HRM BLOG SERIES · POST 2
Employee Mental Health in Crisis:
How HRM Can Support Wellbeing During Fuel Shortages
Lakeside Adventist Hospital · Human Resource Management · 2026
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When fuel shortages hit Sri Lanka, the impact is not just logistical it strikes employees emotionally and mentally. At Lakeside Adventist Hospital, where staff must still report despite lengthy fuel queues and energy-rationing holidays, employee mental health becomes a core HRM concern. This post explores how HRM can adopt a crisis-aware, compassion-driven approach that supports staff during fuel-related uncertainty and stress.
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Why Mental Health Matters in a Fuel CrisisMadiwala Gamage Don (2024) examined HRM challenges across four Sri Lankan hospitals during the dual crisis. Her PhD thesis found that crisis-induced HR practices viewed as unfair deepened staff distress and eroded organisational trust a direct threat to patient care quality. Wickramasinghe et al. (2025) further documented how tertiary-level hospitals faced cascading staff shortages driven by fuel-related absenteeism and brain drain.
The Triple Stressor Model:
Fuel shortages create a triple stressor for healthcare workers. Research on Sri Lankan hospitals during the 2022–2025 economic and fuel crisis shows that staff absenteeism and burnout rose sharply, with many reporting fatigue, anxiety, and frustration over unfair or opaque HR policies (Madiwala Gamage Don, 2024; Wickramasinghe et al., 2025).
In this context, HRM is no longer just about productivity it becomes a gatekeeper of psychological safety and organisational trust.
HRM's Role in Supporting Mental HealthStress-Aware Scheduling
HR can design rosters that account for fuel-queue times, avoid excessive overtime, and allow predictable commuting patterns. For Lakeside, this might mean clustered shifts or staggered start times to reduce rush-hour congestion and fuel anxiety.
Managerial Training on Emotional Support
Supervisors and nurse-managers can be trained to recognise signs of stress and respond with empathy, not just efficiency. This aligns with research on resilient HRM in healthcare, showing that workforce agility, leadership development, and resilient organisational culture are the three pillars of crisis-ready HRM (Arefin & Jannat, 2025). Their study on HRM adaptation under global disruption is directly applicable to hospital settings facing fuel-driven staffing pressures.
Confidential Counselling & Peer Support
Hospitals can offer confidential counselling services or peer-support groups where staff share experiences of fuel shortages, transport problems, and financial stress. This reduces isolation and builds a community of resilience.
Integrating Theory: Psychological Contract & Emotional LabourPsychological Contract
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Employees carry an implicit expectation of fairness and support from their employer. When fuel shortages create extra personal cost and stress, HRM can reinforce this contract through transport assistance, flexible scheduling, and transparent communication. Madiwala Gamage Don (2024) found that perceived violations of this contract when crisis-era HR changes felt unfair directly increased staff turnover intentions and reduced care quality.
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Emotional Labour in Healthcare
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Nurses and doctors constantly manage their emotions to stay calm with patients. Fuel-driven personal stress can overload their emotional capacity, leading to burnout. HRM can respond through emotional-support programmes, debriefing sessions, and recognition of effort. As Wickramasinghe et al. (2025) document, hospitals that maintained structured wellbeing interventions during the crisis retained measurably higher staff engagement scores than those that did not.
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Practical HRM Actions for Lakeside Adventist HospitalA 2025 study on HRM adaptation in disruption-stressed environments found that wellbeing-focused HR policies significantly reduce turnover intentions and improve operational resilience (Arefin & Jannat, 2025) — a lesson directly transferable to healthcare. For Lakeside, an HRM-led mental-health strategy might include:
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HRM Action
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Purpose & Example (Lakeside)
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Fuel Allowances / Transport Support
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Small allowances, carpool coordination, or shuttle arrangements reduce the commuting burden and signal genuine organisational care.
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Wellbeing-Focused Communication
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Regular, transparent updates about fuel-related policy changes and available support channels reduce uncertainty and build trust.
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Mental-Health Check-Ins
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Short, voluntary check-ins with HR or supervisors help identify staff who need extra support before distress escalates.
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Peer Support & Debriefing Circles
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Monthly circles where employees share transport challenges reduce isolation and foster shared purpose.
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Stress-Aware Rostering
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Staggered shift starts that avoid peak fuel-queue hours directly lower commute-related stress and lateness.
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These actions protect staff wellbeing and also protect service continuity because mentally resilient employees are more likely to remain engaged and committed to high-quality patient care. Impact Data: Staff Wellbeing Before & During the Fuel CrisisThe table below illustrates the scale of mental-health impact on Sri Lankan healthcare workers, comparing pre-crisis baseline indicators (2021) against peak-crisis levels (2023), as synthesised from Madiwala Gamage Don (2024) and Wickramasinghe et al. (2025).
Note: Indicative figures synthesised from cited research. All five indicators rose sharply during the 2022–2024 crisis period. ConclusionFuel shortages are often framed as a logistical or economic problem, but at Lakeside Adventist Hospital they are also a human and psychological issue. HRM has the opportunity and responsibility to lead the way in supporting employee mental health, not by treating it as an add-on, but by embedding it into the core of how work is designed, managed, and valued.
By integrating the HRM theories of psychological contract, emotional labour, and organisational resilience grounded in the evidence of Madiwala Gamage Don (2024), Wickramasinghe et al. (2025), and Arefin & Jannat (2025) Lakeside can turn a crisis into a moment of transformation, where staff feel supported, understood, and ready to continue delivering high-quality care, no matter what the fuel situation brings.
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"Mentally resilient employees are the foundation of resilient healthcare services. HRM is the builder."
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ReferencesMadiwala Gamage Don, S. (2024). Human Resource Management challenges and response strategies in Sri Lankan hospitals amidst a dual crisis context [PhD thesis, Victoria University, Melbourne]. VU Research Repository. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/49809/Wickramasinghe, N., de Silva, A., et al. (2025). Resilience and recovery of a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka during the economic and fuel crisis. PLOS Global Public Health, 25(1), e008754. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12772611/Arefin, M. S., & Jannat, T. (2025). Adapting HRM strategies to the challenges of global logistics and supply chain management. International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), 12(2), 90–106. https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2025.12020009
Ahead Thought
Hospitals aren’t built for remote work but crises force the question anyway. Some roles can shift online. Others can’t. So flexibility isn’t equal it redistributes pressure.That’s where SHRM theory feels ideal. In practice, someone always carries more.
If flexibility helps some but strains others, is that resilience or just shifting the burden?
See you next time with another take......
nice read. by framing mental health not just as a perk but as a core component of operational resilience, you’ve provided a vital roadmap for institutions to maintain patient care quality through genuine psychological safety.
ReplyDeleteSince flexibility in a hospital setting often creates an imbalance between clinical and administrative roles, how can HR ensure that stress aware rostering doesn't inadvertently breed resentment among front line staff who lack the remote work options available to their office-based colleagues?
Appreciate your insight really valid point.
DeleteHR can reduce resentment by making rostering transparent, involving frontline staff in planning, and ensuring non-remote roles still get visible benefits like recovery time and wellness support.
It’s less about equal flexibility, more about perceived fairness.
This connects nicely to my next topic on remote work and its uneven impact across roles.
Thank you for your interest.
Dear Kriss,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your second blog. This is a very timely and meaningful discussion, especially because you frame mental health not as a secondary issue but as a core HRM concern during crisis conditions. I particularly liked your use of the psychological contract and emotional labour to explain why fuel shortages create deeper organisational consequences than simple transport disruption. Your practical suggestions such as stress-aware rostering, wellbeing-focused communication and peer support also make the blog very relevant to healthcare HRM. To strengthen it even more, you could briefly discuss how HR can ensure fairness between staff groups when some roles can receive more flexibility than others. Overall, this is a thoughtful, well-structured and evidence-based blog. Well done
Dear Nalaka,
DeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging feedback. I’m really glad the focus on mental health as a core HRM concern resonated with you, especially in the context of crisis conditions. Your observation about the psychological contract and emotional labour means a lot, as I was hoping to highlight those deeper organisational impacts.
I also appreciate your suggestion regarding fairness between staff groups. That’s an important dimension, and I agree it would strengthen the discussion by addressing how HR can balance flexibility while maintaining equity across different roles. I’ll definitely look into incorporating that perspective more explicitly.
Thanks again for taking the time to engage so carefully with the blog your insights are truly valuable.
Best regards,
Kriss
This is a very insightful blog that effectively highlights how external economic pressures like fuel quotas can significantly impact employee mental health, stress levels, and overall productivity in Sri Lanka’s workforce.
ReplyDeleteHowever, how can HR develop supportive policies to protect employee mental wellbeing when structural issues like limited fuel access and commuting challenges remain beyond organizational control?
Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback and for recognizing the impact of external economic pressures on employee wellbeing. Your observation is truly appreciated.
DeleteWhile challenges like fuel shortages and commuting constraints are beyond organizational control, HR can still play a vital role by introducing flexible work arrangements (such as remote or hybrid options), adjusting working hours, offering transport support where possible, and strengthening mental health resources like counselling and wellness programs. Creating an open and empathetic workplace culture also helps employees feel supported during uncertain times.
This is a very relevant and timely blog, especially in the Sri Lankan context where external factors like fuel constraints directly impact employee well-being. I particularly liked how you connected operational challenges with mental health outcomes. Research also shows that economic pressures and disruptions such as fuel shortages can significantly increase stress and burnout among employees . How can organisations move beyond short-term support and build long-term resilience strategies to protect employee mental health during recurring crises?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful comment I’m glad the connection between operational challenges and employee mental health stood out to you.
DeleteMoving beyond short-term support really requires embedding wellbeing into the organisation’s core strategy rather than treating it as a temporary response. This can start with building more predictable and flexible work systems, such as stress-aware rostering and realistic workload planning, so pressure is managed before it escalates.
At the same time, organizations can strengthen resilience by developing supportive leadership practices training managers to recognized early signs of stress, communicate transparently, and create psychologically safe environments. Establishing ongoing peer-support networks and normalising access to mental health resources also helps make support continuous rather than reactive.
Finally, regularly reviewing and learning from each disruption through feedback, wellbeing metrics, and resilience audits allows organizations to adapt and improve their approach over time.
In essence, long-term resilience comes from making employee wellbeing a consistent, built-in priority, not just a response during crises.
Thank you again for adding such a meaningful dimension to the discussion.
Thank you for the clear and detailed response. I really value how you moved the discussion from short-term support to making well-being part of systems and leadership practices. Your focus on planning workloads, creating psychological safety, and giving regular feedback makes the approach very practical for Sri Lankan organisations. I also agree that building resilience should be ongoing, not just a reaction to crises. This gives the discussion a strong strategic HRM angle.
DeleteThank you for your thoughtful feedback I really appreciate the way you connected the discussion to a strategic HRM perspective.
DeleteI’m glad the emphasis on embedding wellbeing into systems and leadership practice resonated with you. Your point about resilience being an ongoing process rather than a reactive response is especially important, and it really strengthens the argument in the Sri Lankan context.
Appreciate your engagement and insight it adds real depth to the discussion.