Psychologically Healthy Workplaces

Here’s a sneak peek into my upcoming book: How To Hire the Best: The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Attracting Top Performing Team Members (Releasing November 18, 2020)

Psychologically Healthy Workplaces

Becoming an Employer of Choice also means creating a workplace designed to reduce stress and promote the potential of each individual.

According to a national public opinion poll conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), two-thirds of both men and women say work has a significant impact on their stress level, and one in four has called in sick or taken a “mental health day” as a result of work stress.

Entrepreneurs might keep in mind that job stress is estimated to cost US industries $300 billion a year in absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover and direct medical, legal, and insurance fees. In our experience, job stress costs a small business tens of thousands up to millions of dollars annually, depending on the revenue of the business. It’s just smart business to intentionally design a psychologically healthy workplace. The savings goes straight to your profit.

Psychologically healthy workplaces address five areas:

  • Employee involvement
  • Work-life balance
  • Employee growth & development
  • Health & safety
  • Employee recognition

Benefits, the APA reports, include:
For Employees

  • Increased job satisfaction
  • Higher morale
  • Better physical and mental health
  • Enhanced motivation
  • Improved ability to manage stress

For Companies

  • Improved quality, performance and productivity
  • Reduced absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover
  • Fewer accidents and injuries
  • Better ability to attract and retain top-quality employees
  • Improved customer service and satisfaction
  • Lower healthcare costs

Treat people with love and respect. Commit to a shared set of values.

This is the glue that will keep your A-Players loyal to your company. If you become an Employer of Choice, like Ronda’s company has become, you too can reap the benefits of low turnover and increased loyalty.

As I write in June 2020, the world we are waking in today is very different than what any of us expected, and looks to remain that way for a while. At Tap the Potential, our team embraces Lead with Love and Be a Gift—our Immutable Laws. We’ve turned them into a rally cry used at the end of our meetings: Lead with Love, Be a Gift, Shine Bright. When one of our team members was honored as a Dole Caregiver Fellow, we put her in our Team Member Spotlight (see below). Melissa is a shining example of our Immutable Laws, and we as a team are very proud of her. Melissa identifies love as her purpose. It shines through in every interaction she has with our clients and team. 

A-Player SPOTLIGHT: MELISSA SWIRE, TAP THE POTENTIAL

Melissa Swire is an A-Player teammate at Tap the Potential, and her compassion for others recently earned her an honor as a Dole Caregiver Fellow from the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. She was one of 30 to join the 225 past and present Dole Caregiver Fellows who represent all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia to bring attention to the tremendous challenges facing America’s 5.5 million hidden heroes—the spouses, parents, family members, and other loved ones who provide more than $14 billion in voluntary care for wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans every year.

Stabilizing her husband Jeff’s health and moving to a new home away from friends and family brought a feeling to Melissa Swire all too common to many military caregivers—the isolation from no longer being connected to other military spouses.

Jeff suffered an injury during a mission that caused him to need surgery, which resulted in sepsis and irreversible damage to his neck and spine. Due to the initially invisible nature of his illness, Melissa had to advocate for surgeons to take Jeff’s symptoms seriously. Had it not been for that determination, he would not be here today. In addition to chronic pain, Jeff also battles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). At one point, Jeff became extremely depressed and was having suicidal thoughts. Melissa had to leave her career to care for Jeff full-time, and when they had to sell their home due to the financial impact, Melissa had to do some out-of-the-box thinking. She learned new skills and soon began creating unique homemade products to sell on Etsy. As Jeff’s caregiver, Melissa makes his meals, manages his medication, handles the finances, advocates at all his medical appointments, and supports him emotionally. Together, they cofounded Patriots Cove, a nonprofit organization in their community to provide an outdoor retreat for veterans and their caregivers. Melissa says that this saved Jeff’s life because it has given him a new mission and purpose, and she also sees it as her mission to help veterans and caregivers find healthy outlets. Melissa now serves as Patriot Cove’s director of programs and partnerships.

For tips on how to work through these problems and coach your team more effectively, please be sure to check out How To Hire the Best:The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Attracting Top Performing Team Members, released November 18, 2020.

About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.