Recently, tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open due to the burdens of professional athletics and her struggles with mental health. This news signifies an increased importance of improving mental health at work.
According to One Mind at Work, 25% of people experience one mental health condition in their lifetime. Bottom line—employee mental health is, and will continue to be, at the forefront of building healthy work environments.
Concerns around employee burnout and changing working conditions have accelerated workplaces to assess what mental health programs they provide. It prompts them to ask whether they are implementing the right programs and if their employees know how to use them.
In this article, we share why it’s important to collect employee perceptions of mental health, plus:
Employers have a responsibility to understand and impact mental health at work. This might include workplace mental health services through benefit plans or other offerings. Yet, many organizations are not equipped to assess employee mental health.
The stigmas around employee mental health wellness will improve as we make it safe to talk about, openly, and seek help without retribution. Especially since 31% of Americans who seek mental health services worry about others judging them.
Measuring mental health can be a tricky endeavor, but it's not impossible. Here are a few ways you can measure employee mental health at work.
One-on-ones allow for managers to build better relationships with their employees. Doing so helps employees feel more comfortable talking about sensitive topics like mental health.
Managers should be on the lookout for signs of:
As workplaces normalize the discussion of mental health issues, one-on-ones between an employee and manager will become the catalyst for guiding employees to specific programs and leveraging organizational benefits.
Surveys are a great way to allow employees to share their perceptions and experiences. More specifically, employee engagement surveys can increase trust and reduce the stigma around mental health because of their confidential nature.
Your employee engagement survey is already helping measure engagement—the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward their workplace. When employers don’t help their people manage stress that workloads, coworkers, and managers can all pile on, employee engagement and mental health may suffer.
Analyze responses to specific items to understand how different facets of your business are impacting mental health at work.
HR leaders can measure how perceptions are changing over time by comparing year over year responses to connect the dots between mental health and employee engagement.
A pulse survey about mental health helps you understand employee perceptions around your mental health resources and support. Use a mental health pulse survey as a way to gather direct feedback from employees on:
Employees can give real-time feedback on the new programs or policies and recommend future changes. This feedback will guide investments in program awareness and elevate areas of concern.
Here are 15 workplace mental health survey questions to ask your workforce.
Simply educating employees on your mental health offerings is no longer enough. HR leaders should check in regularly with employee engagement surveys, pulse surveys, and one-on-ones. Organizations should set a baseline and measure movement to make an impact on mental health.
These data points will guide strategic investments and help move the needle to boost mental health awareness and improve the stigmas with your employees.
Use these tips to measure perceptions of mental health in the workplace, and download our pulse survey templates to ask the right workplace mental health survey questions.
Published July 8, 2021 | Written By Luke Stritt
