Tower Group Reveals Four Employee Archetypes and Helpful Mental Wellness Tips
The quality of your team determines how successful your company will be, and it is our duty to make every effort to keep our staff mindfully fit at work. According to the World Economic Forum, productivity losses due to mental illnesses amount to $1 trillion annually[1]. As a result, making an effort to improve levels of satisfaction at work will raise awareness around mental health and increase workplace morale. As team leaders and line managers, it’s important to remember that each and every person in a company is unique, necessitating a distinct set of circumstances and techniques to ensure mental wellness is achieved individually, and collectively.
Your company is comprised of your team, and you value their individualism and different identities; it’s what makes the business work! Success depends on a team that is diverse and offers many different perspectives to cover all the bases. That’s why it’s essential to ensure that your team is taken care of so that, in the long run, your work environment is productive but feels relaxed, the year-end functions are joyful and you (and the financial books!) don’t suffer after hours!
Here are 4 common employee archetypes identified to help implement best wellness practices and techniques, and to ensure a happier 9-5:
- The Strivers
How to recognise a Striver: Ambition is no problem with this tribe. In fact, they may sometimes be a little too ambitious! Strivers are fiercely competitive because they are driven by professional achievement, value status and they are hungry for monetary compensation. They frequently prioritise their personal career goals over those of the organisation, take huge risks – often for great gain – and are one of the most competitive archetypes. They become highly transparent and disciplined as a result, yet this can also breed resentment at work and excessive competition – and moreover, depression.
How to support The Striver: Affirmation. Praise should be expressed where deserved, because they value feeling appreciated for their efforts, above all else. It is estimated that 44% of employees quiet their jobs due to a lack of recognition for their efforts![2] Status and duty is also important to them; offering them a bit more responsibility that incorporates teamwork, which may be daunting for them at first, can ultimately go a long way in the “safety and belonging” department – encouraging their sense of wellbeing amidst community.
- The High-Cost Producers
How to recognise a High-Cost Producer: These workers produce results, but perhaps at a high price! They usually work very hard to accomplish a task, and in the process, a lot of damage can be done in terms of extreme effort going into one area, while others become neglected or forgotten. They frequently demand direction for every single small task, degrade the team for each minor error, and lower morale in the process. Since they are always critical of themselves, their mental wellbeing suffers.
How to support a High-Cost Producer: The essential strategy here is ensuring a direct approach when explaining a job brief to a High-Cost Producer, and to promote individual responsibility for tasks, allowing them to try solving the problem on their own before coming to you. It’s also important to praise excellent effort while gently guiding and correcting when necessary. These individuals can flourish once they have a clear plan from you! And most importantly, they’ll always feel in control – which is most of the battle won already.
- The Quiet Quitters
How to recognise a Quiet Quitter: The quiet quitter is an employee who performs the bare minimum of their job; they are somewhat lacklustre and display a lack of ambition or enthusiasm unless it is absolutely necessary. Your team members’ potential becomes limited in this case, and it makes no room for advancement or promotion.
How to support a Quiet Quitter: Offer them space to chat, to talk, to open up. That’s the start. Become increasingly aware of the jobs they do perform well, and offer frequent appreciation allowing them the chance to progress in the team, if they choose to. Feeling appreciated improves mental wellness, and can lower frustration and stress in the workplace by approximately 28,6%. [3] Should the situation not improve, an honest conversation – human to human – should be initiated with compassion and guidance, and the potential for this individual to select further counselling and/or a new path.
- The Explorers
How to recognise an Explorer: These employees place great emphasis on their own autonomy, personal space, and ability to work and express themselves however they see fit. They trade security for flexibility and place high importance on independence and the freedom to make their own decisions. They receive the bare minimum training for a certain position and don’t advance further due to fear of change in their freedom. Your explorers are passionate if given a task, and they can be tremendously inventive and clever when given the correct circumstances. However, they run the risk of being aimless and living in resistance and fear, which has detrimental effects on mood and energy – 15% of adults in the workplace reported mental health disorders as a result of a poor working environment with a lack of direction.[4]
How to support an Explorer: Put them in a situation where they may share their opinions and ideas without fear of repercussions. They depend on autonomy for happiness, and enabling their innovative freedom will grant you the highest possible productivity output for your company!
Supporting mental wellness as an organisation is a must in today’s times, but it’s also increasingly delicate, and layered and comes with its external challenges which a CEO or Team leader is not able to navigate outside of working hours. Thus, it’s important for a company to not attempt to solve their employees’ problems, but to rather remain empathetic in its approach and identify performance areas that, whilst being developed, can be gently encouraged from the inside out to elevate their lifestyles, attitudes and overall well-being – for everyone’s benefit, professionally and personally. For employees suffering depression, abuse or unreachable circumstances, call the 24-hour mental health helpline 080 045 6789.
