health conference, cross bench peers warned that at the current rates of poor mental health in teenagers, there are unlikely to be sufficient numbers of healthy teens to enter any of our services; from health care, education or the armed forces, let alone private businesses.
High numbers of young people with poor mental health also raises the demand for social care, driving higher taxes, putting further pressures on employers.
Supporting families is smart business
Therefore, supporting parents isn’t just about altruism, it makes smart business sense. For every £1 invested in wellbeing, Deloitte showed companies can expect a £4.70 return in productivity and turnover.
It can be tricky of course, offering meaningful support and respecting employees and their families right to privacy. But early, high-quality interventions supporting parents to help their teenager can improves their wellbeing quickly and very effectively.
What’s more, high-quality interventions assist in building parents’ own emotional intelligence and that translates into stronger, more resilient teams at work. The resilience makes teams more adaptable to change and have the flexibility that is needed in the modern business environment.
When employers support employees with the things that matter most to them, it grows a culture of loyalty, low turnover and builds the organisation’s reputation to attract top expertise.
If your business wants to thrive economically it can’t afford to ignore the hidden epidemic of teenagers’ poor mental health. Companies that invest now in supporting parents and carers will be the ones that attract and retain loyal and highly talented employees, reduce their costs, increase productivity and what’s more – build a workforce that’s fit for the future.
Supporting parents to help teenagers thrive
Recently I published a book for parents and carers called ‘How to Connect with Your Teenager’. The book is practical, and easy to read and gives parents the skills and insights they need to help their teenagers understand and manage their mental health.
Employers, particularly line managers, often say they don’t know what to say to employees whose teenagers are having difficulties with poor mental health. I can offer some general advice that line managers can provide to parents:
One of parents’ biggest fears is that they’ve done something wrong to cause their teenager to withdraw, become disengage and start to struggle with their mental health. Employers can provide reassurance to parents and encourage their colleague to recognise several key things:
- That as a parent or carer they are the most important person in their teenager’s life, even if they don’t always feel like it.
- Remember that teenagers’ brains are going through incredible changes during adolescence and therefore they are learning how to handle all those complex, new emotions.
- That emotional wellbeing is the biggest protective factor for good mental health for teenagers, and for parents, so seek help when its needed.
- Most parents don’t always feel it, but as an adult you have so many skills, instincts and insights to help their teenager, just give themselves chance to listen to them and ask how they think their parent can help them – reassure them that they’ll be surprised by the results.
- Teenagers are constantly learning from their parents, even though it doesn’t always seem like it. How parents and carers manage their stress, handle conflict or communicate with others will be modelled by their teenagers.
- Finally building connection with a teenager takes work, patience and willingness to work together and forgive each other’s mistakes. Even small steps can make a world of difference.
This advice, although it seems simple, is enormously reassuring to hear for busy, worried parents or carers, who need assistance to see the bigger picture. If managers can subsequently signpost the employee to appropriate support, that will assist even further.
Businesses supporting employees who are parents
Having an understanding and empathetic line manager is important for employees, there is only so much they can do, however. For businesses seeing employees who are parents or carers, distracted from their work, taking crisis absences or simply losing good members of your workforce, remember there are ways to obtain further help for them.
Although there are Employer Assistance Programmes (EAP) schemes to support employees, most do not work with their children. Instead, new organisations are emerging that employers can purchase for their employees’ families.
New tools designed to assist families
One of those companies is my own, ‘LOHA’, whose focus is very much on facilitating a closer, connection between parents and young people, to support emotional wellbeing and build resilience, leading to better mental health.
LOHA provides scalable, low burden activities that parents can do at home with their family to improve their teenager’s mental health. LOHA is currently used by charities, NHS and business clients because of the effectiveness and efficiency with which it helps young people with their mental health. Within two or three sessions, parents are reporting dramatic improvements in their teenagers’ wellbeing.
Helping employees’ teenagers, consequently, improves the life of their parents, by removing the cause of their distress. Leading to happier, focused employees that renew their commitment and engagement with work and increase their productivity.
If you’d like to learn more visit: www.LOHA-community.com/employers we can set up workshops, webinars or provide access to our digital platform for employees who are parents or carers.
About the author
Alison Metcalfe is the founding director and CEO of LOHA Health Ltd, which uses digital technology to support parents with helping young people with their mental health through specially designed activities that grow the connection between parents and their teenagers.
LOHA serves corporate and business clients, as well as charities and health services.
Alison is the author of a recently published book for parents “How to Connect with Your Teenager”. It’s based on her work as an internationally recognised researcher and clinician, which involved supporting families to communicate when life feels hardest due to changes, challenges, illness or bereavement. A former professor at King’s College London, Alison has advised organisations in the UK and internationally on family communication and emotional wellbeing.
You might also like:
