3 Ways To Build a Culture of Mental Health Using Tech
Building a culture of mental health is critical to attracting and retaining employees, but best practices can look different for every organization. Here, Matt Jackson, head of North America, Unmind, discusses three ways companies have used tech to support a culture of mental health.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at 3.6% – a near 50-year low, according to a report by the Labor Department, and high demand to fill jobs, employers must create a culture that makes them an employer of choice. According to LinkedIn’s 2022 Global Talent Trends, for over half of Millennials and Gen Z employees, mental health and wellbeing is key, and the right tech can make a big difference.
Tech Can Drive a Workplace Culture of Mental Health and Wellbeing
Whether you call it “the great resignation” or “the great reshuffle,” the fact of the matter is that employees quitting their jobs results in lost revenue and a talent drain on organizations. The above LinkedIn study reports that 66% of Gen Z, 51% of Millennials, and 41% of Gen X workers want “a culture built on mental health and wellbeing.”
What does that look like, and who’s doing it well?
A culture of mental health and wellbeing needs to go beyond simply having an EAP for times of crisis. Mental health is a journey every human being is on every day. Some days the journey is light, and other days it’s more difficult. By encouraging mental health and wellbeing to be seen as an everyday occurrence, you reduce the stigma and free your employees from the top down to talk about their day-to-day triumphs and struggles. This builds internal support and encourages healthy actions. In forward-thinking organizations, the focus is not only on helping those with problems but also on helping all employees to thrive.
There’s no single way to go about building a culture of mental health, but technology can play an important role in supporting innovative strategies to improve employee wellbeing. Let’s look at three ways real organizations have leveraged technology to create a culture of mental health.
1. Use Mental Health Tech to Champion Training Around Mental Wellbeing
Legal & General, a financial services and asset management company, uses tech to help normalize the topic of mental health and give people the skills to overcome challenges. The main objective was to bring knowledge and understanding into the conversation around mental wellbeing. They started slowly by using tech that offered self-guided programs on mental health foundations delivered through an app to small groups to help build awareness and support. Over time the organization has seen these groups grow in size as more employees see the impact and want to join the conversation.
Whether it’s helping people recognize when someone is showing signs of poor mental health, or equipping people with the skills needed to have supportive conversations, Anthony Lockyer, Underwriting Auditor at Legal & General, strongly advocates using tech to make training accessible to all.
“It doesn’t just help us to have the conversation,” he says, “but it helps us understand how we can support people further, after that initial conversation.”
Look for mental health tech that offers self-guided programs, mood diaries, and mental health and wellbeing questionnaires to keep the conversations flowing.
2. Use Tech To Help Normalize Mental Wellbeing Through Story
Yorkshire Building Society, the U.K’s third-largest building society, uses mental health tech to stress a proactive instead of a reactive approach to mental health to provide supportive signposting and customized content to build awareness and drive change.
Some of those changes include starting a monthly newsletter, weekly blog, and corresponding email series where they encouraged people to tell mental health stories and normalize these experiences and the need for investing in our mental health. This includes stories that get employees thinking about their own mental wellbeing, where they are on their journey, and encourage speaking up before things get too bad. Tech is essential to deliver proactive thinking in the palm of every employee’s hand.
Story sharing is a great way to build empathy. Unlike sympathy, empathy places judgment aside, seeks to understand the emotions someone else is experiencing, and then communicates that understanding in a positive way. Empathy opens the doors to psychological safety, and psychological safety leads to higher productivity. This organization encourages storytelling to express ideas and feelings so others can experience meaningful connections in a safe space at work.
So far, blogs have covered subjects like men’s health, autism, bipolar disorder, and depression. Newsletters might focus on a key date in the calendar or a specific topic and aim to remove any lingering stigma that surrounds discussing mental health at work. All of this is augmented by a mental health app.
“You’d tell your manager if you’d broken your leg and were in pain, but not necessarily that you’re struggling with your mental health or having a bad day,” says Abbie, a Customer Consultant at Yorkshire Building Society. “It’s important to show that mental health is just as important as physical health.”
Just like physical health, it’s normal to come up against challenges relating to mental health from time to time. Look for mental health tech that offers confidential information about 24/7 helplines and local healthcare providers, as well as customized content that enhances awareness of EAPs, peer support, or other internal services.
See More: How HR Can Use AI To Boost Employee Wellbeing
3. Mental Health Tech Creates Space for Active Listening
Human beings are wired for connection, but the old ways of working emphasized top-down listening with little to no collaboration. The new world of work relies on teamwork, and, in fact, about 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important”, according to the Queens University of Charlotte. Further, according to Gusto, 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (great coworkers, celebrating milestones, a common mission) kept them at a company longer, while 99.1% prefer a workplace where people identify and discuss issues truthfully and effectively.
The most important key to all of these statistics is active listening. Active listening is more than the passive act of receiving or hearing. It is giving your full attention to the other person and engaging meaningfully.
Thus, listening is an active process. There is a balance found in active listening, between being passive versus being overly active, such as anticipating what you are going to say next instead of really listening. Mental health tech drives a culture of positive mental wellbeing where talking about mental health opens the door to active listening. A culture of active listening gives space to talk about mental health without forcing the issue.
Matt Bickerdike and Dom Lindsay at BAE Systems started a podcast for listening after the death of a coworker. Their internal podcast, Break the Silence, exists to raise awareness about common mental health issues via open and honest conversations. By airing real, often difficult, and sometimes funny stories, Break the Silence is relatable by nature.
The podcast runs monthly, zooming in on a new theme each time, like autism or PTSD. Guests come from across the BAE Systems hierarchy (apprentices to directors), a deliberate nod to the channel’s purpose: Everyone has mental health, so why not talk about it?
Encouraging active listening using mental health tech drives a positive mental health culture, connects people, creates happier teams, and normalizes different stages of mental health and wellbeing.
Use mental health tech to gain wellbeing insights and allow you to see where your efforts are needed. Mental health checks that allow you to take a pulse check of your organization’s mental health from a real-time dashboard help you actively listen to your employees, drive platform engagement, spot patterns, and make more informed decisions.
Culture Building Is a Constant Work-in-Progress: Tech Can help
Organizational culture is a key part of your employer brand and can make or break your talent goals. By using tech to help create a culture of wellbeing and mental health, you will attract and retain top talent. To ensure greater adoption, start small and be consistent — culture-building doesn’t happen overnight. Use technology to support a comprehensive wellbeing strategy that drives training, open communication, and social rewards to engage and inform your employees. When implementing a mental health program, keep these three steps in mind to gain supporters within the organization and watch your program grow.
How have you used technology to support a culture of employee mental health? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
MORE ON EMPLOYEE WELLNESS
