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1. 🔊 What industry do you work in and what is your role?
2. 🔊 What are your responses in your role / position?
3. 🔊 Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
4. 🔊 How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
5. 🔊 What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
6. 🔊 How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
7. 🔊 What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?

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🔊 General discussion about your workweek:

1. 🔊 Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
2. 🔊 Anything of interest happening?

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Script

1. 🔊 These are stressful times—among the most stressful in history—and people need help. Often, they turn to their employers and specifically their leaders. But they don’t always get what they need. A new global study reports people actually prefer robots to humans for help with mental health issues. So what’s going on, and how can leaders be more empathetic, supportive and preferable to robots?

2. 🔊 It’s important to know the issues plaguing employees are significant. In a just-released global study involving more than 12,000 people across 11 countries by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, 78% of people reported their mental health had been negatively affected during the pandemic. In addition, people said stress, anxiety and depression were reducing their productivity (42%) and increasing poor decision making (40%).

3. 🔊 And interestingly, 68% say when they have stress or anxiety at work, if given a choice between a robot or their boss, they would rather talk to a robot than their own manager. While the results may not indicate our future managers will all be robots, they do illustrate important ways leaders can improve and support their employees.

4.🔊 We typically think of artificial intelligence (AI) as offering data analytics or collaboration platforms—but this study points to a new frontier— AI for mental health. Perhaps this isn’t a negative trend, AI may be more efficient and accessible at odd hours. But perhaps the best situation would be one in which AI is available in addition to managers who offer support and empathy, engendering trust in their teams. In fact, a (different) study found employees’ mental health was positively impacted when they perceived their managers to be empathetic.

5.🔊 How can you be an effective leader—and one people would choose over a robot? Here are some suggestions.

Avoid judgement. In the global study, people reported they would prefer a robot because they believed it provided a judgement-free zone (34%) and an unbiased outlet to share problems (30%). The implication is clear for leaders. Be as objective as possible and offer support untainted by your own views. It is natural to have opinions. But it is important to be aware of yours and filter them out of employee discussions where you need to provide an unbiased and supportive lens.  

6.🔊 Be efficient. Another reason people preferred robots to their managers was because they perceived them to offer quick answers to health-related issues (29%). As a manager, you obviously won’t have all the answers, nor should you offer medical advice, but a significant part of the suport you can provide is to connect people to resources for all kinds of help. You may be a supportive, listening ear tuned in for work-related issues, but you can also ensure they get connected with broader resources as well— as quickly as possible.