6 Amazing Tips For Enhancing Mental Health Recruitment
The hiring process is stressful for anyone. It can be even more challenging and nerve-wracking, especially when you consider mental health recruitment for people with mental health apprehensions.
Recruiters often do not realize that how they structure their hiring process can have a substantial emotional and psychological impact on hiring people with mental illnesses. So, here are some easy ways to make your mental health recruitment process more inclusive for candidates looking to join your team.
By following the following simple occupational incentives, you can help reduce the anxiety level of candidates with mental health problems when applying for jobs at your company. You will also be doing all candidates a service by removing unnecessary stress from the application process. This will set up a better relationship between employer and employee.
Create a positive work environment
As a company, you could show your commitment to mental health recruitment by supporting applicants with mental health hitches. Just be honest about your rules and procedures, and do not presume that people with mental illness will be less productive or have poor attendance. You are a recruiter and not a psychologist. For example, employees with depression can benefit from flexible work schedules, so they don’t feel rushed when going to therapy.
Regular drug tests should be excluded for people with mental illness, exclusively if they take medicine for anxiety or other psyche-related ailments. You might just let them continue taking it as recommended. Mental health recruitment would help if you did not allow your preconceived biases to cloud your judgment when recruiting individuals with mental health concerns and other disabilities. After all, most people want a job where they can flourish rather than suffer each day.
Offer flexibility and accommodate exceptions
Accommodation is making changes to your hiring process to accommodate someone’s disability. Accommodations are designed to help people with disabilities perform their job duties, and they do not have to be expensive or time-consuming. Nowadays, many companies provide housing as a part of mental health recruitment.
Some examples of accommodation include:
– Restructured job descriptions so an employee with a disability can perform them effectively.
– Modified work schedules to provide extra time during the day or shorter shifts if an employee cannot work full days due to their mental health.
– Providing assistive technology to equip individuals with disabilities to do their jobs better (e.g., voice recognition software).
Offer employee assistance
An employee assistance program (EAP) is a resource that provides confidential counseling and other services like financial planning and legal consultation. These services are added in mental health recruitment and are usually offered through insurance providers and managed by licensed professionals. You must make access to EAP easy for employees with mental health issues to access the service through their phone or computer (or both).
EAPs benefit mental health recruitment by reducing employee stress and turnover, improving productivity, and helping employees manage their mental health issues more effectively. EAPs can also assist with identifying any underlying problems that may be contributing to a candidate’s poor performance during the interview process or on the job after they have been hired. For example, tools for managing performance could help company leaders figure out if a job applicant has ADHD.
Affordable treatment
For effective mental health recruitment, business leaders should ensure no barriers to treatment for candidates with mental health issues. If your employee health plan covers mental health, make sure that the network of providers is extensive and easy to find. You can also include information about what types of treatment are covered in your benefits package or provide direct links to those programs.
Mental health recruitment necessitates that there are no financial barriers to treatment either: no co-pays, no deductibles, and no waiting lists. This is especially important if you have high-cost medications like those used in treating spectrum disorders; the medicines have improved symptoms when taken regularly.
Enforce performance standards
It is crucial to enforce performance and conduct standards for all employees, not just those with mental health issues. Performance and conduct standards should be clear and consistent so that everyone knows what is always expected of them.
Examples of performance and conduct standards that should be enforced include:
– meeting deadlines promptly,
– providing support for other team members when needed,
– following through on assigned tasks,
– being respectful toward colleagues, clients, and vendors,
– following security procedures, and
– following workplace policies (for example, dress code).
If you want your company culture to include employees with mental health challenges, it’s critical to hold everyone accountable for their behaviors — without exception. Your employees will begin treating each other differently when they know that there are consequences for failing to meet professionalism or job requirements.
Conclusion
One in five Americans claims to be suffering from some mental health issues. Hiring managers would be wise to open doors to people with mental illness during the hiring process and promote understanding of the causes of the illness. Candidates with mental health issues need not be overlooked nowadays; many hiring practices can be re-arranged during the application process and after the candidate has been hired. This will help businesses find qualified employees, but it will also prove beneficial to individuals who have suffered from these health problems.
Also Read: Top Factors Affecting Mental Health at the Workplace