Oct 10 / Kristyn Peterson

Why Mental Health is a Workplace Issue Businesses Should Prioritize

As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) specializing in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), I see a growing recognition of mental health as a critical factor for organizational success. For too long, mental health has been sidelined as a personal issue—something that individuals must manage on their own, outside of the workplace. Or worse, something that lands someone in the chair across from HR. This perspective overlooks a what much of the data on these issues are telling us: the workplace plays a significant role in the mental well-being of the people inside it. Research also indicates failing to address mental health in the workplace can lead to detrimental effects on the organization's bottom line, including employee performance, engagement, and retention.

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

84%

workers say their workplace conditions have contributed to at least one mental health challenge

18 days

Employees take around 18 days off a year to deal with stress, depression, or anxiety

76%

of U.S. workers reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition.

81%

of workers reported that they will be looking for workplaces that support mental health in the future.


             (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2024)

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These data underscore the urgency for businesses to prioritize mental health.
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Stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression are on the rise, and ignoring these issues has proven costly for organizations.

Increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, and high turnover rates come with significant dollar figures that must be incurred by the organization. Let's take turnover as a specific example: 

The Society for Human Resource Management benchmarking data indicate the average cost to hire a new employee in the United States (so, essentially recruitment activities) was $4,700. Personal experience, and other benchmarking data indicate that the more specialized of a role you are trying to hire for, the hire those costs get - and fast. 

While that $4,700 metric per hire isn't chump change, it feels much less significant when you consider that some positions cost three to four times the annual compensation to hire. 

That means if you're hiring for a position that pays $50,000, you may end up spending $150,000 - $200,000 to replace the employee that just left. 

$4,700
AVERAGE COST PER HIRE
3x - 4x
THE COMPEnsation for the position 
TOTAL COST TO HIRE 
60%
of costs related to turnover are "soft costs"

(SHRM, 2022)


While there are many reasons why employees may leave their jobs, the data reference above from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services shows that mental health can be a large factor in these separation decisions.

While many companies are trying to fill this need, we continue to see a  "one size fits all" approach to employee initiatives, offering generic solutions that often fail to address the unique needs of their workforce. Rather than a "check the box" solution, organizations would be better served by taking an approach that helps them understand what those idiosyncratic needs to their specific employee base are. And that starts with creating and environment where employees feel safe to openly discuss mental health challenges without fear of stigma or repercussions.

Enter: Psychological Safety. 

CREATING PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS

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The Role of Leadership in Fostering Psychological Safety

At the core of addressing mental health in the workplace is the concept of psychological safety. This means that anyone in an organization can speak up, share concerns, and take risks at work without facing negative consequences such as embarrassment, rejection, or punishment (Edmondson, 2018). In a psychologically safe environment, employees are more likely to disclose mental health challenges, allowing organizations to get the information they need to design better, more targeted mental health initiatives.

When employees feel safe enough to share their experiences with mental health, companies gain insights that can help tailor support programs to better serve the workforce. For example, rather than offering generic wellness webinars or blanket Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), organizations can develop specific interventions that address stressors in the work environment or offer customized resources based on employee feedback. This shift from a “one size fits all” approach to a more individualized strategy is key to genuinely supporting mental health at work.


Creating psychological safety starts with leadership. For psychologoical safety to be a genuine extension of an organization's culture, managers and leaders must model open communication, transparency, and empathy when discussing mental health. Being a "safe" person to disclose to, without fear of repercussions or loss of standing as an employee is paramount! 

Leaders should also promote policies that normalize mental health conversations in the workplace, such as training managers to recognize early signs of distress and encouraging employees to utilize PTO, laws around FMLA, and benefits available to them to support them during challenging periods. There should also structures to collect feedback that are de-identified, so that HR and/or people operations are able to, over time, identify patterns in the needs of their specific workforce - again, leading to better initiatives and benefits in the future. 

A workplace with high levels of psychological safety enables employees to voice their mental health challenges early, potentially mitigating more severe issues down the line. By addressing these challenges proactively, organizations can design interventions that improve the overall work environment, reduce stressors, and promote a healthier, more engaged workforce.

Moving Beyond Reactive Approaches: Designing Better Initiatives

Organizations that fail to foster psychological safety often rely on reactive measures—addressing mental health only after issues arise. Or worse, not at all. A reactive stance can lead to burnout, disengagement, and ultimately, higher costs in the form of turnover or decreased productivity. Instead, companies should aim for a proactive approach by designing mental health initiatives that are flexible, data-informed, and responsive to the actual needs of their workforce.
What can i do?

PRIORITIZE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

If your organization is ready to move beyond superficial programs or initiatives and make a real difference in employee mental health, consider investing in a Psychological Safety Workshop. Through this workshop, your leadership team will learn how to create an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing mental health challenges, enabling your organization to gather meaningful data to design initiatives that are effective for both employees and the organization's bottom line. 


You can also explore our Psychological Safety in the Workplace Course, designed to equip your team with the tools and strategies needed to build a mentally healthy workplace culture.

It’s time to prioritize mental health—because your people are your most valuable asset, and your business is made of people.