Dive Brief:
- Only a little over half the workforce knows how to access their mental healthcare benefits, according to a recent poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in cooperation with Ipsos.
- Further, more than one-quarter of workers don’t know if their employer offers mental healthcare benefits, an employee assistance program, flexible work arrangements or sick days for mental health. More than three-quarters of workers said training would help, specifically on insurance benefits, stress or burnout management, mental health crisis response and more.
- “It takes a commitment for companies to implement mental health education and establish mental health benefits,” Darcy Gruttadaro, chief innovation officer at NAMI, said. “By doing so, organizations will see the individual and organizational impact of increased productivity, connection, and satisfaction amongst employees who are connected to resources.”
Dive Insight:
HR professionals continually run into a frustrating conundrum when it comes to mental healthcare resources: While workers say they want and would benefit from such offerings, they appear to rarely use them when made available.
Many factors likely contribute to this apparent contradiction. As a 2023 survey from OneMedical showed, 45% of those who avoided using such benefits said they didn’t have time, 25% said they were embarrassed and 22% cited costs — pointing to three very different hurdles.
HR can potentially bolster usage with the right kind of destigmatizing communication and training, workers have said.
HR can loop in managers as well; a 2023 survey from MetLife found that one-third of workers prefer to hear from their managers on benefits, but also that many managers don’t feel confident in that role. MetLife researchers suggested empowering managers with training to build their confidence on benefits communication.
A culture that supports use of mental health resources also must start at the top — SHRM researchers released data last year showing that even one-quarter of HR pros were hesitant to use mental health benefits, and 35% said they didn’t believe their organization truly cared about their mental health.
