Out of the shadows: Sustainably improving workplace mental health
Unveiling the often overlooked aspect of workplace wellness, we delve into the realm of mental health. We explore sustainable strategies for improvement, shedding light on the importance of mental well-being in fostering a productive and harmonious work environment.
Building organisational resilience
Programmes focused on psychological safety and broad-based mental health awareness have proved to be effective, especially when paired with leader training
- Examples
- Mental health promotion
- Leaders publicly shared their commitment to supporting and improving mental health, often through storytelling
- Leader capability
- Many organizations provided access to additional mental health training for leaders
About the Author(s)
Alistair Carmichael is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Sydney office, Fiona Lander is a consultant in the Perth office, and Richard Steele is a partner in the New York office.
- The authors wish to thank Prasun Agrawal, Priyanjali Arora, Ben Fletcher, Margot Franklin-Hensler, Zaana Howard, Cameron Leitch, and Sam Pickover for their contributions to this article.
Solve with your community
As a leader, you must maximize the engagement and performance of your employees, and that means seeing the whole person
- Look beyond your workplace and engage with your communities to build an even stronger and more mentally healthy workplace
- Recent research shows how and where action can be taken
Building individual resilience
Employers provide a range of interventions, including stress-management programs built around cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- CBT aims to change an individual’s specific misconceptions and maladaptive assumptions and to teach new skills for handling stressful situations.
- Examples include resilience training, mindfulness programs, physical activity, and virtual physical challenges.
Supporting recovery and return to work
During the pandemic, leading organizations have developed additional tools and services to assist their people
- Direct access to psychological support
- Increased leave
- Improved leader training
- A number of employers have offered five days of additional “pandemic leave” on a no-questions-asked basis
Workplace Mental Health Best Practices
Many companies think that taking action on workplace mental health means setting up a collection of programs owned by HR.
- This approach and mindset is not sufficient to generate the real, sustainable change that is necessary now more than ever
- Workplace mental health best practices should be integrated into all elements of a company’s operating model, including its organisational culture
- Doing so means bringing together workforce mental health research, deep organisational design and change expertise, and a value-first perspective
Mental health conditions profoundly affect individuals, employers, and society
Common mental health conditions can have a major impact on work performance and career trajectories.
- They cost Australian workplaces AU $17 billion (US $13.6 billion) annually through absenteeism and lost productivity
- The impact of poor mental health is also a significant and growing challenge for society, especially for individuals.
Designing workplaces to minimize harm
This domain involves addressing core risk factors
- Many mental health risk factors are well known, but the majority of workplaces still fall short in proactive monitoring and awareness and in taking consistent action
- Examples
- Community building
- Enhanced flexibility
- Workload monitoring and dynamic rebalancing
Understand how core risks play out in your workplace
To take effective action to sustainably improve workplace mental health, an organization can start by understanding the factors that have been shown to contribute to the risk of diagnosable mental health conditions.
- Risk factors include a low level of support provided in completing work, an imbalance between effort and reward, and a low degree of autonomy in the use of skills and expertise.
Be integrated and holistic in your actions
Consider the entire operating model and cultural system: people, process, structure, culture, and leadership
- Integrate mental health work into broader organisational change, maintain a strong organisational imperative, and ensure broad-based and visible leadership support
Five Principles to Sustainably Improve Workplace Mental Health
The development of a comprehensive programme of mental health interventions across an organization’s entire operating model and cultural system can sustainably address the issues across these domains
- Listening to leaders from across geographies, industries, and the public, private, and social sectors-and leveraging the most up-to-date research-we have identified five core principles that can help leaders to build and sustain this comprehensive programme
Facilitating early help-seeking
During the pandemic, some organizations provided the following: Tailored mental health awareness, mental health-focused events, expanded employee assistance programs (EAPs), and expanded access to include the family members of employees or small-business suppliers or customers
Use data to personalize interventions
One size does not fit all when it comes to improving workplace mental health. Individuals experience each workplace differently and bring different elements of themselves and their personal life into the mix.
- Demographic and other data can help you to identify different cohorts or personas that inform the suite of interventions necessary to build a more mentally healthy workplace.
Co-design solutions with your people
Involve a broad array of your people in understanding the root cause of your current challenges and in co-designing solutions
The domains that matter for workplace mental health
Design workplaces to minimize harm
- Building organisational resilience
- Individual resilience facilitating early help-seeking
- Facilitating recovery and return to work
- A new urgency for leaders to act
- The domains of activity to protect against poor mental health outcomes