Are your workplace mental health initiatives effective?

Written by Rachael Steimnitz, Director of Workplace Mental Health at NAMI-NYC, and Alayna Auerbach, Manager of Workplace Mental Health at NAMI-NYC

Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of mental health programs in the workplace, encouraging organizations to invest in initiatives that reduce burnout, increase resilience, and boost productivity and team cohesion. Programs focused on mental health, including management training, expanded behavioral health insurance, employee resource groups, and company-wide anti-stigma campaigns, have emerged as exciting new options. Despite the wealth of research showing the positive impact of these programs, realizing these benefits in organizations can be difficult. Organizational leaders are increasingly looking for data that illustrates the value and cost savings in areas such as employee retention, engagement, health care costs, and productivity. They want evidence that mental health-friendly policies improve both individual well-being and organizational performance.

The dearth of high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of workplace mental health programs means there is no universally recognized, evidence-based standard. This lack of standardized protocols, combined with the unique cultures and practices of different organizations, makes evaluating these programs particularly challenging. Executive leaders, benefits teams, and managers often have different goals for success with workplace mental health, making it difficult to measure value. For example, an executive leader may believe that workplace mental health programs should reduce health care costs, while an employee may see success as feeling more valued at work. These different perspectives mean that even if a program is effective, it may not align with everyone’s priorities or expectations. Many organizations also lack the expertise and time to evaluate a program, and concerns about employee confidentiality discourage both employers from asking questions about mental health and employees from answering them.

Despite these challenges, evaluating mental health programs in the workplace doesn’t have to be complicated. The lack of a gold standard allows organizations to experiment with innovative ideas and iterate to determine what works best for their employees and culture. Evaluating programs is key to discovering their true impact. Is your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) really helping employees thrive? Is it easy to use? Are employees using it? Ongoing analysis and evaluation can identify issues early on, such as low participation rates in training programs that can lead to poorer outcomes, or limited EAP counseling sessions that cause employees to avoid using the service because they need more long-term care. Addressing pain points early ensures that programs are not only effective but also valued by employees. Because workplace mental health programs and research are still in their early stages, focusing on process and employee satisfaction is just as important as focusing solely on outcomes. Employers should prioritize addressing the most pressing issues: how to support employee mental health and ensure that programs are effective. Here are some strategies and tools that can help.

Clarify and set goals

Engage stakeholders, including executives, benefits managers, and human resources teams, from the outset to understand their needs and familiarize them with feasible assessment methods. Set expectations that these initiatives may take time to show bottom-line results and encourage trust in the process. Agree on the goals of the initiative and how success will be measured. For example, if the organization is conducting stress reduction training, ask the group what success looks like: high participation rates, employees reporting less stress after training, or reduced interpersonal conflict among team members. Then determine the easiest way to collect the necessary data. Clarifying and agreeing on goals early in the process increases buy-in and ensures that everyone agrees on what success looks like.

Conduct an organizational assessment

Start by assessing your current mental health offerings, such as EAPs and training initiatives, to identify gaps in services and areas for improvement. The Health Links module, developed by the NIOSH Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health, includes free baseline/organizational needs assessment tools to help you with your areas of focus. The Working Well toolkit, developed by the Center for Workplace Mental Health, includes suggested indicators and program ideas.

Implementing Employee Mental Health Surveys

Conduct anonymous surveys or include questions about well-being, stress, and mental health issues in your employee engagement surveys. Using existing data collection methods that employees are familiar with helps to achieve higher response rates. Frame questions about well-being as opposed to mental illness to help people feel more comfortable answering the questions. Regardless of the data collection method used, ensure anonymity and confidentiality to protect employee privacy. The What Works Wellbeing Question Bank is a free list of proven assessment questions and strategies for effective adaptation and data collection. The Healthy Work Survey is another free resource that identifies work stressors and productivity outcomes and generates a report with recommendations based on the results. Employee surveys help develop or refine employee engagement/well-being checks to get user feedback on programs.

Take advantage of EAP provider benefits and data

Benefits data helps measure the prevalence of mental health problems or mental illnesses and treatments to demonstrate the need for or impact on utilization and costs. Benefits providers and EAPs can share anonymized, aggregated data to help assess the scope of mental health problems, treatment utilization, and related costs. Use this data to establish benchmarks and identify areas for improvement or specific places to focus resources, such as providing more support for anxiety if many employees have this diagnosis or bringing in on-site counselors to offices where providers are not. This method is a quick fix because it uses existing data, as opposed to requiring a new method of collecting data. Mental Health America’s Benefits Questions Guide helps you ask the right questions to better understand mental health coverage.

Measure progress

Process metrics that track the initiative process rather than focusing solely on outcomes are valuable for testing new initiatives and quickly identifying pain points. Track participation rates, changes in mental health literacy, confidence in skills, and improvements in perceived employee well-being. For example, if you host a mental health lunch and learn, conducting a short post-program survey to ask employees about their experiences and satisfaction with the program is a simple way to demonstrate the positive impact. These metrics demonstrate the value of the program and allow for quick adjustments based on real-time feedback and changing needs if expected outcomes are not being achieved. Don’t be afraid to change course. Be flexible in your evaluation. Use iterative cycles to test, refine, and improve your program.

Just start measuring

Measuring the impact of mental health programs in the workplace is difficult but essential. Perfection is the enemy of good; it’s important to start somewhere. By focusing on relevant, actionable data and engaging stakeholders, organizations can effectively evaluate and improve their mental health initiatives. This collaborative approach underscores the value of these programs and strengthens the commitment to employee well-being, benefiting both the organization and its employees. In the complexities of the modern workplace, practical assessment methods are key to maintaining and improving mental health support. Integrating these strategies and tools creates a solid framework for evaluating the impact of mental health initiatives. This foundation builds a compelling business case for continued investment, improves program effectiveness, and fosters a healthier, more productive work environment.