Providing Effective Mental Health Benefits Means Responding To What Employees Want

New survey highlights impact of the great resignation

With 10 million open jobs in the U.S. right now, it’s time to acknowledge that mental health concerns are a key factor in explaining why. Demand for mental health services is at an all-time high as the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated multiple aspects of emotional wellbeing. There is a tremendous opportunity at this moment for employers to commit to better understanding the needs of their employees and offer expanded mental health benefits, including psychological treatment.

In particular, stigma surrounding counseling services that existed prior to the pandemic has largely faded – especially among younger employees, with many expecting mental health support from their employer.

By understanding how much non-financial benefits and advantages factor into workers’ thinking, employers can design a workplace that will retain their employees and help them stay productive. As the Chief People Officer of a company that provides behavioral health services, our data suggests these are the best ways for employers to succeed in the changing workplace landscape.

Although younger employees are more willing to discuss their mental health, they are among the groups that have struggled the most during the pandemic. In October 2021, Uprise Health commissioned a survey of 1,100+ people ages 18-65, all U.S. based and employed full-time, via a third-party research group.

The survey findings illustrated that a combined 70% of employees aged 18-29 surveyed cited more PTO, convenient digital support and therapies, flexible work arrangements, and less travel as ways that their employer could help their mental health, while only 30% said salary raises or bonuses. Shifting the employer mindset away from financial reward and toward mental health support will be pivotal to retaining and growing young employees in the workplace.

Employees are currently faced with myriad emotional and wellbeing adversities. In fact, 78% of overall survey respondents said that their mental health had been affected by the pandemic, with the highest responses being: 43% felt overloaded with work, 39% felt frustrated with colleagues, managers, or leadership, and 28% did not feel recognized or appreciated for their work. Companies should therefore use this information to create solutions to alleviate these negative sentiments.

For example, since the top response for how mental health has been affected by Covid-19 was feeling overloaded with work, organizations can explicitly encourage employees to communicate more transparently and regularly with their teams to ensure manageable workloads.

The survey data also highlighted various significant findings of how women in the workforce are being affected disparately in comparison with male employees. 60% of women felt overloaded with work compared to 51% of men. Additionally, 53% of women felt frustrated with colleagues, managers, or leadership, compared to 47% of men.

Despite these heightened pressures, more men than women are having success using their employer’s mental health or wellbeing program. 41% of men said they found it easy to access coaching or counseling through their EAP, or employer provided mental health or wellbeing program, compared to just 34% of women. This means the gap between the need for support and services being accessed is larger for women than men.

While the vast majority of survey respondents felt that the pandemic had a significant impact on their mental health, the survey findings revealed that 83% of employees felt that their workplace had been supportive during this time of uncertainty. However, 34% of employees also said their employers do not offer mental health and wellbeing benefits, signifying that employees’ wishes are not being met, generating heightened costs, staff resignations, and personnel absences.

Furthermore, of the employees whose employers do sponsor mental health and wellbeing services, more than half (52%) of respondents have never accessed coaching or counseling services through an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or mental health provider. This is presumably attributable to employers not expressing the importance of these benefits or the inaccessibility of the benefits themselves.

At an organizational level, prioritizing the needs of employees should always be the principal factor when tackling mental health challenges. Corporations must examine how work-related stresses can affect all demographics while increasing the accessibility of mental health and wellbeing benefits. Moreover, leadership must assuage work-related stressors by enhancing communication with leadership and encouraging equal division of labor, establishing team unity in an attempt to reduce frustration with fellow employees, escalating praise to ensure employees feel appreciated for their work, and assess wage inequalities between genders.

All businesses should also consider providing digitally enabled mental health support for employees anytime, accessible from anywhere. An extensive comprehension of what types of assistance employees need is essential to developing an environment with minimal employee turnover and maximum efficiency.