A survey from the American Psychiatric Association shows that only about half of American workers say they are comfortable talking about their mental health in the workplace, and more than one-third are worried about job consequences if they seek mental health care. More than one-quarter of workers are unsure how to access mental health care through their employer. Our own data confirms that while 95% of employers provide employees with access to Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), nearly 1 in 10 employees struggle to access mental health care services. These findings illustrate that more needs to be done when developing strategies to support the mental health of our employees. 

Providing sufficient mental health solutions and resources in the workplace means making them accessible and affordable while authentically and actively encouraging employees to use them. Because mental health stigma is so pervasive in workplace culture, leaders need to set a new tone by modeling behaviors that promote well-being at the top. It’s also important to recognize that while there are globally-recognized solutions, mental wellness is a highly personal experience and should include individualization where possible. 

How Can Employers Meet the Growing Demand for Mental Health Support?

While influences on mental health live both inside and outside of the workplace, employers have an opportunity to impact the trajectory and outcomes of well-being for their employees. If you’re familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the principle is the same: deficiency needs like safety, health, and employment need to be mostly fulfilled before people can think about growth needs like belonging, connection, and self-esteem. Mental health is among the basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid, but since there can be so many barriers to achieving and maintaining mental wellness, these needs are often deprioritized. Many people sacrifice their own mental health to take care of the needs of others or, if funds are limited, prioritize food, shelter, and transportation. Creating a culture of belonging through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work and talking about the mental health solutions available to employees are two ways you can help make those benefits seem safe and accessible to use.

For example, to support the well-being of their employees, one of our clients provided on-site mental health support for around $80 per session—but few employees scheduled appointments. Why? Employees shared in a listening session that while they would like to take advantage of the benefit, they couldn't afford the fee. The intent was on the right track, but it didn’t make the desired impact. 

Understanding how best to support the mental health of employees can be challenging. Below, we explore five essentials to creating a culture where all people can thrive.

5 Essentials to Meeting Mental Health Needs

As Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote in a press release last October, “We have an opportunity and the power to make workplaces engines for mental health and well-being.” Along with his statement, he released a 5-point framework for improving workplace mental health. The Surgeon General’s Five Essentials for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being include protection from harm, connection and community, work/life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunity for growth. 

Using this framework, we’ll outline some best practices and policy guidelines that can support the mental health and well-being of your employees. We’ll also use original data from our employee survey to demonstrate how these issues can disproportionately impact marginalized groups. 

1. Protection from Harm

In the workplace, the two human needs of safety and security call for protection from both physical and psychological harm as well as financial security and job security. While OSHA grants employees the right to a physically safe workplace, psychological safety is a much newer concept—and much harder to establish and monitor. In fact, our data show that 16% of employees do not feel safe bringing up tough issues with their employer. 

Professor Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” We recommend co-creating team norms with your team’s input to promote inclusion and psychological safety. Such norms might look like “rules of engagement” for fair conversation, guidelines for giving and receiving feedback, expectations around risk-taking and making mistakes, and strategies for conflict resolution.

For many employees, bullying and harassment can threaten psychological safety in the workplace. In fact, 23% of employees in our data have reported threats or humiliation, and 6% of employees have reported sexual harassment. Of those who did not report bullying or harassment, 23% said they did not trust the process to be fair, 22% said the behavior stopped on its own, 16% confronted it on their own, and another 16% thought it might hurt their career. As leaders work to create a workplace that’s free from harassment and discrimination, it’s important to establish clear reporting processes and put accountability measures in place to address it when it does occur.

2. Connection and Community

The human needs of connection and community translate to social support and belonging in the workplace. When employees can fully agree with the statement  “I feel respected and valued by coworkers and by my manager,” you know these mental health needs are met.

To promote social support and belonging in your workplace culture, we recommend sponsoring Employee Affinity Groups (EAG) or Employee Resource Groups (ERG). The group format you choose will depend on your organization’s culture and structure: ERGs include employees with shared interests, and EAGs provide a safe space for employees with a shared identity. Members can coordinate professional development activities, identify workplace issues, and advocate for change within the organization. It’s important to note that both types of groups require a committed budget, adequate resources, decision-making authority, and support from senior leadership to be successful.

3. Work-Life Harmony

The advent of remote work has made it much easier for many companies to accommodate their employees’ mental health needs of flexibility and autonomy. However, that’s not always the case; mission-driven organizations in particular struggle with employee burnout, which also stems from a lack of these essentials. While 85% of employers report that they offer flexible work arrangements, 16% of employees in our data set think their commitment would be questioned if they used them. 

Hybrid, remote, and other flexible work arrangements are especially important for women, BIPOC employees, and those who serve as primary caregivers. When implemented consistently and at scale, these policies can reduce the impact of structural inequalities. However, if flexible work policies are not intentionally made available and promoted to all eligible employees, you can exacerbate inequity through proximity bias. Proximity bias is the tendency to favor employees that are physically closer to the organization and its leaders. You can avoid this by measuring outcomes instead of facetime, tracking and comparing the promotion rates of remote/hybrid employees and those working on-site, and establishing team norms that promote inclusion. For hourly and part-time employees, resources for requesting days off and swapping shifts can provide this flexibility.

4. Mattering at Work

When employees are given the tools they need to succeed at work, they are more likely to feel respected and valued. Our analysis of over 6,000 Ellequate survey responses revealed a significant relationship between having multiple marginalized identities (e.g. being Black, having a disability, being a woman) and having more negative perceptions of mattering at work.

Providing employees with the resources they need to succeed is essential to creating a sense of shared purpose. Compared to 12.6% of staff overall, 26% of Black employees with a disability and 28% of White employees with a disability report that they do not have the information, training, and resources they need to do their job well readily available. Black women with children report similar experiences 21% of the time, along with 15% of Black employees overall, and 13% of women. When employees do not have what they need to contribute in a meaningful way, they are more likely to experience stress in the workplace that affects their personal life and less likely to feel safe bringing up problems and tough issues at work.

Similarly, 30% of White employees with a disability and 23% of Black employees with a disability do not believe their manager recognizes their contributions and achievements at work, compared to 10% of employees overall. When employees feel appreciated, recognized, and engaged by their managers, they are more likely to experience psychological safety, as well as feel a sense of value and meaning at work.

To promote dignity and provide a larger sense of purpose, we recommend making paid training and leadership opportunities available to employees at all levels. Change and uncertain times can be destabilizing for both individuals and organizations; giving your employees the opportunity to reskill, upskill, and build resilience to change on the job creates mutually beneficial outcomes. Investing in employee development increases retention, and your team will have more skills to help the organization weather the unpredictable.

5. Opportunity for Growth

The final essential for workplace mental health, opportunity for growth, relates to the human needs of learning and accomplishment. According to our data, 7% of employees feel like they've missed out on a raise, promotion, or chance to get ahead because of an identity like race, gender, etc., and 8% disagree or strongly disagree that people from all cultures and backgrounds have equitable opportunities to succeed. 

Though traditional performance management techniques are outdated and disliked by both employees and supervisors, conducting effective performance evaluations and providing feedback on a consistent basis (at least weekly) are the secrets to fostering individual growth in the workplace. Standardizing the performance review process with rubric-based evaluations can help mitigate bias, provide clearer performance standards and criteria, and help ensure assessments remain objective. Finally, equip your managers by training them ahead of implementation to communicate expectations, collaborate on professional development goals with direct reports, and measure progress over time.

Plan to Promote Your Employees’ Mental Health 

While the fundamental human needs that foster well-being are universal, it is crucial to recognize that your team members may require tailored mental health benefits and effective communication to cater to their individual situations. While mental health benefits undoubtedly contribute to addressing overarching concerns like burnout, there are several other workplace issues that also warrant attention. The most effective approach is to evaluate the specific needs of your team and develop a strategy accordingly to address those needs. 

In our exploration of the employee experience, we have discovered how having multiple marginalized identities can impact well-being. One area of interest is pay equity, where we discovered how a lack of pay transparency can negatively impact feelings of belonging and psychological safety at work, specifically for Black women. This finding highlights the importance of considering the unique experiences of individuals with intersecting identities and their impact on various aspects of the workplace. We are excited to announce that an upcoming report will delve into the intersectional experiences of Black employees and shed light on how they differ from other demographic groups. Stay tuned for this insightful analysis that will broaden our understanding of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. (Sign up for our newsletter to get notified when it’s out!)

Whether you're looking to promote employee well-being, increase diversity in your hiring practices, create a more inclusive workplace culture, or gain a competitive advantage in a race to the top, we can help you get there faster and more effectively. An Ellequate membership puts employee experience and workplace systems at the heart of your DEI strategy, while our employer certification provides a rigorous and data-driven standard of excellence that measures both employee experience and workplace systems.

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