How Managers Can Learn to Talk About Mental Health

BY Emily Nonko | August 02, 2022

It’s increasingly clear that the workforce is not okay. More than 40% of adults are reporting diagnosable mental health conditions and an estimated 50 percent of people with depression never seek help. Managers, who are often the first point of contact for these employees, are rarely trained on how to identify, talk about, and address their mental health.

Managers, however, are the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to workplaces holistically addressing those needs. They just need to know what to do.

“First and foremost, it’s okay to talk about it,” said David Malmborg, the VP of marketing for Nivati, an employee mental health and well-being platform. “Something that managers really need to understand is that it’s okay to talk about mental health.” (When onboarding new clients, Nivati will distribute stickers that say “Therapy is Okay” and “Self-Care Isn’t Selfish,” along with other messages promoting conversations about mental health.) Once managers are given permission to have these conversations, there are concrete strategies to ensure these conversations lead to meaningful care across the workplace.

Secure Buy-in From Leadership 

There’s increasing buy-in from companies to invest in mental health: according to a 2022 State of the Workplace Mental Health report, 92% of companies said providing mental health support for their people became a higher priority for their company in 2021. “HR really wanted more mental health benefits but the C-suite was not ready to invest in that,” said Amelia Wilcox, founder and CEO of Nivati. “But it’s been going on long enough that now the C-suite is concerned.”

Yet leadership support has to go beyond investment. “Executive teams need to lead the charge and lead with empathy,” said Malmborg. At organizations where leaders embrace mental health practices, talk about these issues openly, and are candid about their own mental health needs, Nivati has seen that employees utilize its well-being platform at levels three times higher than companies where CEOs don’t engage. “Executives can be a huge catalyst for conversations that go on in the office,” Malmborg said. “And I recommend you bring your executives to the table when having that conversation about mental health.”

Trust Your Employees 

Both executives and managers might need to shift their perspective as they enter these conversations to fully trust employees as they open up about mental health. Leadership teams don’t question physical health concerns, but often don’t treat mental health needs the same way. When an employee confesses they’re unable to get out of bed because of anxiety, managers need to trust them and give them the space to care for themselves, just as they would for a physical health issue.

Amelia Wilcox, founder and CEO of Nivati (Photo courtesy of Nivati)

Understand the Signs and Symptoms

It’s important that managers understand the different signs and symptoms of poor mental health. “You don’t need a mental illness to experience burnout/stress/anxiety/hopelessness,” said Haeli Harris, the lead mental health clinician at Nivati. She pointed out that mental health struggles can impact our emotions, thoughts, behavior, and physical health. They can result in difficulty concentrating, exhaustion, and other symptoms. And they results in an estimated 200 million lost work days per year due to anxiety and depression.

Harris suggests that managers learn how to recognize the common signs of depression, anxiety and ADHD, the three most common mental health issues in the workplace.

Be Sensitive to Communication About Mental Health 

Once managers pay attention to the signs and symptoms, they should be prepared on how to talk with struggling employees. To start, managers should understand that confidentially is crucial to establish a position of trust.

Addressing the topic should also be treated with care, so that the worker’s feelings are validated, but not necessarily their assessment of their situation, which could be colored by those feelings. “Validation is important, but there’s a difference between validating the person and validating the scenario,” said Malmborg. “Training on validation, and how to validate the person and not the scenario, is incredibly important.”

Finally, the Nivalti team recommends affirming talking points. For example: “How are you coping?” or “Has work been stressful for you lately?” or “What is concerning you today?” They should avoid accusatory or dismissive statements such as, “Why don’t you snap out of it?” or “It’s in your head” or “Look on the bright side.”

Know Your Resources

Managers should also receive training on the resources available at their workplace. “This is one of the most important things to know–we don’t want managers giving solutions or advice, but they need to know where they should be pointing people to,” said Malmborg. This might be an Employee Assistance Program, an employee-wide wellness program, or a specific staff member. “Every company is different,” Malmborg said, and as leaders fine tune the company’s resources, they must keep managers in the know.

Encourage Mental Health Best Practices and Tools 

“Always encourage everybody in the company, but especially leaders and managers, to have mental health best practices,” Harris emphasized. Wilcox adds that talk therapy is only one solution and that employees have diverse needs. Nivalti’s platform also offers resources on life coaching, meditation, yoga, fitness, massage, nutrition, sleep, and personal finance. “The idea is to offer holistic mental health solutions,” Wilcox said.

Other tools, Harris said, include following mental health resources like the Nivati blog, the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Psych2Go. Employers could also facilitate regular one-on-one sessions between managers and employees.

Prioritize Self Care and Mindfulness

Beyond workplace resources, managers can encourage their employees to regularly practice self-care and mindfulness. Self care might include exercising, relaxing, journaling, or turning off the phone to unplug. A mindfulness practice can include breathwork, meditation and yoga. “We know that when employees regularly practice mindfulness they have reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety,” Harris said.

Perhaps one of the most important components to this practice is a workplace that encourages its employees to set healthy boundaries. “This can really come from the leaders, setting boundaries between you and work and creating that healthy home/life/work balance,” said Harris. She recommends setting a schedule and creating a routine; turning off notifications during off hours; keeping at least one day a week work-free; making a “commute,” even if it’s just a walk after the work day; and working and resting in different spaces if you’re at home.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this story, Nivati.

Emily Nonko is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to writing for From Day One, her work has been published in Next City, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and other publications. 

RELATED STORIES

Revolutionizing Mental Health in the Workplace: The Power of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies

With heightened isolation during the pandemic, mental health conditions like anxiety and depression saw an increase, leading to a surge in mental health care spending and usage. Today, ninety percent of the public state they believe there is a mental health crisis in the U.S., showing the continual relevance and demand for mental health care.Talk therapy or medications like antidepressants are commonly used in treating mental health conditions but studies have shown these treatments may not work for everybody. For example, in one study, researchers found antidepressants only worked for 15% of the participants.Sherry Rais, CEO and co-founder of Enthea is working to change the healthcare industry and revolutionize effective treatment. Enthea is currently the sole healthcare partner offering psychedelic healthcare as a workplace benefit and recently won the 2023 Global Recognition Award for being a transformative pioneer in the medical field.For Rais, Enthea is only the beginning of a well-needed change to the mental health care space. In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s April virtual conference, Rais spoke about the promising results Enthea has seen and how psychedelic healthcare can be a win for both employers and employees.Gaps in Traditional Mental Health Care TreatmentsIneffective treatments, dangerous withdrawal symptoms, and relapses are all reasons for the need for change in traditional mental health care treatments, Rais says.“20-60% of people with a significant mental health condition are actually treatment resistant, so anything that we have to offer them from traditional methods, to talk therapy and antidepressants, won’t work on them,” Rais said.The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates untreated mental illness can cost up to $300 billion annually, an expensive cost for employers, and can result in lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnovers.Sherry Rais of Enthea led the virtual thought leadership spotlight“Employers have improved their mental health offerings in the U.S., yet employees still say that they’re not getting the mental health care they need. There is this disconnect,” Rais said. “It’s like a broken system, we’re spending more but people are not getting better. This is where ketamine and psychedelic therapy can play a huge role for these treatment-resistant populations as they work differently.”Psychedelic therapy has been shown to bring promising results. A single dose of a psychedelic drug can have a long-lasting impact on mental health disorders like depression and PTSD. Additionally, people who undergo psychedelic therapy can see results in as little as one session.“We have a lot of people in the construction industry who deal with high rates of suicide, and a psychedelic drug like ketamine is one of the only substances that reduces suicidal ideation quickly,” Rais said. “A drug like ketamine is magical because it starts working in as little as six hours.”The Challenges to Destigmatize Psychedelic TherapyMaking psychedelic therapy more accessible requires a change in its reputation.Since the 1960s, ketamine has been a drug in clinical practices, proving valuable in the anesthesiology and critical care medicine fields. However, with the increase in recreational use in the 1980s, ketamine quickly became known as a party drug, dubbed “Vitamin K” or “Special K.”But it’s not just ketamine with the bad reputation: MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are both drugs used recreationally and have been outspokenly used by celebrities.These recreational uses are far different than psychedelic therapy, Rais says.“When we are talking about psychedelic-assisted therapy, it is the use of a high dose psychedelic in a clinically supervised setting with a trained therapist who administers the psychedelic and then does therapy with you while you are in this altered state where your brain has an increased neuroplasticity,” Rais said.To shift people’s views on psychedelic healthcare, Rais advises focusing on the benefits of these drugs. “Focus on patient outcomes and data because when administered in a clinical setting, we’re seeing results like people no longer needing to be on antidepressants after just a few sessions and that goes beyond any kind of recreational intent.”With key approvals from the FDA, psychedelic therapy is well on its way to becoming a changing force in the mental health care field, Rais says.“In the future, I hope that the stigma that’s still associated with psychedelics is removed, and people can talk freely and openly about psychedelic-assisted therapy,” Rais said. “I hope that it will be a basic mental health treatment that we will all have access to.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Enthea, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.

Wanly Chen | April 17, 2024

Bridging the Human Connection Gap: How Technology Can Bring Workers Together

The sense of disconnection that Dave Wilkin felt while growing up was painful, but it became a powerful motivator that would change his life. “I learned the hard way that if you don’t have mentors, if you don’t have networks, and if you don’t have relationships–you just don’t get access to the same career or learning opportunities,” Wilkin told From Day One. “I was a gay kid in a really small town, and that’s a really tough place to be. How could I find people who were like me that I could aspire to be like?”Ten Thousand Coffees–or 10KC for short–a networking tech company that Wilkin co-founded and now leads as CEO, is how he hopes to rectify the connection deficit. It’s one that millions of workers experience, especially in the era of remote and hybrid work. Wilkin remembers how it felt to be isolated, imagining a career but with no way to get there. “It’s like sitting on an island all by yourself,” he said.Networks of close relationships grow careers, engage employees, boost morale, and keep workforces intact. According to a 2023 survey by Gallup, employees who have a mentor are 58% more likely to feel that their employer offers equal opportunities for advancement. Forty-eight percent of those who have sponsors feel the same way.Yet for Wilkin, it’s not good enough to leave such relationships up to chance, so he’s giving it a shot with a fast-rising technology: machine learning. His solution is 10KC, which adapts the tech that powers online dating matches to identify meaningful workplace connections, combined with a learning platform to make the most of those connections. The mixture produces connectivity at scale. The platform connects workers based on 50 factors, including skills, career path, location, time zone, interest areas, and affinity networks, then brings them together for productive conversation.The results are impressive. “We’ve decreased employee churn by 25% to 35% among our platform users, and we’re looking at tens of thousands of data points,” he said. Plus, 10KC has been able to increase participation in employee resource groups (ERGs) by two to three times. “A lot of HR and talent leaders think about mentoring and networking in its traditional formats–one-directional relationships where a mentor guides a mentee–but the new world of artificial intelligence and machine learning allows HR leaders to think about mentoring and networking in much more dynamic, personalized ways.”Dave Wilkin, co-founder and CEO of Ten Thousand Coffees (Photo courtesy of 10KC)Ultimately, Wilkin’s ticket out of his hometown of Lively, Ontario, was a full ride to the University of Waterloo. That marked a change in his life, not only because it was an exceptional education, but because it came with mentors and role models. “Those were the most game-changing people in my life because they helped me figure out what skills I needed to learn, what kind of programs I should study to get involved, and how to job-search.”No single relationship gave Wilkin his footing, but it was the sum of his mentors that made the difference. “There’s no such thing as a single mentor,” Wilkins said. “It’s much more dynamic than that.” It takes mentors, sponsors, peer-to-peer relationships, and reverse mentors, where a more junior employee supports one of their seniors, to create a network that propels a career.Preventing Those Missed ConnectionsThough Wilkin had to wait around for serendipity to bring in mentors, he saw a better way: Don’t leave it up to chance. Expecting workers to network on their own creates too many missed connections. With planning, companies can create proximity in distributed workforces.This can be especially important following a merger or acquisition in which two discrete organizations must come together to form something greater than the sum of its parts. And for leaders who travel, a smart network match can help them make the most of site visits. “The next time you travel, schedule a time to get to know your teams and have career conversations, rather than hoping that you bump into your colleagues in the elevator,” Wilkin said. “Find reverse mentoring opportunities so you can pick up new skills while on the road. Promote your practice area or simply learn who’s sitting in your company.”The Network Opportunity GapThere’s a distinct difference between the well-connected employee, who knows a lot of people by name (and maybe some office gossip), and the engaged employee, asserted Emily Dickens, head of government affairs for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) in a 2022 interview with Gallup. “She’s happy, and she knows who to talk to in order to get things done,” Dickens said. “To really thrive and have a life well-lived, you have to have a work experience that is personal. You need to create relationships that outlast your time with the company. Unfortunately, this can be difficult for many professionals.”Traditional networking programs fail too many people. There’s a gender gap when it comes to mentorship and sponsorship. McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s 2023 Women in the Workplace report found that women are less likely than men to be “in the know,” and be able to access both mentorship and sponsorship opportunities at their company. Women are less likely than men to feel included in important company networks, according to SHRM’s Dickens.Another opportunity gap is based on seniority. Though internal mobility rates are up since 2021, according to LinkedIn, advancement opportunities are not evenly distributed. Workers at the manager and director levels are more than twice as likely as individual contributors to make a move within the company. Consider also that workers at the highest echelons are less likely to be female, less likely to be people of color, and less likely to be disabled.Taking the initiative in networking isn’t well-received in every workplace, said Wilkin. Skipping a level can get you in trouble, or at least earn you some suspicious looks. Asking around about other people’s jobs while seeking out sponsorship and mentorship can look like you’re trying to circumvent authority, leave your team, or conduct some (light) espionage. “If you’re a sales manager and you go above your boss to talk to somebody inside the company, you might get your wrist slapped,” he said. “There’s a lot of bias and barriers to networking inside of a company.”Yet companies that are too hung up on the norms of the hierarchy may be passing up major engagement and retention opportunities. Employees who have access to mentors and sponsors are twice as likely to be engaged than those who don’t, per a 2023 survey by Gallup. And according to LinkedIn, employees who make an internal move are 64% more likely than their non-moving peers to stay with their employer for at least three years. Beyond Mere Connection: Learning Skills and CollaboratingLately, Wilkin has been particularly interested in turning networking into learning communities. What if you could form a network of people learning skills independently, then bring them together for application and collaboration?“To reinforce a learning program, you might just think of pairing an intern to a senior leader to close that loop, but a more strategic talent and HR leader is looking at how they drive transformation through networking experiences,” he said. When a company can create a web of new managers or a web of workers adopting new AI applications, that new knowledge can be reinforced in a dozen new ways. “A network of relationships is where the majority of learning, talent, retention, career growth, inclusion all happen, but that has to be deliberate,” Wilkin said. “Using networks to help organizations become more innovative, retain their best colleagues, and be more efficient–it’s the next frontier of learning and development.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ten Thousand Coffees, for sponsoring this story.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.(Featured photo by PeopleImages/iStock by Getty Images)    

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 15, 2024

Sharing Their Truths: Working Parents Reveal the Benefits That Matter Most

Each year, HR leaders ask themselves: What benefits do my employees want? And what will provide me the most ROI? But many are left without answers.In a recent survey of 2,000 working parents conducted by Ovia Health, 62% said that their employers are not family friendly enough.The need for family friendly benefits is clear. Additionally, 94% said family benefits are a top priority and 73% said they would consider making a lateral move to another organization that offered better benefits and a family-friendly culture.In a From Day One webinar, Corrinne Hobbs, general manager and vice president, employer market organization at Ovia Health, discussed the results of the survey. Hobbs offered insight on current benefits offerings, where more support is needed, and what matters most to employees. Family Benefits That Match Today’s Culture“Women’s health benefits are one of the fastest growing segments within healthcare,” Hobbs said.  This is due to changing circumstances during and post-pandemic as more and more workers experienced shifting work-life balance due to hybrid schedules. It’s also due to the increasing range of types of families that need to be accounted for as lifestyles become more diverse. In this current marketplace, “employees have more control and more power than they have had in the past,” said moderator Siobhan O’Connor, chief content officer at Atria Institute. Therefore, it’s even more critical that employers make sure these specific needs are being served.While most companies do offer some family benefits, Hobbs says, there is often a disconnect between perceived needs and actual needs of employees. “There’s a strong push for employees to have better fertility benefits in their workplace. And 38% of respondents said that they’re looking for their employer to provide alternate family planning support,” Hobbs said. This is especially true with more and more single by choice or LGBTQIA+ parents in the workforce, and an overall trend of people waiting until later in life to have children. Unfortunately, many workplaces do not offer benefits to cover the costs of these services, which can be exorbitant.Siobhan O'Connor of Atria Institute interviewed Corrinne Hobbs of Ovia Health during the webinar on family-friendly benefits (photo by From Day One)Incorporating these benefits helps build an overall inclusive corporate culture and can be a way to help retain senior level female employees. Additionally, 83% of respondents said that perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms affect their ability to work, but only 1% receive benefits to help with those symptoms, says Hobbs. In order to “make sure that whatever you’re providing is equitable and inclusive all around,” a diverse range of age and gender must also be factors incorporated into a comprehensive benefits plan.Providing Better Family BenefitsWith family benefits top of mind for employees, Hobbs says there is a clear way forward for organizations looking to provide better care. The most important, according to respondents, is family leave. Hobbs advises: “Make sure that it’s paid, that it’s for at least four months, that it’s inclusive to both parents and that you don’t have to dip into your sick leave or your PTO before taking leave. That is a stress factor for many.” And employers must account for alternate pathways to parenthood, such as adoption, which might entail different costs or timeframes, she says.Hobbs says employers should not only plan for parental leave, but also for parental return. One way to do this is by setting up a return-to-work program to make it easier for parents to re-enter the workforce, noting that it’s a smarter investment than having to endure the cost of hiring someone new. Gradual part-time schedules can ease the burden on stressed parents, as can accommodating PTO policies, flex time, and hybrid or work from home options.Additionally, managers need to be prepped on how to work with returning parents. “A manager training program to ensure a family friendly workplace and ensure that people are able to bring their full selves to work without fear of repercussions is critical,” Hobbs said. ERG support groups can also provide a sense of community support within the workplace.Incorporating Digital Healthcare and AdvocacyOvia Health uses predictive analytics to power millions of members’ care and engagement with their health. Such apps can help provide crucial education about health symptoms, Hobbs says. For example, 85% of respondents said they don’t know much about menopause and how it may affect their performance. Ovia can help fill that gap through online resources, and also provide peer support groups. “We have a community wall where people with uteruses can talk about symptoms together and really feel a sense of community and commonality with others who are going through some of the [same] things,” Hobbs said. Finally, Ovia can also match employees with proper treatment.Using health assessments and surveys, Ovia gets to know its users and can provide highly personalized information to current, expecting, or potential parents. Health alerts will pop up based on users’ reported symptoms, and the app even provides proactive healthcare outreach to guide users through any bumps on their fertility journey.“Digital solutions offer round the clock access, education, and opportunities to really delve deeper into topics,” Hobbs said. “And they also come with advocacy, helping you navigate and understand these complex situations.” The app accounts for a wide variety of families and lifestyles, helping employers provide better care to a diverse workforce. “We have 50+ personalized clinical pathways and programs to support women and families, and then we personalize the experience for each member based on the dynamic health assessments and digital symptom report,” Hobbs said, describing the data-driven service as “person-centered care.”Hobbs says that while women have increasingly reached the upper echelons of the corporate world in recent years, women’s participation in the labor market is currently at a 33-year low. Having a family-friendly workplace can help ensure talented women stay on. “It costs upwards of $75,000 to replace an employee,” Hobbs said. By offering a diverse suite of benefits companies can retain top talent, encourage a more diverse workforce, and save money in the process.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | April 10, 2024