3 Reasons Why You Need Flexible Mental Health Benefits Now

A quality mental health solution needs to be holistic and preventative

Mental health benefits have never been more important than they are today. With the new hybrid work model gaining wider consideration and adoption, and with continuing uncertainty and stress because of Covid-19, the topic of employee mental health has moved to the forefront. To keep and attract top talent, you’re probably already expanding your employee benefits. And with good cause. A recent employee benefits survey found that if people had to choose between a high-paying job and a lower-paying one with quality health benefits, 88% of employees would consider the lower-paying job. An employee mental health solution should be at the top of that list. 
 

But standard mental health solutions are not enough. You need to enhance existing mental health resources with a variety of tools that can be accessed through channels employees actually use — especially deskless and service workers. You must meet employees on their terms to deliver the physical, emotional, and mental care and support they need and want today. Finally, a quality mental health solution needs to be holistic and preventative — not treatment-centric or merely an expanded EAP.

Reason 1: Employee Expectations Have Changed

According to a Microsoft study of more than 30,000 workers in 31 countries, flexibility is here to stay. The report concludes, “extreme flexibility and hybrid work will define the post-pandemic workplace.”

“Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing,” Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, said in their report, “All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

Reason 2: The Workforce Is Exhausted and Struggling

According to the Microsoft report, which included analysis of millions of user data points in the company’s work tools, “self-assessed productivity has remained the same or higher for many employees over the past year, but at a human cost. Of those polled, 54% of workers feel overworked and 39% feel exhausted.

Here are a few reasons why:
 

• Meetings on Microsoft Teams are up by 2.5x globally
• An average meeting is 10 minutes longer, going from 35 to 45 minutes
• The average Teams user has increased chats per week by 45% and after-hours chats are up by 42%
• The number of people working on documents has increased 66%
• And 50% of people answer chats within five minutes of receiving them

Finally, a poll by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 48% of US workers feel mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the workday, while 41% feel burned out from their work.

We also know that during the pandemic, 2 in 5 U.S. adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder — up from 1 in 10 who reported these symptoms prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate is 42% for essential workers and 30% for nonessential workers (and the majority of essential workers are deskless front-line employees, directly affecting the customer experience). 

Reason 3: Employers Still Aren't  Getting It

The Microsoft report goes on to say that leaders are out of touch and need a wake-up call. That wake-up call began in April when 4 million U.S. workers quit their jobs. According to the U.S. Labor Department, that departure was the highest on record, pushing the rate to 2.7% of those employed. 

But employers aren’t getting that news. A recent study by Unmind and WELCOA found that only 37% of employers feel they have a strong understanding of the mental health and wellbeing of their people. While only 64% of employers have a strategy in place for specifically managing employee mental health and wellbeing. Even though a study by Deloitte showed that companies that invest in “effective mental health initiatives” can see a return of $4 for every $1 spent. 

Which All Calls Out for Truly Flexible Programs

A truly flexible mental health program can help. But your employee mental health program needs to hit two goals to be truly flexible — to meet all workers, on their own terms:
 

• Find and use communication and connection channels employees actually use and enhance existing wellbeing resources with a variety of tools that can be accessed through those channels. 
• Adopt resources and communication strategies that will engage and be accessible to all workers, including deskless and service workers. 

Look for a solution that takes a holistic approach to employee mental health by ensuring it applies a whole-person, whole-organization mindset. For a platform to be flexible enough to accommodate today’s hybrid workforce needs, it needs to understand that what’s good for the employees’ mental health is good for the organization. 

It should be universal. Flexible employee mental health means permitting everyone to handle their own needs and not just offer set-in-stone treatment options that may not help. 

It needs to deliver practical insights to HR and wellbeing leaders. To be successful, flexible employee mental health platforms need to give HR leaders critical insights and be accessible to everyone. Those insights should include outcome measurements and a variety of programs and tools such as self-guided programs, in-the-moment exercises, and daily diaries, as well as gratitude and praise. 

Equally important, a holistic and flexible employee mental health solution that’s going to work today needs a human touch combined with solid science. The optimal solution will be built on science and have experienced, dedicated client service specialists to support HR and employees. 

Employee expectations have changed. Employees are exhausted and struggling, and many employers aren’t responding — despite the ROI a quality mental health solution can deliver. HR can respond with a good flexible mental health solution that is driven by science and the customer experience to create flexible benefits that go with today’s flexible workforce.

Dr. Nick Taylor is CEO and Co-Founder of Unmind, the authoritative, trusted workplace mental health platform. Throughout his career, Dr. Taylor has always worked in mental health. During his time as a lead clinical psychologist in Britain’s National Health Service, he realized the true importance of giving people the right care at the right time and why the focus on mental health needs to be preventative.  Connect Dr. Nick Taylor Follow @unmindhq