Employee Mental Health Decline and COVID-19: How Employers Are Helping Their Employees

COVID-19 has led to feelings of grief, anxiety, and discomfort in the virtual workplace, but employers may be able to make a significant impact with the training, digital care, and support, writes Michael Klazema, chief marketing technologist, VODW.

According to the CDCOpens a new window , one in five Americans experiences a mental illness concern each year.

Despite the prevalence of mental health concerns, employee mental health is not always a principal focus among American employers. According to a 2019 employee benefits studyOpens a new window conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), only 13% of companies are providing an on-site stress management program. Nearly 80% of employers involved in the SHRM survey have employee assistance programs (EAP), which typically incorporate mental health assistance. Still, most companies reported low utilization (below 10%) of those programs.

COVID-19 may be the impetus that changes these trends. Through the pandemic, employers are focusing their efforts and resources on preserving the mental health of their workers through technology.

What COVID-19 Has Done to Mental Health

Employers are making new, profound tech investments in the mental health of their workers. In addition to the deaths and economic strife that the pandemic has caused, it has brought about a significant decline in mental health around the globe.

U.S. Census Bureau data indicatesOpens a new window that due to the pandemic, 24% of Americans are showing “clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder,” and 30% are demonstrating symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. According to one federal emergency mental health hotline, calls were up 1,000% in AprilOpens a new window compared to the same time last year.

The pandemic has created unprecedented conditions that are resulting in a spike in mental health concerns. Isolation, uncertainty, loss of routines, and ways of life: all these factors are contributing to the stress, anxiety, and depression that many employees are experiencing.

“That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is GriefOpens a new window ,” the Harvard Business Review proclaimed in a March headline –grief for the loss of normalcy and connection, and even “anticipatory grief” for what the future might hold. The longer the pandemic stretches, the more grief may take a toll on the mental health of the collective professional population.

Unemployment has also been linked to mental health deterioration. This studyOpens a new window , conducted during the Great Recession, indicated that people who were left unemployed by that economic crisis were “less self-confident, appear overwhelmed by their problems, and report markedly higher diagnosed mental disorders.”

The nationwide unemployment rate hit 14.7%Opens a new window in April – 4.7 percentage points higher than the Great Recession unemployment peak of 10% in October 2009. As employers resume hiringOpens a new window , they should be sensitive to the mental health impacts of prolonged unemployment.

Learn More: 5 Steps for HR to Support Employees’ Mental Health During COVID-19

Companies Using Technology to Support Employee Mental Health

Chevron responded to the pandemic by building upon its existing commitment to mental well-being in the workplace. Chevron runs an internal WorkLife Services program, which offers resources to its staff, such as mental health screenings, benefits intended to reduce stress (including parenting support and on-site childcare options), and referral systems to streamline the process of identifying employees who might be struggling. In 2018, it won the Mental Health Corporate Excellence Award from Mental Health AmericaOpens a new window . During COVID-19, Chevron launched a digital mental health campaign to increase mental health awareness and reduce stigmas surrounding mental health struggles.

There are plenty of other stories of employers taking the pandemic as a wake-up call to examine their technology-supported employee mental health policies. Starbucks announced in MarchOpens a new window that it would be introducing a new mental health benefit in partnership with mental health company Lyra Health. The benefit gives each U.S. Starbucks employee (as well as family members) up to 20 complimentary mental health sessions with a Lyra Health therapist or coach each year — including virtual sessions.

At Verizon, COVID-19 inspired an educational focus on mental well-being. The company has hosted numerous virtual Q&A sessionsOpens a new window with guest speakers who have expertise in the area of mental health, such as Johns Hopkins associate director of psychiatry Dr. Jennifer Lanier Payne talking to employees about managing mental health matters during the pandemic.

Learn More: What Employee Care Looks Like Amid a Global Pandemic

What Can You Do to Support Employees’ Mental Health?

The question that many employers are asking right now is, “How can we use technology to help our employees through this difficult time?”

As the examples from Chevron, Starbucks, and Verizon show, there are many tech-supported ways to approach the problem of mental health in the workplace.

Companies might start by offering virtual mental health sensitivity training to managers so that they can learn to recognize indications of stress, anxiety, or depression in their workers.

Others will jump to technology investment: for example, Justworks, a software platform for HR management, payroll, benefits administration, and more, incorporates a bundled mental health solution that employees can use to get 24/7 access to remote counselors and three remote or in-person complimentary sessions with a local therapist.

As businesses move toward creating a more robust support system for mental health in the workplace, they need to remember that these considerations can begin before employees are hired. 73% of job seekersOpens a new window say that the process of looking for a new job is stressful — a figure that may be higher now in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the economic impacts it has left in its wake.

Employers who take steps to technologically de-stress the hiring process — whether by speeding it up or by being more communicative about application statuses with digital chat platforms and candidate auto-replies — can have a positive effect on both candidate mental health and employer brand image.

How do you think employers can use technology to support employee mental health? Share your thoughts with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .