Do your employees know you offer mental health benefits?

When employees struggle with mental health, their performance in the workplace suffers. That should be enough incentive for companies to offer mental health benefits, resources and support. Of course, that responsibility falls to HR, which has certainly had its hands full navigating the transition to remote work, ever-changing laws and government regulations and the Great Resignation, in which companies across the United States have been experiencing historic turnover. In fact, more than 60 million Americans have quit their jobs over the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In March, more Americans than ever before – 4.54 million – left their positions. That’s an increase of 152,000 from February and higher than the former record of 4.53 million in November 2021. The professional and business services sector, as well as the construction industry, saw the most resignations.

If HR doesn’t address the mental health of employees and offer as much assistance as possible, that mass exodus will continue. “HR teams across all industries should look to host anonymous surveys to better understand the kinds of benefits that employees will find useful, such as teletherapy, implementing mental health days, providing fitness memberships, etc. Employees might be embarrassed to ask, so make it easy and comfortable for them to share their needs,” Walden says.

Considering the lack of awareness, perhaps that’s why more than half (55%) of employees say they haven’t used any mental health benefits offered by their employer, according to the Blind survey.

“Communicating the benefits on all available channels is key to ensure they are utilized when needed,” Christina Gialleli, director of people operations at Epignosis, told HRD. Epignosis is a San Francisco-based learning technology vendor trusted by more than 70,000 teams worldwide. “Continuous communication is key – reinforcing that the resources and support is there for employees makes it more likely for them to use the benefit. Moreover, ensuring the quality of the services provided, as well as the protection of employees that use the benefits, will create a positive word of mouth among colleagues and help spread the adoption.”