Mental Health in the Workplace

Employees’ mental health affects their motivation, ability to perform tasks, and, therefore, company productivity. According to recent data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 37% of employees in the U.S. admit that poor mental health makes it hard for them to be productive at work.

Also, businesses that don’t care about workplace mental health might soon struggle to find qualified workers. As many as 77% of professionals now see mental health benefits in the workplace as central to job satisfaction and prioritize them when looking for a job. Companies that ignore this trend risk facing high turnover – and the extra hiring costs that come with it.

So, how to improve mental health in the workplace?

Let’s explore how business owners and other stakeholders can take care of workers’ well-being and how employees can protect their own mental health to thrive at work.

Why Does Workers’ Mental Health Suffer?

Currently, the state of workplace mental health in the U.S. is alarming. According to the American Institute of Stress, work is the number one source of stress in life for as many as 47% of employees, and 77% report that work-related stress harms their mental health.

Why is this the case? Not only are the stakes high – as work is how most people make a living and support their families – but it also comes with a variety of stressful factors: the need to maintain a high performance no matter what, communication with colleagues that isn’t always pleasant, a tiresome routine, and more. No wonder work stress often triggers mental health issues.

But what is mental health issues? Mental health issues are conditions that affect how a person thinks, feels, and functions. They include anxiety, depression, stress-related disorders, and mood disorders, among others.

Of course, this mental health issues list is nowhere near complete. Basically, any emotional or psychological challenges are relevant and may require intervention (even if they aren’t clinical).

How Does Employees’ Mental Health Affect Work?

Why is mental health important in the workplace? Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

• In 2021, Goldman Sachs faced public backlash after a group of junior investment bankers leaked an internal survey showing they were working up to 100 hours a week, sleeping very little, and suffering from severe burnout.
• More recently, employees at TikTok in the U.S. have reported taking 2 to 3-month-long mental health leave because of intense pressure, harsh performance reviews, and questionable job security.

And yet, although they rarely admit this publicly, business owners often treat employees’ mental health as something irrelevant and adopt the mentality, “as long as employees do their job, their happiness doesn’t matter.” But such an approach is not just unethical but also counterproductive because unhappy employees tend to perform poorly.

Mental health issues are one of the top reasons for sick leave: almost 8% of all cases are related to them. Moreover, for employees aged 44 and older, mental health is the leading cause of conditions that limit their ability to work. Employers who neglect employees’ mental health are shooting themselves in the foot: workers’ productivity suffers, and this affects the bottom line.

How to Improve Mental Health in the Workplace

Ideally, all stakeholders – healthcare providers, mental health advocates and community leaders, governments, etc. – should do their part in raising mental health awareness in the workplace and promoting employee well-being. Still, the leading role belongs to employers.

Businesses can drastically improve workplace mental health through:

1. Relevant training for management. Employees are more comfortable talking about mental health with their managers than with HR specialists. That’s why it’s critical that all mid-level managers are properly trained in strategies for promoting employee well-being.
2. More flexibility for all employees. Research shows that employees view remote-friendly organizations as more psychologically safe. In turn, a high sense of psychological safety is associated with higher productivity.
3. Coverage for professional mental health services. All organizations should at least consider including mental health services (including both counseling and treatment) in their health insurance benefits.
4. Regular employee feedback collection and, most importantly, relevant and timely action in response to it.

Creating a Supportive Work Environment

When companies decide to focus on workplace mental health initiatives, they often jump straight to training initiatives, such as stress management workshops for managers or mindfulness programs for employees. While such training can be helpful, it’s not really where workplace mental health efforts should begin.

Instead, the key component of workplace health is a supportive environment where employees understand that their employer genuinely cares about their well-being. One of the surest ways to build such an environment is to implement benefits that affect mental health profoundly – including sufficient PTO, paid parental leave, flexibility (for example, in the form of unlimited work-from-home days for in-office workers), and more.

Also, a growing number of companies now recognize the value of mental health support services for employees. For example, compensating employees’ sessions with a counselor or therapist of their choice is a great option. Such initiatives cost businesses money, but they’re still cheaper than poor employee performance and high turnover.

Training and Raising Awareness

Still, relevant training on the relationship between mental health and workplace well-being is important, too. Sadly, managers often lack understanding of how to create an open and supportive climate in their team to make sure that employees feel heard and know who to talk to at the first signs of burnout (or other mental health concerns).

Employee burnout is more common than most believe. According to the NAMI study, 52% of professionals report experiencing burnout, which means that over half of employees aren’t fully satisfied with their jobs and can’t perform at their full capacity. Being able to recognize and respond to the symptoms in oneself and – for managers – in one’s team is one of the most important directions for workplace mental health training.

Other essential topics to cover in such training initiatives include building a culture of open communication (where employees feel comfortable sharing any workplace issues affecting their well-being), strategies for handling stress at work, and more.

What Can Employers Do for Workplace Mental Health?

Employers have the most power – and responsibility! – when it comes to ensuring that every employee thrives at work. Helpful steps for supporting workplace mental health include:

• Conducting regular employee well-being assessments to screen for the signs of chronic stress, burnout, and depression. These should include anonymous surveys, too, so that employees feel more comfortable answering honestly.
• Offering free and subsidized professional mental health services, such as counseling and therapy. Some companies prefer having a corporate on-site professional, but a better approach is to cover employees’ mental health counseling. Research shows that most workers aren’t fully comfortable discussing their mental health with managers and HR specialists. The same mistrust might extend to corporate mental health professionals.
• Organizing free coaching on workplace mental health-related topics: handling stress, preventing burnout, maintaining an adequate work-life balance, healthy and transparent communication with teammates and managers, etc.
• Providing designated on-site spaces where employees can take a quiet break and relax during the workday.
• Actively including employees in decision-making related to workplace mental health practices and initiatives.

Monitoring and Assessment

To be able to recognize that employees are struggling mentally and respond with appropriate measures, employers must monitor workplace well-being. This includes regular stress, burnout, and depression assessments that give employees space to assess the status quo and share their concerns and ideas.

Importantly, such surveys and assessments on mental health in workplace must be anonymous. Employees tend to be skeptical about employers: about 44% admit being uncomfortable talking about mental health with their manager, and 59% aren’t comfortable sharing with HR specialists.

This mistrust is perfectly understandable and not unfounded. Recently, an Indian company went viral for firing 100 employees after a workplace mental health survey. Sadly, such practices are not uncommon – even if they don’t always draw as much attention online.

Also, conducting mental health assessments just for the sake of it isn’t enough. Employers must actually do something with the findings and respond to employees’ complaints with relevant steps. Otherwise, the staff will feel unheard, and it will tank their job satisfaction further.

What Can Other Stakeholders Do?

Employers might be the number one party responsible for protecting mental health in the workplace, but they aren’t the only ones. Healthcare providers, public health researchers, community leaders, governments, and even employees themselves can and should be involved, too.

Recommendations for Healthcare Providers

In clinical settings, healthcare providers might not have much power over how to improve mental health in the workplace, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be involved – as long as employers are willing to invest in protecting employees’ well-being.

Here are a few examples of how healthcare providers can play a part in protecting workplace mental health:

• When assessing patients, ask about work stress and recommend management and treatment strategies that would work well on workplace stressors.
• Cooperate with business owners to promote in-house mental health professional services available to employees.
• Collaborate with businesses and organizations on crisis response plans to help employers develop protocols for handling acute stress or mental health crises among employees.

Recommendations for Public Health Researchers

Through data, evidence, and policy insights, public health researchers have the power to influence employers’ decision-making when it comes to mental health at work. Among other things, they can do the following:

• Collaborate with employers for data collection and analysis. Researchers can study patterns of stress, burnout, absenteeism, turnover, and other workplace mental health-related issues to help employers get the full picture and react appropriately.
• Examine workplace conditions and industry trends to pinpoint the root causes and contributing factors that jeopardize employee mental health.
• Translate research findings into mental health-related recommendations for both employers and employees.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of different workplace wellness programs to help employers choose the best options for promoting employee mental health at their organizations.

Recommendations for Community Leaders

Community leaders are responsible for supporting mental health in the workplace, too. They have the power to shape local attitudes around mental health and advocate for helpful mental health-promoting initiatives.

In particular, community leaders can:

• Raise awareness of workplace mental health-related issues by hosting relevant events and organizing campaigns. Such initiatives can help reduce stigma and promote open conversations about mental health.
• Advocate for change by increasing public awareness of the importance of workplace mental health. This implies pushing for better workplace protections, broader mental health programs for employees, and more.
• Create safe spaces where people could share their concerns around mental health in general and workplace mental health specifically (for example, peer support groups in community centers).

Recommendations for Federal and State Governments

While community leaders can affect workplace mental health attitudes and protections locally, federal and state governments have the power to operate on a large scale. They may not control individual workplaces, but their funding and regulations shape how mental well-being is prioritized across industries.

State and federal governments can:

• Develop and enforce regulations that require employers to invest in their employees’ emotional well-being.
• Expand access to professional mental health services by funding relevant mental health programs and community workers. This way, even if employers fail to offer free or subsidized professional mental health support to their employees, the employees will still be able to receive this support without having to pay for it out of pocket.
• Collaborate with healthcare professionals and public health researchers to develop relevant toolkits and training for employers. Such initiatives will help ensure that what employers do about mental health at workplace is evidence-based and helpful.

Recommendations for Employees

Finally, employees themselves can help support workplace mental health – both individually and collectively. Their individual attitudes and actions play a part in shaping workplace culture, including when it comes to mental health. In turn, collectively, employees can influence their employers’ workplace mental health-related policies and practices by demanding better support.

• Individually, employees can set healthy boundaries, take care of their own well-being, speak openly about mental health, speak up when something is concerning, and use available support resources (as well as encourage their colleagues to use such resources).
• Collectively, employees can organize feedback sessions with management to advocate for better workplace mental health protection, submit proposals for improved mental health benefits, initiate employee wellness committees, and raise relevant concerns during staff meetings.

How to Protect Working Students Mental Health

Working professionals aren’t the only ones who face daily occupational stress and need to take active steps to protect their mental health. The same is true for students, especially those who have to combine studies with work.

Working students have to deal with a lot: task overload, low pay, lack of rest, pressure to meet deadlines, etc. Academic pressures paired with workplace challenges put a strain on student mental health and explain why so many of them struggle mentally: over 60% of students meet the diagnostic criteria for at least one mental health problem.

How can colleges and employers help ease the mental health burden for students?

• Colleges can help students deal with career anxiety – which is one of the biggest sources of anxiety in college students – by debunking common career myths. They can also organize career counseling and be open to developing individual study plans for working students.
• Employers can support working students by creating a flexible work environment that allows them to balance work and study without overextending themselves. This implies offering flexible schedules, understanding when academic obligations require time off, and avoiding overloading students with tasks beyond their capacity.

Tips for Maintaining Mental Health for Both Adults and Students

Mental well-being should be a priority for both working adults and students. While not everything is within their control, there are a few helpful strategies that everyone can benefit from:

1. Establish a routine and stick to it. A consistent schedule helps reduce stress and makes effective time management easier.
2. Take regular breaks, even if short. It’s impossible to stay focused on mentally demanding tasks, such as studying or work, without breaks in between sessions. Even if it’s just a 5-minute call with a long-distance friend in the middle of a study session, it can still help.
3. Set realistic goals. No one can do it all or perform at 100% all the time. Trying to be perfect at everything only leads to burnout.
4. Practice self-care. Relaxation and mindfulness techniques, hobbies, and socializing with friends – all of these are critical for protecting one’s mental health safety.
5. Don’t hesitate to reach out or ask for accommodations. Everyone needs to share their struggles with a friend or ask for a deadline extension every once in a while. Don’t be afraid to burden others.
6. Seek professional help if you feel you might need it. Unless addressed early, mental health struggles often escalate. If you feel like all the stress is catching up with you, consider talking to a mental health professional.

Conclusion

Workplace mental health benefits everyone, not just employees. That’s why all stakeholders, including employers, healthcare providers, public health researchers, and governments, should join efforts to do everything they can to protect employees’ well-being.

Mental health costs the U.S. governments billions of dollars yearly, and it also makes businesses less profitable because stressed and burnt out employees perform poorly. It’s in everyone’s best interest that workplaces prioritize workers’ mental health. This implies investing in relevant policies and programs and working collectively to build work environments where employees can thrive.

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