Breaking the Stigma: Why Employers Should Invest in Employees’ Mental Health
Enjoy this featured content from our Pinnacle PartnerTM, Voya, courtesy of Rob Grubka, Voya Financial’s CEO of Workplace Solutions.
Three tips for employers to help rethink their mental health offering.
Employee mental health has taken center stage over the last several years after employees faced unprecedented stressors largely spurred by the pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, in the first year of the pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%. Unfortunately, the list of stressors has not gotten any shorter with ongoing concerns over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and social unrest dominating news headlines, to list a few.
As a result, Americans are looking for help and many are expecting their employer to provide the mental health benefit offerings they need. For example, industry research shows that more than three-quarters of employees (76%) believe their employer has a responsibility in ensuring employees are mentally healthy and emotionally well. Therefore, with mental health top-of-mind for employees, here are three tips to help employers rethink their mental health offerings.
Tip 1: Mental health benefits everyone—employers and employees alike
Traditionally, most core workplace benefits (such as medical, dental and vision) have focused on an employee’s physical health. The pandemic changed that by shining a spotlight on the importance of thinking about an employee’s entire wellbeing—both physical and mental. In fact, over 90% of all employees highly value mental health benefits and flexibility to help them manage their wellbeing and show empathy at work—according to Businessolver’s 2023 State of Workplace Empathy mental health report. In today’s competitive job market, creating a culture and environment where employees can get the mental health support they need can be a differentiator. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it may even help with employee productivity, attendance, and retention.
For example, often financial stress and money worries can severely or majorly impact mental health, according to a 2022 PWC Financial Wellness study. Interestingly, when compared with all other employees, those who indicated their money worries have impacted their mental health were seven times more likely to say that financial stress impacted their attendance at work, six times more likely to say it impacted their productivity at work and twice as likely to look for a new job. This can have a serious impact on a company’s ability to deliver on its business goals and serve its customers. Therefore, focusing on having workplace offerings in place that support both the physical and mental well-being of your employees has the potential of benefiting everyone.
Tip 2: Mind the gap—don’t overestimate the impact of your current mental health offerings
In response to an increase in demand for mental health support, many employers have adjusted their workplace benefits accordingly. A 2022 survey conducted by Forrester Consulting revealed that 84% of employers plan to increase or enhance employee mental health benefits in the next year. However, despite being well intentioned, there appears to be a bit of a disconnect between how employers and employees view their mental health offerings.
For example, detailed in this survey, 74% of employees indicated in 2022 that they want their employer to care about their mental health, but only half (53%) of employees feel they actually do—a 21% gap. Unfortunately, both these numbers have dropped from 2021, when 87% of employees wanted their employer to care about their mental health but only 66% felt their employer actually did care—maintaining this 21% gap.1 Therefore, it’s important for employers to establish a culture of listening and develop comprehensive programs to create a formal feedback process to help your mental health benefits hit the mark.
Tip 3: Competitive edge—workers appreciate and seek mental health support
In addition to helping your employees stay healthy, productive, and engaged, providing mental health offerings that your employees value can provide a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent. For example, 81% of workers said that employers who support mental health will be important when seeking future job opportunities, according to American Psychological Association’s 2022 Work and Well-being Survey results.
In Businessolver’s same Empathy study , when employees were asked to rank the importance and value of mental health benefits, flexible working hours has topped the list among an average of 90% of employees for the past seven years. In 2023, flexibility trailed closely behind expanded mental health coverage and an open-door policy with managers and HR.
In addition to providing greater flexibility, it’s important that employers invest in mental health resources by starting, continuing or expanding their workplace benefits. For example, Voya recently increased the counseling sessions offered to its employees from 5 to 10 as part of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Voya will also cover out-of-network mental-health providers as if they were in-network, so that employees can meet with the counselors most optimal for their needs and also available in their area without the financial stress of worrying whether they are in-network. To help employees with their self-care, Voya also provides access to mental health tools at no extra cost to its employees—such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills, meditations and mindfulness techniques, and sleep tracking. The purpose is to help employees strengthen resilience and learn relaxation methods for the moments when you may need them. And when it comes to clients, Voya plans to introduce several mental health offerings in 2023 to help enhance our supplemental health insurance portfolio.
Voya’s commitment to providing employees with flexibility was also discussed on a recent episode of the Hire thru Retire Podcast, detailing opportunities for employers to consider as this conversation unfolds in the workplace.
Final Thoughts
As employers think about the future of work, it’s clear that the topic of mental health is becoming a business imperative. In addition to offering mental health benefits that your employees want and value, employers need to be thoughtful in how they communicate, educate and encourage their workforce to use these available resources. This will help their employees feel comfortable taking advantage of these mental health benefits and help to remove any perceived stigma they might have — especially if they see leaders in their organization role model this behavior. In order to start a clear path to mental health, this messaging needs to be modeled, enabled and reinforced repeatedly to employees.
There’s no doubt that mental health is a complex issue, but it’s worth embracing. Ultimately, having a healthy workplace—both physically and mentally—can benefit everyone. Ready to help your employees manage their total wellbeing with better benefits? Learn more about our voluntary benefit provider, Voya Financial.
