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While many employers have started prioritizing mental health in the workplace through wellness programs, experts say such initiatives aren’t achieving the expected outcomes when it comes to employee mental health.
In a recent piece for the Harvard Business Review, workplace wellness experts Jazz Croft, Acacia Parks and Ashley Whillans investigated the discrepancy between the 85 per cent of U.S. employers that offer mental wellness programs, and the continued burnout, rising stress levels and mental health needs among workers.
“We’re seeing evidence that stand-alone, individual solutions aren’t delivering the results that employers expect and that this is having negative consequences for employees and contributing to rising levels of burnout,” Ms. Croft says in an interview.
The Canadian workplace faces a similar discrepancy, says Kate Ashton, a Calgary-based HR professional and executive partner of Salopek & Associates, who notes that “while wellness programs are growing, they don’t always deliver the expected outcomes.”
Ms. Ashton cites numerous studies, notably from Sun Life Financial and Telus Health’s mental health index, that show 60 per cent of employees report mental health challenges, yet only 30 per cent feel their workplace provides adequate support.
“This discrepancy suggests a misalignment between program offerings and employees’ needs, often because programs lack depth or are not customized to specific workplace issues,” Ms. Ashton says.
For employees, she says, they “often experience a gap between their mental health needs and the types of support programs provided.” This gap often trickles down, affecting both individual employees as well as the organization at large, resulting in quicker employee burnout, retention issues, potentially high turnover and mental health-related leaves of absence.
Further research from the Mental Health Commission of Canada notes that civility and respect, psychological demands and workload management are crucial, yet frequently overlooked in wellness programs.
“This gap is a missed opportunity,” Ms. Ashton says, “especially as research shows that a psychologically healthy workplace can improve engagement by up to 25 per cent.”
Not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ or ‘Band-Aid’ solution
Ms. Croft and her co-authors argue that the focus on individualized support at the expense of a systemic approach is a key factor in why employee wellness initiatives fall short.
Meanwhile, Ms. Ashton says it’s because employers tend to focus on surface-level offerings, noting that the workplace initiatives being conceived are “Band-Aid solutions” or “‘’one-size-fits-all’ solutions that don’t address the complex nature of mental health.”
There’s a tendency for these generic solutions to be low-hanging fruit and, therefore, easy to integrate into workplaces. “Programs often prioritize low-touch resources — like mindfulness apps or single-session workshops — rather than systemic changes or personalized support,” Ms. Ashton says.
While Ms. Croft says there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, she advises against simply individualized supports, noting that organization-wide changes are the best line of defense.
She cites the example of employee burnout, noting that “even gold-standard interventions for individuals like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have limited effect without organizational changes, like workload management and job crafting. Individual support is unlikely to fix these issues alone without addressing the workplace factors that increase the risk of burnout at an organizational level.”
But when programs focus more on surface-level offerings like mindfulness apps, lunch and learn sessions or boardroom yoga, without integrating mental health support into organizational culture, it leaves mental health challenges unaddressed at their root. This gap is a missed opportunity, especially as research shows that a psychologically healthy workplace can improve engagement by up to 25 per cent.
A systemic approach to mental health at work
In the HBR article, the authors call for employers to move away from individual-specific approaches to mental health support and to integrate more holistic, systemic solutions.
“Rather than solely focusing on the individual, employers should take a whole-organization approach – delivering the right support to all levels of the company, driving cultural change around mental health and wellbeing,” Ms. Croft says.
Ms. Ashton concurs, noting that “employers should integrate mental health initiatives into their core business strategies, ensuring they are not only accessible but also perceived as valuable by employees.”
Reducing the ‘core stressors’
While Ms. Croft and her peers advocate for a blended mental health solution that balances individualized and systemic approaches to employee mental wellness, Ms. Ashton highlights the need for employers to tailor mental health programs around “core stressors” that affect employee wellness.
“Programs often do not succeed because they do not address underlying workplace issues that contribute to stress and burnout, like unreasonable workloads, lack of autonomy and ineffective leadership,” Ms. Ashton says.
She recommends initiatives such as mental health training, creating safe spaces for employee feedback on workload and culture, as well as “aligning wellness programs with employee needs, perhaps through regular surveys or focus groups.”
Ms. Croft adds “measures like protected focus time, flexible schedules and four-day weeks” to the list of employer recommendations. She notes that these “are all examples of organizational measures that have brought positive returns for organizations.”
“If employers want wellness programs that truly make an impact, they need to go beyond simply having these programs ‘on paper’ and instead ensure they are deeply embedded within the organization’s workplace culture and strategy,” she says. “Having a program just to say you have one is not enough. Employees need to see that mental health is a genuine priority, not just a checkbox.”
