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Supporting Employees Mental Health

Published Date

Chapter 1 – Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage (HRM: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Chapter 13 – Employee Benefits (HRM: Gaining a Competitive Advantage)

Chapter 2 – Trends in Human Resource Management (Fundamentals of HRM)

Chapter 14 – Providing Employee Benefits (Fundamentals of HRM)

Supporting employees’ mental health comes with costs such as having to hire outside consultants to identify and recommend programs, remodeling or building new facilities, or paying for services. Regardless, some companies are willing to absorb the costs, recognizing that mental health is a workplace crisis that deserves attention. NetWallet, a personal finance company, offers its employees four self-care days each year. Alma offers paid “time-off” days for employees who need to process traumatic events occurring outside the workplace. Linked-In and Adobe have provided employees with on-site respite rooms where employees can go to decompress when they feel the need to do so. Brightline Inc. offers virtual counseling to employees and their families. EnterpriseD8 Corporation covers the costs of employee’s subscriptions to an app that provides access to one-on-one therapy sessions and meditation exercises.

General Dynamics Information Technology started its “How Are You Really?” campaign after an employee died by suicide. “How Are You Really?” raises mental health awareness and encourages discussions about what support, interventions, flexibility, and culture change employees need from each other and from the company. As a result, General Dynamics has reviewed workloads, allows employees to take paid time off to rebalance their lives, and initiated flexible work schedules. Lincoln Financial Group’s “Be Well’ program publishes monthly well-being articles on the company’s intranet, distributes home mailers with reminders about discounts and digital mindfulness programs, and hosts quarterly wellness webinars focused on nutrition, stress management and preventative healthcare. Employees also have access to health coaching, wellness challenges and preventative healthcare programs.

Questions for Students

  1. What advantages can companies gain by providing mental health benefits?
  2. What types of mental health benefits do you believe companies should provide? Provide a rationale for your recommendation(s)?

Sources:  T. Weiss, “Companies focus on mental health” The Wall Street Journal (April 19, 2023): A11; C. Borchers, “Discussing mental health is a work in progress”, Wall Street Journal (April 20, 2023): A14; J. Romsey, “As Workplace Mental Health Worsens, Employee Engagement Plummets”(July 5, 2023) from shrm.org. “Lincolns Be Well Program – Mental Health” from https://www.ragan.com/awards/workplace-wellness-awards.

Note for Instructor

An excellent source for information on mental health is Lyra,“2023 State of Workforce Mental Health” at www.lyrahealth.com (free download). An excellent five-minute video about mental health in the workplace is from the Department of Labor (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lDJ7MLD30). The video opens by discussing the reality of mental health crisis in the workplace then moves to a discussion of barriers to mental health in the workplace, and what companies need to do to help employees deal with mental health issues.