Employer Responsibility to Employee Mental Health: 10 Takeaways

It hasn’t been all that long since mental health issues were kept a deep, dark secret in the workplace. But the past three years have seen an unprecedented flood of trauma and tragedies, from the outbreak of COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd to devastating wildfires and global unrest. Mental health wellness has moved out of the dark and into a place of prominent importance in the workplace.

According to a report from Mind Share Partners, 50% of U.S. workers have left a job due at least in part to mental issues. Among millennials the figure rises to 68%. And among members of Gen Z, it’s 81%. Ninety-one percent of employees surveyed said they believed that a company’s culture should support mental health.

It only makes sense. Seventy-six percent of respondents had at least one symptom of a mental condition in the last year. On average, they worked at 72% of their full capacity due to mental health and missed an average of eight days of work. While more employees are talking about mental issues at work, less than half (49%) considered it to be a positive experience or to have received a positive response.

What Employers Can Do

In Mental Health America’s “Mind the Workplace 2022 Report,” one employee stated that, “My company has mental health programs in place. … However, my department and team [are] problematic. Between high turnover, heavy workload, unrealistic expectations and a toxic team environment, it has weighed down on me to the point where I stopped wearing make-up to work because I was crying all the time.”

MHA took a look at what employers can do to support employee mental wellness. Primary among their findings was the need for the investment of time, intention and action on all levels of the organization. The report stated that “the most important strategies to improve mental health outcomes are company investment, managerial support and employee empowerment.”

Click through the gallery above to learn about the 10 key takeaways from MHA’s report.