In 2024, Let’s Resolve to Promote Mental Health in the Workplace
Healthcare has long been a key part of U.S. company benefits packages. More than 93% of businesses with 50 or more workers now offer health benefits to all employees, a percentage that’s remained consistent over the last decade, according to a 2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey conducted by research firm KFF. The same survey reports that, even among small companies—those with at least three people on their payroll—about 90% offer some kind of health benefits to at least some workers.
Beyond traditional health insurance, many companies have also, over the past two decades, taken it upon themselves to promote personal health and fitness within the workplace itself. Tales of companies building their own in-house gyms, running tracks, and meditation rooms were quite common in the pre-pandemic years. Free massages, weight management clinics, even cafeterias offering fresh-from-the-farm organic food have been de rigueur among Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge tech titans for decades. Such expenditures are viewed as smart investments as they keep workers on the job and in good physical shape to withstand the demands of a hyper-competitive industry.
But while much attention has been paid to physical health, mental health has traditionally gotten short shrift. Perhaps this is because, in Western culture, the nature of one’s behavior and emotional state have long been seen as a matter of personal will. Outside of suffering a physical trauma—such as a violent blow to the head—most Westerners believe we can control our emotions and that any deviations from societal norms, be they violent outbursts, depression, or even suicide, are somehow reflections of poor character. In other words, to many Americans, mental health problems “are all in your mind.”
Over the last few decades, the stigma surrounding mental health has slowly—too slowly—been waning, as science establishes links between mental illness and genetics, the environment, societal pressures, and unhealthy habits. More and more people are coming to understand mental wellness is a state that needs cultivating in the same way we proactively work to forestall disease and injury through healthy habits and, when necessary, medications.
This is key as the costs poor mental health can have on company productivity are enormous. Mental health issues can be manifested in workplaces in many ways, including:
Increased absenteeism
Employee turnover
High rates of workplace injury
Low employee morale
Decreased creativity and innovation
Lower company profits
Recognizing the link between mental health and company performance, many companies have augmented their traditional healthcare initiatives with programs aimed at improving workers’ mental health. They are baking mental health maintenance directly into their company culture. Ways that companies can promote mental health in the workplace include:
Giving workers more say/flexibility in how, when, and where they work. One of the most common symptoms of mental health issues is feeling a lack of control. Giving workers more autonomy can go a long way toward making workers feel strong and healthy.
Ensuring schedules and deadlines stay realistic. Pressure is a primary cause of workplace mental illness. While some degree of stress is often unavoidable—even desirable—pushing things too far for too long inevitably ends in crack-ups. It’s vital that managers stay sensitive to their workers’ stress levels and ease off when time and productivity goals produce a negative effect on people’s performance.
Encouraging workers—including executives—to take time off. Americans are notorious for eschewing earned vacation time, not taking sick days, and proving their worth by working long hours, weekends, and holidays. While a good work ethic is admirable, an unbalanced life can, over time, send anyone over the edge. Taking vacation days and personal days must be encouraged, not only for the individual’s good, but for the benefit of the organization as a whole.
Providing mental and emotional counseling services. If a company is large enough, having one or more counselors on call can help workers cope with difficult emotions such as those associated with divorce, death, illness, addiction recovery, depression, and other personal crises, feelings that might otherwise bleed into the workplace, disrupting normal activities. Better these issues be handled by licensed professionals than become a burden to managers and co-workers unequipped to deal with them!
Management awareness and training. Leadership must be educated on the importance of mental health and managers need to be trained on how to identify and deal with common workplace issues as they develop. Staffs should also know their mental welfare is as important to leadership as their physical well-being.
Unfortunately, a trap many companies fall into involves professing to support worker mental health without taking steps to actually do so. Often called “wellbeing washing,” this is the mental health equivalent of claiming to be “environmentally friendly” while continuing to poison the planet. It’s not enough to talk the talk. You must walk the walk—even if this involves upsetting traditional company culture.
If promoting positive mental health in the workplace is a policy you’re interested in pursuing this year, let’s talk. As company culture and compensation specialists, we help companies of all types and sizes develop initiatives that keep workers healthy, happy, and productive. Email me today at laura@conoverconsulting.com to learn more.