Suggestions for employers to enhance their wellness benefits include expanding massage therapy coverage, providing counselling services and implementing health days where employees can take time off without explaining why.Getty Images
At a time when businesses are being squeezed on all sides, common sense tells finance leaders to trim excess where possible. If employee mental wellness plans are on the list of expenses to cut, however, you could be working against your organization’s best interests.
“I firmly believe that supporting employees’ mental health from a preventative lens is not only more cost-effective than intervention, but it is also essential for saving lives,” says Jason Walker, associate professor of Industrial-Organizational and Applied Psychology at Adler University in Vancouver. “Prioritizing mental health in the workplace cannot be overstated. Research consistently shows that maintaining worker mental wellness is not only essential for individual well-being but also vital for the overall health of an organization.”
Walker points out that the need for support in this area is incredibly prevalent, nodding to stats such as the fact that one out of five Canadians face mental-health challenges over their lifetime.
Connecting the big-picture to everyday tactics
Even workplaces like Walker’s, which already has a four-day work week and sabbatical opportunities, could be doing more for employee mental wellness, he adds.
“Most employers need to re-evaluate enhancing wellness benefits by expanding massage therapy coverage, providing counselling services that could substantially support mental health and implementing health days where employees can take time off without explaining why so they can prioritize their wellness differently,” Walker suggests.
“Every organization can do better to address stigma, create a culture of inclusivity regarding mental wellness, and make space for people to thrive, from flexible hours to more time off, underscoring the importance of a diverse and easily accessible range of wellness benefits.”
And, in a climate where every dollar must be accounted for, these benefits can also have a demonstrable positive impact on a company’s bottom line, point out Karen Mann and Grace Ewles of HR advisory firm McLean & Company.
“There’s no denying it: mental wellness directly impacts work,” they say, referencing a World Health Organization statistic that showed mental-health challenges account for US$1-trillion in lost productivity each year. “A commitment to employee health and well-being reflects a long-term investment strategy for organizations that provides a multitude of benefits that directly impact the bottom line.”
How tactics map to budget
One compelling reason to reinstate those mental well-being initiatives as a budget line item: It’ll help you attract and retain the kind of employees who are the bedrock for your company’s success.
“When organizations invest in employee well-being, there is a significant return-on-investment, including reduced medical and absenteeism costs, improved productivity, retention and talent attraction,” Mann and Ewles say. “Investing in mental wellness initiatives and reinforcing the importance of employee well-being through organizational norms and practices is a long-term financial strategy.”
At McLean and Company, this is multipronged: Employee engagement surveys regularly take the organization’s pulse, while mental health services are included in employee benefits packages and there’s an employee assistance program that offers workers and their families access to free counselling. Other accommodations, like modified working hours, are available on an individual basis. Most importantly, it’s less about a one-off initiative or two, and more like a total shift in how they operate.
“This means creating cultural norms that emphasize the importance of well-being for both individual and organizational outcomes, reinforcing expectations for well-being through formal policies and practices, and role modelling expectations from the top-down,” they say. “If organizations aren’t thinking critically about the day-to-day experience of well-being, including what is communicated and reinforced through formal and informal channels, then efforts to support mental wellness will fall short.”
The key to success
Leaders must be responsible for modelling behaviours that promote mental wellness – actually logging off on vacation, for example – and visibly taking advantage of the resources that are available, whether that’s attending a seminar on financial well-being or taking manager training. “Only through shifting cultural norms and reinforcing expectations through formal structures and practices can organizations enact real long-term change,” Mann and Ewles say.
It’s a story that Ed Thompson knows firsthand. Fifteen years ago, he was in a serious car accident that made it harder for him to process information and remember things. As a result, he was in and out of work for several years.
Eventually, this experience led him to found Uptimize, a company that works with organizations to “to create spaces where all types of thinkers can harness their talents,” with a particular focus on supporting neurodivergent workers.
“Between 15 to 20 per cent of the population is neurodivergent, which means many businesses have neurodivergent workers – even if they don’t know it. However, workplace norms can unintentionally marginalize this group,” Thompson says. “This means many of them are more likely to experience burnout and other forms of mental distress. From a business point of view, you aren’t getting the most out of your talent under those conditions.”
Instead, Thompson believes that with a few simple changes, employers can actually “supercharge” those neurodivergent workers – and make things more pleasant for the neurotypicals in your office too.
“It can mean allowing for more natural lighting, or letting workers use noise-canceling headphones in a busy space. It can also mean hashing out a work-from-home arrangement,” he says.
The bottom line
If you’re looking for some hard numbers to share with stakeholders? Just look at Thompson’s own findings about what happens when you “unlock” the potential of up to 20 per cent of your team.
“Mental wellness is directly related to talent sustainability and retention. Those two items are crucial for any organization’s bottom line, including ours,” he says. “After we’ve worked with customers on their neurodiversity programs, they have seen 90+ per cent retention rates and 50 to 90 per cent increases in team productivity.
“That’s a big boost that any organization can’t afford to pass up if it wants to stay competitive.”