Why a Post-COVID Working World Should Focus on Mental Wellness
When we talk about mental health in the workplace, two statistics from the World Health Organization get thrown around a lot. Depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1 trillion a year, and every dollar invested in treatment for common mental disorders returns $4 in improved health and productivity.
But those numbers predate the worst global health crisis in a century, its corresponding economic disruption and global civil unrest unlike anything we’ve seen in decades. Research conducted in spring 2020 shows a dramatic upswing in the number of adults in the U.S. at risk for serious mental illness.
In other words, already stressed employees are facing a whole new set of stressors, none of which is going away anytime soon. That means mental health and wellness in the workplace have never been more important. It also means smart investments in those areas will pay far greater dividends than ever before.
That’s one of the major takeaways shared by experts from a variety of fields in spring 2020 for the Work, Wellness & Space project.
Accelerating the Mental Wellness Conversation
Alex Simmons spent most of his 20s working in investment banking and private equity. Eighty-hour plus weeks became the norm and after a while, it started taking a toll on him in the form of stress, anxiety and burnout. It’s a common story in modern work life.
Simmons’ wife introduced him to talk therapy, meditation and later coaching. The experience made Simmons realize that the systems in place at most companies to provide mental health services – Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) – weren’t working. That, combined with the growing mental health epidemic in the United States, led Simmons to start Boon Health in late 2019. The Michigan-based company seeks to revolutionize the way companies think about and deliver mental health services to employees because, as Simmons puts it, employers and workers “need something more – something that doesn’t focus on short-term crisis management but rather preventive mental well-being.”
Simmons assembled a team of 40 ICF-accredited coaches, therapists and clinical psychologists. In the early going, the company has achieved over 20 percent employee utilization for its customers, while traditional EAPs typically yield less than 3 percent, Simmons said.
“If you're a mom working from home with multiple kids and you're having to support those kids and entertain them while trying to work a full day, there's just a whole host of other stressors that have entered your life that never existed before,” Simmons said.
As reported in The Washington Post, approximately 20,000 people texted a federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress in April 2020, a more than 1,000-percent increase compared with April 2019. That might be why conversations about mental wellness in corporate America are accelerating, experts said. A senior officer at a venture capital fund focused on healthcare, who asked that her name not be used, said that before COVID-19, conversations about mental wellness were “on the upswing.” That’s increased since the pandemic, in part because of technology, she said.
“COVID has accelerated the adoption of telehealth, including telemental health, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc.,” she said. “Because of COVID, employers are even more focused on employees’ well-being – which includes mental wellness.”
That acceleration is making its way to other parts of the reimagined workplace, including workplace design, with architects and designers finding ways to bring fresh air and daylight into buildings, for starters. That could be even more important in a post-COVID society, where “a holistic approach to productivity and human wellness and happiness” should merge mental health and building design, said Paul O’Connor, an urban strategist.
“The best way to drive numbers in a business is not through demands but through employee production – which is the product of happy, engaged people and not drones at a desk,” O’Connor said.
Coaching, not Just Counseling
One issue that has long plagued workplace mental health efforts is the idea that seeking help means something is wrong with the person seeking it. But that mentality appears to be fading as organizations start to look at mental wellness through the lens of coaching employees to augment performance and productivity.
“If C-suite teams can move somebody from bringing in $10 million or a $100 million to half a billion dollars, they’ve just made a ton of money,” said M. Todd Puckett, founder of Skycrest, which provides performance and life enhancement services to executives and other high-performing businesspeople. “But they can’t say, ‘Hey, to get you to a better spot, you need to go see a therapist.’”
A National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions survey in the early days of the pandemic found that 53 percent of employers were providing specialized emotional and mental health programs for their workforce, including changing employee assistance programs, discounting mental health apps and offering more virtual services like remote yoga. Those services are important, but they’re similar to what’s been offered for years. As the new normal around work continues to develop – and if employers take this moment to learn some lessons about how they can improve mental wellness efforts – an emphasis on coaching will be crucial, Puckett and other experts said.
“We're kind of in this terrifying space that could either paralyze us or it could be seen as an opportunity,” Puckett said. “I truly think it's about having a team of people. It's not just going to the doctor. Maybe you go to the doctor, your massage therapist, your yoga person, your regular therapist or a strategist – and you go to all of these different people in one space.”
And that space, Puckett said, could easily be the workplace.
Designing the Right Culture – and Addressing Racial Tensions
But such a vision only works in the right culture, which is missing at far too many organizations. A 2019 report by Mind Share Partners found that 60 percent of respondents had not spoken to anyone at work about their mental health in the previous year and that they were least comfortable talking about it with HR or senior leaders. Meanwhile, 86 percent said a company’s culture should support its employees’ mental health.
Any rethinking of workplace wellness needs to address that disconnect – and consider the experiences and needs of diverse employees, especially in the wake of the racial reckoning sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, some business leaders have fumbled the initial attempts to address this malignant problem.
“Stop making black people or people of color tell you their story so you know their pain,” said Tanarra Schneider, managing director, design at Accenture Interactive/Fjord. “The tough thing about that is the listening sessions are meant with the best of intentions. But you know what those experiences are, so stop asking us to repeat them.”
Showing that kind of sensitivity – along with taking diversity initiatives out of silos and ensuring third-party wellness partners include diverse faces – will go a long way toward creating cultures where company mental wellness efforts are embraced by employees. But it’s just as important that leaders embrace these efforts and make it known that they’re participating in mental wellness sessions while making it mandatory for employees to do so, too, Schneider said.
“You are not going to incentivize or disincentivize people to change behaviors without implementing structural changes that may cost something and go beyond performative measures,” she said. “Otherwise, the onus continues to lie with the individual.”
Conflict Identification and the Immediate Frontier
Starting with this chapter, Work, Wellness & Space will articulate pressing social conflicts that emerged through our conversations with experts. Our goal is to prime the pump for relevant stakeholders to come together to innovate solutions to these conflicts designed around measurable structural change.
Specifically, regarding mental wellness, we’ve identified the following conflicts:
● Mental Wellness — from Benefit to Necessity: Growing demand – and corporate prioritization – of mental health comes just as budgets tighten. How can employees get what they need, and can mental wellness be viewed as a necessity, not a benefit? This is harder given the likely (and important) focus on health and safety. But will mental health become an afterthought?
● The Difficulty with Metrics: Offering mental health services seems humanistic, but data and metrics still must apply. If it's not measurable, no one is served. What will those metrics involve? How can organizations incorporate them into any new wellness initiatives? How can employee feedback and increased engagement inform high-level decision-making?
● The Importance of Cultural Sensitivity: We must address mental wellness in a culturally sensitive way, particularly in light of racial tensions. How do companies design programs and change their cultures? Further, can corporate leaders who have historically focused on providing a broader vision and managing people act as coaches who help employees navigate an increasingly crazy world?
Coming Next Week in Work, Wellness & Space: What Will the Office Look Like? Think elevators that you activate with your toes, fewer communal areas and new ways to hold meetings.