Recruiters and agency owners face stressful work routines due to their high workload and demanding roles.
While meeting deadlines and filling roles in high volume, recruiters can face anxiety, high stress, depression, and other mental illnesses.
Despite recent open conversations about mental health at work, mental health in the recruitment industry still needs to be addressed among candidates, employers, and recruiters.
Facilitating your mental health is the key to a balanced and stable work life and performance for any working professional.
With recent challenges in the recruitment industry, from the Great Resignation to labor shortages, 61% of recruiters reported an increase in stress in the past year.
So, we bring you 5 ways to manage your mental health while meeting stressful deadlines and dealing with a high workload.
5 ways recruiters can manage their mental health
1. Notice your triggers or patterns
If you want to effectively deal with stressful situations or manage your mental health in a better way, the first step begins by recognizing your trigger points or any patterns that lead to any disbalance.
For some, an overload of meetings can be a trigger point, and for others, it can be an overload of tedious tasks.
Recognizing the stressors that have the highest impact on you can help you create a plan to deal with future obstacles and be more self-aware.
Learn to identify the symptoms and signs of any disbalance or mental health issues that can help you cope with work stress or help you understand where some changes can be made for a better environment.
Once you can successfully recognize your trigger points or patterns that lead to possible mental health issues, you can think of techniques or a routine that can alleviate your stress.
For example, if you notice that a high load of meetings is causing stress, try cutting out unnecessary meetings or shifting to calls.
Remember, managing mental health begins with practicing self-awareness!
2. Talk it out
Talking about your feelings is one of the simplest yet effective methods of managing mental health.
You can take time out of your day to catch up with someone and share your feelings whenever you feel like there’s an overload of work stress.
Recruiters can communicate with their friends, family, a therapist, online communities, or even team members.
Recruiting teams can plan out days where they acknowledge any issues related to work stress or mental health and how recruiters can handle them more effectively.
Maintaining clear communication, in general, can help mitigate stress as a team. Set clear expectations with team members and communicate with them if you face any challenges or difficulties.
Simply asking for help or just addressing your problems with someone can go a long way in balancing your mental health, and it’s a healthy way of letting it out!
3. Follow a plan or routine
Stress and disbalance in life often occur due to a lack of structure or planning.
Creating checklists or a structured plan can go a long way in balancing your work and personal life and help you stay prepared for your most stressful days.
On the days that you feel a higher work overload, more deadlines, appointments, or meetings, take notes and prepare lists to help you stay on top of all your tasks.
After creating notes and lists, structure your tasks so that you can easily accomplish your deadlines.
You can structure your tasks depending on a higher priority or what requires more time and effort.
Each day, go through your deadlines and tasks for the given day and structure those tasks so that you don’t feel overwhelmed or confused.
Following a particular work structure helps you know what to expect and can significantly boost your productivity even in the most stressful situations!
4. Learn about preventive methods
When dealing with high loads of work and deadlines, recruiters can often get carried away by not setting boundaries, leading to overworking.
Once you educate yourself about mental health issues and creating workplace boundaries, one can understand how disbalances can be eliminated.
Learn how you can ensure a work-life balance for yourself and your team members to feel relieved and stress-free, even after working hours.
Despite the high workloads, learn to establish a connection between performance and resting. Understand the importance of following healthy habits like sleeping well, eating healthy, maintaining a calorie deficit, and exercising for more enhanced work performance.
Encouraging other team members is also a great preventive measure.
For example, you can get mental health professionals to hold webinars/seminars for employees to guide people about ensuring mental well-being.
Ultimately, your mental health equates to your work performance. Ensure you learn about it as much as possible.
5. Support your team & invest in caring for them
It never hurts to ask what can be done to help your team better manage work stress!
Discuss with your co-workers if they have the sufficient space, time, and tools they need to care for themselves.
If you’re noticing employees regularly forgetting or losing office keys, or if you have any employees displaying signs of germaphobia and OCD post-COVID, consider alleviating stress by investing in access control systems for business and switching to touchless keycard entry.
Free yoga and meditation classes can be great, but many teams need support in the form of resources that help them complete their tasks effectively, not just being able to breathe through the stress.
Managing your stresses is crucial when we speak of mental health in the workplace. However, recognizing and supporting the entire team is essential for a high-functioning and efficient team.
More importantly, always be considerate towards other co-workers and their boundaries.
Make an effort to make team members feel more included in the organization. Be empathetic and honest, and humanize with your co-workers.
Ultimately, when the entire team supports each other and has a safe space for addressing mental health issues, resolving these challenges becomes much more manageable!
We hope that you’ll take a little bit of extra time to take care of yourself and acknowledge the well-being of others.
Frequently asked questions
1. Why is mental health important for recruiters?
Just like any other profession, recruiters face their own unique set of pressures, including meeting targets, managing client and candidate expectations, and navigating the complexities of the hiring process. Good mental health ensures they can perform optimally, build healthy relationships, and maintain personal well-being amidst these pressures.
2. How can recruiters manage stress during peak hiring seasons?
Prioritizing tasks, setting clear boundaries, taking regular breaks, and practicing mindfulness or relaxation techniques can help recruiters navigate peak hiring seasons more effectively. Additionally, seeking support from colleagues or superiors and using organizational tools can reduce the burden.
3. What role do companies play in supporting the mental health of their recruiters?
Companies play a critical role. They can foster an open culture where mental health discussions are normalized, provide resources or training for stress management, offer flexible work arrangements, and ensure workloads are realistic. Access to professional counseling or Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) can also be beneficial.
4. How can recruiters deal with the emotional toll of frequent rejections or unsuccessful placements?
It’s essential for recruiters to understand that rejections are part of the job and not a reflection of their personal worth. Developing resilience, focusing on successes, seeking feedback for continuous improvement, and sharing experiences with peers can provide perspective and emotional support.
