It's time to benchmark mental health at work

When we look around at the state of mental health in the United States, what we see staring back at us is challenging — 15% of working age people have a mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization, and an APA found there is an annual $1 trillion cost to the global economy associated with untreated mental health conditions. Every indication is that the numbers have not improved since those studies were done.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered to the forefront an important conversation about the need for improving workplace mental health. Many employees are burnt out and struggling to find work-life balance. Our healthcare workers can't care for others without first caring for themselves. As employers, we have both a responsibility and an opportunity to design our workplaces with the unique mental health needs of our staff in mind. And to make it more complicated, there has been no defined measurement to demonstrate a "good" workforce mental health program.

From a personal perspective, addressing mental health issues head-on by reducing stigma and offering a path to wellness is important to me because I, like most people, have had first-hand experience of the lasting damage families and communities can experience in the wake of mental health challenges and substance abuse. When leaders see a problem, they should seek a solution.

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So, how can we do better?
It is a simple question. Yet asking that question can be scary — it uncovers where shortcomings and failures are, but also reveals opportunities and can challenge our assumptions. URAC has been accrediting healthcare organizations for over 30 years and we believe "mental health" is "health," so addressing this issue has been natural for us. In addition, our first core value as an organization is "We value people" and that means we value our co-workers, our clients, and the communities they serve. We love having people join our team who believe that meaningful work matters and know that their lives are more than just the work they do. So, we had to ask ourselves how we can do better when it comes to caring for our own employees. 

Wanting to understand how we can support our employees led us to measure our mental health strategy with the Mental Health at Work Index. Answering the questions in the Index allowed us to benchmark the maturity of our workplace mental health services against other organizations using the leading research on what matters. We also learned where we excel and it opened our eyes to a few blind spots, which helped us chart a path for improvement. 

What we found was:
1. We did a good job in our benefit design, where our staff are supported with appropriate insurance coverage, time off and an Employee Assistance Program.
2. URAC discovered significant room for growth with staff training specific to mental health, especially for people managers and our remote workforce. Our best path is ensuring staff have training and tools for success.

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Our findings weren't unique. Broadly speaking, the Index so far has found that despite the increased need and attention, strategic efforts to support workforce mental health are still relatively underdeveloped. Employers tend to invest in areas where there are both legal and regulatory requirements and market-based workforce expectations. But progress is slower when it comes to engaging workers, work design and organizational culture. 

With the aim of empowering others to go through a similar process, we've recently launched a Mental Health at Work Accreditation Program, built from the Mental Health at Work Index, to measure how well organizations are safeguarding employees' mental wellness. The accreditation scores how effectively organizations are creating psychological safety, providing access to mental health treatment, and focusing on a positive atmosphere that cultivates and celebrates employee strengths. Additionally, it helps solidify an organization's plans to bolster their mental health strategy. Ultimately, the accreditation provides a "gold star" to organizations that are dedicated to employee well-being. 

Many of us are checking the box to say, "we're doing it," but fewer of us are doing it well. I am committed to using URAC's findings from our engagement with the Mental Health at Work Index to develop an organization-wide strategy that includes the protection of mental health, promotion of psychological well-being and provision of information, resources, and services. We'll start with a three-year strategy that has specific goals to provably and demonstrably improve the lives of our employees.  We will also continue to examine our progress and adjust as we learn more from the experiences of other organizations. We know this is more than a motivational poster or a pizza party, and that meaningful change takes time.

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As leaders, we should be driving organization-level changes that protect worker's psychological well-being and prevent problems from occurring in the first place. After receiving our priority action roadmap, we are working to implement the critical recommendations that will result in the largest improvement in our mental health strategy.  

We also need to put more effort into measuring, monitoring and reporting efforts related to workforce mental health. Programs like our new accreditation can help meet this need. Without data, we can't make informed, strategic decisions about how to enhance workforce mental health most effectively. We are on this vital journey and hope that more organizations join in for the sake of their people, their families and communities. This work can't wait.