Prioritizing Mental Health: What Employers Can Do to Improve Employee Well-Being

One in five US adults live with mental illness, ranging from common mental health conditions like anxiety to serious mental illnesses (SMIs) that can limit life activities.

In the workplace, access to adequate mental health resources isn’t always as available as it should be. As mental health is such a personal issue, many employers struggle to perfect the balance between offering enough support and respecting their employees’ privacy.

But providing sufficient care is essential. Here’s why mental health is such an important issue in all workplaces (yours included!) and what you can do to support your employees’ needs.

What do mental health challenges look like in the workplace? 

Understanding the range of struggles your team may be managing is the first step toward building a workplace where people feel supported. Here’s what your workers may be experiencing. 

• Burnout that’s been building over months of high workload and constant context switching.
• The mental load of caregiving — balancing work with looking after children, aging parents, or both.
• The emotional and physical strain that comes with fertility treatment or pregnancy loss.
• Ongoing challenges like anxiety, depression, or navigating the workplace with a neurodivergent condition.
• Financial stress and anxiety, which is particularly acute during periods of economic uncertainty or for employees managing debt, housing costs, or unexpected expenses.
• Grief and bereavement, including the complicated, drawn-out grief that can follow divorce, estrangement, or the loss of a pet, which may all require compassionate leave. 
• Social isolation, especially for remote or hybrid workers who lack the informal connection that comes with being in a shared space.
• Menopause and perimenopause which can both significantly affect mood, concentration, and confidence but are rarely acknowledged in workplace wellbeing conversations.

How can you address mental health at work?

Here are a few easy-to-implement ideas to improve your employees’ well-being.

Promote senior support

Workplace culture often starts from the top down; if employees don’t believe that senior staff members genuinely care about their well-being and mental health, they’re less likely to feel comfortable discussing it. Creating a system of senior support and discussing the importance of mental health tells employees that their workplace is a culture of caring, which will in turn improve not only their outlook but also their output.‍

Make HR more accessible

Your employees should feel able to contact HR if they’re experiencing a mental health crisis. But that’s only possible if they know how and where to reach out. Start by making HR contact details easy to find: pin them on your company intranet, include them in onboarding materials, and post them in shared spaces like break rooms or Slack channels.

Beyond accessibility, HR teams should actively signal their openness. Regular "office hours", whether in person or virtual, give employees low-stakes opportunities to raise concerns before they escalate. Consider sending periodic reminders about the support HR can provide, particularly around awareness dates like World Mental Health Day, so it doesn't feel like a one-off gesture.‍

Create a positive workspace

Research has shown time and time again that employees function better in spaces they feel promote positivity (spaces with lots of natural light, for example). Of course, what’s positive for one office might not be for another. Invite your employees to give input on what makes them happiest in their workspace

How does a comprehensive benefits package support mental health? 

Offering the right benefits is one of the most tangible ways an employer can demonstrate that mental health isn't just a talking point. But the keyword here is right, as a benefit that goes unused, or that only works for some of your workforce, isn't doing its job. Here's how a well-designed benefits program can make a positive difference.

Mental health benefits reduce the financial barrier to getting help

Cost is one of the most common reasons that people delay or avoid seeking mental health support. Tax-advantaged accounts like flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health saving accounts (HSAs) can meaningfully close that gap, covering therapy, psychiatric care, prescriptions, and occupational therapy, among other types of support. Communicating this clearly, and helping employees understand what's eligible, removes a practical obstacle that might otherwise stop someone from getting help.

Mental health benefits gives employees the option to self-support 

Mental health is personal. For one employee, the most valuable support might be a gym membership that manages their anxiety. For another, it might be a meditation app, a financial planning session, or help with childcare that reduces daily stress. 

Flexible benefits like Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) let employees direct their benefit funds toward whatever best supports their wellbeing, rather than a fixed menu that may not reflect how they live.

Mental health benefits extend support beyond the working day

Stress doesn't clock off at 5 pm. Benefits that support employees' lives outside work, whether that's family care assistance, mental health days, or access to digital therapy platforms, acknowledge that wellbeing isn't contained to office hours. Employers who recognize this tend to see stronger employee retention and lower burnout rates as a result.

Mental health benefits signal that mental health is taken seriously

Perhaps the most underrated function of a strong benefits program is what it communicates. When employees see that their employer has invested in meaningful, accessible mental health support, it normalizes the conversation and makes people more likely to use what's available — and more likely to stay. A token benefit buried in an onboarding document sends one message; a thoughtfully designed program that employees hear about regularly sends quite another.

Support your employees’ mental health with Benepass  

When it comes to finding a good benefits program, it can be difficult to know where to start. That’s why Benepass is working hard to make benefits straightforward and accessible. We allow employees to be fully flexible in how they engage with mental health tools. 

Benepass also provides summary data on engagement, so you can understand what’s working and where you might need to add extra support. 

We also work hard to protect the privacy of your employees, verifying transactions ourselves so your employees don’t have to. If you have any questions about how benefits can improve employees' mental health, or you're interested in how we can help you demystify your benefits package, please reach out at sales@getbenepass.com.