According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, over 40 million adults in the United States suffer from an anxiety disorder. Extrapolated into the workplace, this means that nearly one in five employees is currently dealing with general anxiety, social anxiety, panic-related anxiety, various phobias or another similar disorder.
When combined with other mental health conditions including depression, the ratio of affected adults rises to more than one in four. Yet NAMI explains that 80 percent of employees afflicted with these conditions are prevented from getting the care they need, due to the shame and stigma associated with mental health.
So how do we minimize the shame and stigma? According to Harvard’s Faculty of the Arts and Sciences Diversity Summer Panel, the task of defeating these preconceived notions about mental health — which become a “monolith” that affected employees also believe might disrupt their careers — begins with each organization’s leadership.
To that end, we checked in with four NYC tech companies to hear exactly how they are opening up dialogues, destigmatizing mental health and leading their employees toward the brighter side of treatment.
The Financial Cost of the Mental Health Stigma
- The American Heart Association reports that untreated depression costs each business nearly $10,000 per employee, per year due to absenteeism and lost productivity
- According to The Lancet, lost productivity from anxiety and depression cost the global economy $1 trillion per year.
- Poor mental health is estimated to take a $6 trillion yearly toll on the global economy by 2030.
Brad Lande-Shannon is the chief people and marketing officer at Spring Health, a mental health benefit solution for employees. He believes that the key to destigmatizing mental health is an everyday solution that involves both open discussion and direct access to care.
How have you created a culture where people feel comfortable having honest conversations about mental health?
We work to destigmatize mental health every day and this includes within our organization. We do this by championing our employees and the stories they have to tell about why they joined Spring Health. We have an employee spotlight content series on our blog and you’ll see perfect examples of both myself and Amber Lyon sharing our own personal journey with mental health.
We also hold community gatherings around topics that impact mental health. These gatherings are intimate and group experiences that are facilitated by a care navigator on our team who is a licensed counselor or by a psychologist, psychiatrist or certified coach from our provider network. They are optional events open to all employees. We’ve held community gatherings in response to things like the anti-Asian attacks and the Chauvin trial verdict announcement. We’ve also held groups focused on themes like dismantling racism or narrative transformation for sexual assault victims. These are opportunities for our employees to come together and process their own emotions and for our culture to be a place of connection, healing and refuge.
What’s one formal policy/program/offering your company has that supports the mental health of your employees?
It has been over two years that we have been offering access to dedicated therapists for all of our employees. We give up to 20 sessions with a therapist for employees and their families every year with no out-of-pocket expense. They can also access our app, “Moments,” for on-demand exercises for their emotional well-being. Moments exercises were heavily vetted through clinical trials to ensure effectiveness. Additionally, we have an open-leave policy where employees can take the time off that they need to maintain their own well-being.
We give up to 20 sessions with a therapist for employees and their families every year with no out-of-pocket expense.”
When employees come to their managers to discuss mental health issues, how are those situations handled? Do you provide any training to help managers navigate these conversations?
We have our most senior leaders, including our CEO, regularly share across communication channels that nothing work-related is worth sacrificing our mental health. We are aware of the unique challenges in being the fastest-growing mental health benefits company in our category while also building a culture that supports making accommodations and being compassionate to each individual’s journey with mental wellness.
We also encourage all managers to ask a question about the state of their direct reports’ well-being (rating on a scale of one to five, with five being optimal) in their one-on-ones each week so they can support them in taking action if their well-being is declining. Finally, we have webinars every month with experts on different topics related to mental health. We encourage team members to participate in those educational sessions. Topics we’ve covered have included things like how to address specific challenges like sleep or stress management, women’s mental health amidst the pandemic, and the Black community and mental health alongside rising racial violence. These sessions help our own leaders deepen their empathy, increase knowledge and gain skills to support teammates.
Maggie Hureau is head of social impact at Harry’s Grooming, a global consumer packaged goods platform that addresses the grooming needs of both men and women. Not only does Harry’s donate 1 percent of their sales to mental health nonprofits — with a goal of $5 million in 2021 — but Hureau believes the company can destigmatize mental health in the workplace through a combination of benefits, culture and access to care.
How have you created a culture where people feel comfortable having honest conversations about mental health?
While we’re continually improving the way we integrate employee well-being and mental health into the workplace, over the past few years we’ve approached these practices from a few different angles. As a company that’s dedicated to this cause — 1 percent of our sales go to mental health nonprofits — it’s important to us that we’re living this value internally, as well. It starts with the benefits, policies and perks we offer employees, like our flexible time-off policy (and paid time off to volunteer). This also includes generous and inclusive parental leave, access to benefits, company-wide mental health days, and health and wellness reimbursements.
Second, we’ve built a culture that values honest and direct feedback — it’s built into our management philosophy and structure — and lifelong learning. We showcase these values by talking openly with our employees about the challenges faced by people struggling with mental health, and by providing opportunities for our employees themselves to engage in activities that positively impact well-being. Lastly, we get our team involved. We’ve offered employees the opportunity to train as crisis counselors with Crisis Text Line and The Trevor Project.
We’ve offered employees the opportunity to train as crisis counselors with Crisis Text Line and The Trevor Project.”
What’s one formal policy/program/offering your company has that supports the mental health of your employees?
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began offering our team company-wide mental health days off. Throughout this past year, the Harry’s team has been working really hard on a number of business challenges, and our goal has been to allow them some space to unplug and recharge (by using these days however they want). We started this policy as a test to start and, after receiving positive feedback from our team, did it on a once-monthly basis during the second half of 2020, with additional time off during the holidays. In 2021, we’ve baked quarterly mental health days for the entire company into our annual calendar from the beginning of the year. For example, we closed on April 1 and 2 to give everyone time to recharge. We’ve found that it’s much easier to unplug when everyone else is, too. Folks know that there will be fewer emails waiting for them when they return.
This was an initiative that started from the top down — our leadership and founders, Jeff and Andy, have been vocal about the importance of making time for self-care, and they drove the idea of having company-wide time off.
When employees come to their managers to discuss mental health issues, how are those situations handled? Do you provide any training to help managers navigate these types of conversations?
At Harry’s, we know that we can continually improve our processes and we plan to keep expanding the way we train managers in mental health. For now, there are five ways that we make sure our employees and managers are able to have an open dialogue with one another about mental health:
- Enable Sustainable Success. This is one of the four pillars of our leadership philosophy. We encourage leaders to use their regularly scheduled check-ins to proactively check in on their direct reports’ well-being, and not just wait until there’s a crisis or someone comes to them.
- Video Discussions. Our senior leadership team hosted and recorded an honest discussion about how they personally navigate supporting their team’s mental health.
- Mental Health Guide. We encourage managers to share our mental health guide as a concrete resource for anyone who needs it.
- Resource Sharing. We routinely share articles, tips, questions and conversation starters for managers to refer to. Particularly after an external event in the world that may warrant additional support, we remind managers to proactively check-in.
- Bravely. This coaching is offered for everyone on our team, including managers that are struggling to navigate tough situations.
Mental Health Treatment Works
- 90 percent of treatments for panic disorders are successful, and 80 percent of those treated for depression get better (Mental Health America).
- 57 percent of those treated for generalized anxiety disorder with a psychotherapy approach recover (Psychology Today).
At Catalyst, a customer success platform, CEO and Co-Founder Edward Chiu believes that destigmatizing mental health begins with an openness to dialogue, sharing and support. Furthermore, company-wide mental health days can allow employees to truly disconnect from work and address their personal well-being.
How have you created a culture where people feel comfortable having honest conversations about mental health?
Our company culture empowers people to have open conversations about mental health. Each Friday afternoon, we have an all-hands huddle affectionately referred to as “be raw.” Employees are encouraged to share shoutouts and recognize colleagues for their work.
Employees are also invited to speak candidly about both their wins and struggles from the week. Employees are emotionally vulnerable and forthcoming when they talk through their challenges and that’s OK.
We are a self-described “culture of criers.” We know that everyone processes emotions differently. Additionally, we have a health and wellness Slack channel in which employees have open discussions about mental health and a wellness resource guide that employees continuously populate with outlets they’ve found helpful.
What’s one formal policy/program/offering your company has that supports the mental health of your employees?
At Catalyst, we care deeply about supporting our employees. One way we’ve demonstrated this is through our monthly mental health days. One Friday per month, all employees are given the day off and are encouraged to cancel all meetings and not log into Slack, Gmail, Zoom, etc.
Although we have an unlimited PTO policy, we know that folks sometimes have a hard time unplugging — especially when we each live and work in the same place. We intentionally carve out space where none of their colleagues are online so that they can truly relax. We also notify our customers of these mental health days to ensure that we’re setting proper expectations and that they don’t inadvertently pressure employees to work on that day.
Of course, we also encourage employees to use our unlimited PTO policy and take days to recharge as needed, regardless of whether this falls on a mental health day. We offer a separate monthly wellness stipend, a portion of which is specifically allocated to mental health resources.
One Friday per month, all employees are given the day off and are encouraged to cancel all meetings and not log into Slack, Gmail or Zoom.”
When employees come to their managers to discuss mental health issues, how are those situations handled? Do you provide any training to help managers navigate these conversations?
Empathy and compassion are key considerations when we hire members of our leadership team. We hire leaders who aren’t just champions in their respective areas of expertise; we hire those who are as focused on their employees’ mental well-being as they are on their employees’ professional growth. This means that when direct reports approach their managers to discuss mental health issues, these conversations will be handled with support, respect and confidentiality.
At Gympass, a corporate wellness platform for mind, body and emotional health, Chief Human Resources Officer Livia Martini believes that consistency, training and empathy are some of the keys to destigmatizing mental health and leading employees toward greater wellness.
How have you created a culture where people feel comfortable having honest conversations about mental health?
I believe the key to any corporate culture trait is consistency. The more things are done the same way by everyone, the more they become normal and the “norm.” Here at Gympass, we leverage one of our values — leading by example. We ensure leaders do what they would expect others to do and are rewarded for that, both formally in our performance cycle and more informally through culture awards.
Specifically, we have started to talk more openly about mental health — leaders with their teams and in town halls, for example. We have made it a standard that we intentionally ask people, “How are you doing?” in every interaction. We even created an external campaign — “How are you, really?” — to share our mental health challenges and solutions we used to overcome it. As a result, this has allowed us to create a more open dialogue with employees and really check in with one another.
When someone shares a concern, it is taken seriously and addressed quickly. Managers, HR and individuals should have resources to help others (and themselves). Our goal is to normalize using the product on a preventive basis across our team so that everybody uses it and sees the benefits firsthand.
What’s one formal policy/program/offering your company has that supports the mental health of your employees?
As a company based on well-being, we put a lot of effort into making sure to offer our employees a few different options to ensure we are meeting different needs. We have a few that are worth mentioning:
- Flexible Work. Extended PTO policy, including unlimited sick days.
- Gympass Product. All-encompassing offer to care for employees’ well-being, including mental, physical, financial, nutritional and more.
- WFH Balance Initiatives. Managing schedules to have periods with no meetings or with a clear separation between work and leisure time, flexible schedules for parents (or others that may need it).
It is extremely important that as part of your hiring process and your talent development process, you ensure your managers genuinely care about others.”
When employees come to their managers to discuss mental health issues, how are those situations handled? Do you provide any training to help managers navigate these types of conversations?
If you want to have a truly caring and welcoming culture, where people feel comfortable talking about mental health issues, you have to take every single conversation very seriously. We have formal channels through which people can reach HR or the most senior leaders at the company, anonymously or not. This allows us to ensure we are creating a safe space for our employees. We keep a very selective group of people who have extensive exposure to sensitive situations in charge of managing these channels. All employees are informed of this and trust these channels.
For managers, they need to be trained on how to handle these situations, but most importantly, they need to be fluent in the resources available. For us, we instruct managers that “when in doubt, come straight to HR for help.” Second, we give them training to support people on a day-to-day basis and recognize signs of mental health issues — those should be yellow flags that push managers to act or ask for help. On top of all the training, it is extremely important that as part of your hiring process and your talent development process, you ensure your managers genuinely care about others.
