Mental Health at Work: 6 Ways Employee Listening Helps

Mental health disorders affect nearly 1 billion people worldwide — 13% of the global population — and the workplace is not insulated from this reality. Organizations that fail to address employee mental health face measurable costs: the global economy loses $1 trillion each year from untreated anxiety and depression alone. As we have written previously, this involves fostering more genuine connections with employees, which includes providing them with a sense of purpose and belonging while also addressing their well-being, safety, and mental health.

Workplace mental health affects every organization, regardless of size or industry. World Mental Health Day, commemorated each year on October 10, gives organizations an opportunity to reflect on what they're doing to support employees and where they can improve.

The need for such reflection is critical: nearly 1 billion people around the world – 13% of the global population — are living with a mental health disorder, according to a joint release by the World Health Organization and the World Federation for Mental Health.

Since its inception in 1992, World Mental Health Day has served as an international platform for education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma associated with mental health. Initiated by the World Federation for Mental Health, the day has garnered global support, influencing mental health narratives in over 150 countries. In its early years, the event had no specific thematic focus but has since evolved to address various facets of mental well-being. For example, the 1994 theme centered on "Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World."

Each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners use the day to reinforce that every individual, regardless of who they are or where they live, has the right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. This principle has gained momentum across governments and regulatory bodies. The U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, for example, identifies five essentials for healthy workplaces, including protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunity for growth. At the center of the framework: worker voice and equity. For organizations committed to employee listening, this alignment between public health guidance and listening strategy is significant.

How is mental health defined?

The major organizations that track and measure mental health each define it in ways that connect directly to the workplace. The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds that mental health “includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being (and) it affects how we think, feel, and act.”

Research from the U.S. Surgeon General and the World Health Organization confirms that workplace conditions directly contribute to employees' mental health challenges. That means organizations have both the ability and the responsibility to act. Based on our research and insights, here are six listening-driven strategies for promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace, along with an overview of how implementing these strategies can deliver measurable ROI.

6 strategies for promoting mental health at work

1. Create a Psychologically Safe Work Environment and Culture

Companies can foster a psychologically safe work environment by normalizing discussions on mental health, empowering employees to speak up and be heard when they need help, and ensuring there’s no judgment or stigma attached to discussions of mental health.

In order for this environment to truly exist, it must start at the top. For example, an executive at a large healthcare system shared his moving, personal story of mental health struggles with the entire organization. This vulnerability from a senior leader led to other colleagues feeling safe to share their own challenges and experiences. By sharing his story, this executive created a safe space for open dialogue and reduced the stigma of mental health within that workforce.

For employers, the goal is to ensure employees can receive help when they need it, not to urge them to seek help. Listening at scale is one way to identify support opportunities in the work environment to better promote mental health and well-being. Crowdsourcing, a highly transparent method of listening, is particularly powerful for creating a psychologically safe culture through its inclusive, engaging method, which invites all employees to co-create and prioritize solutions.

Inviting employees to share and prioritize what actions can improve well-being is a powerful way to gather insights and normalize open discussion of mental health. The U.S. Surgeon General's Framework identifies psychological safety as a foundational condition for workplace mental health, and listening at scale is one of the most effective ways to build it.

This is especially true during major events that can increase stress or anxiety, such as recession-driven layoffs, global pandemics and military conflicts, rapid C-suite personnel changes, and mergers and acquisitions. Listening during these periods provides organizations with data-driven insights on the most effective actions for improving well-being, while also fostering a psychologically safe culture for continued conversations on mental health.

2. Encourage Mental Health Breaks and Self-Care

If your organization successfully creates a psychologically safe work environment, then employees should feel comfortable taking days off to de-stress, recharge, or focus on their mental health. Once again, this needs to be a policy that is modeled from the top down and reinforced throughout the organization. Encourage employees to use sick days, PTO, or even unpaid days when they need to decompress. Take people at their word, treat them as adults, and show empathy when mental health breaks are needed.

Of course, this can be accomplished with small breaks throughout the workday as well. To encourage employees to take a needed reprieve, there are location-based strategies that can help foster self-care. This includes creating “recharge rooms” or other office areas where employees can go to take a moment to relax, calm down, or just breathe. These spaces typically have dim lighting, tranquil music or white noise, aromatherapy, comfortable furniture, or other means of promoting mindfulness and rest. Remote workers can do the same by having an area away from their computer, dedicated to relaxation, to which they can retreat.

Perceptyx’s AI-powered leadership development tools include a cognitive load tracker that allows managers to recognize in real time when their own workload has increased and a self-care break may be needed.

This type of intervention helps managers stay aware of their stress and workloads, which they might lose track of during particularly busy periods. It can also help reduce after-hours work, burnout, and multitasking. By providing objective data to employees on their well-being, organizations take a proactive approach to helping employees recognize when a break or additional support may be useful.

3. Train Leaders and Employees to Build Empathy, Understanding, and Resiliency

While most leaders are not mental health professionals, they can still be taught how to recognize signs and symptoms of mental health issues and discreetly make employees aware of mental health resources available within the organization. Managers do not need to be the sole support system, but they do need to understand how to identify signs and approach the subject with care and empathy.

A recent Perceptyx study reinforces why manager skill-building matters: among employees reporting high anxiety or depression due to a workplace event, direct leaders were the most frequently cited source of support, outpacing employee assistance programs, peer support programs, and colleagues.

Perceptyx's AI-powered coaching capabilities offer an automated approach to developing leader empathy and compassion at scale. The platform analyzes both active feedback from 360 surveys and opt-in passive listening signals from workplace communication channels like Slack, Google Workspaces, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams. This analysis identifies a manager's blind spots and coaching needs, then delivers hyper-personalized leadership insights and actionable recommendations via nudges and a metrics-rich personal dashboard.

Research based on a sample of 2,500 anonymized managers across six different enterprise companies showed that this form of AI coaching could significantly change behavior by nudging managers to provide more detailed feedback and more frequent recognition to employees, while also nudging them to use more positive, empathetic language in their communications. By providing these highly tailored insights and development resources to leaders at scale, organizations can more effectively develop the empathetic, supportive leaders that are critical for promoting health and well-being within their teams.

Employees can also benefit from practical skills building like resilience training. This type of training helps employees improve their ability to adapt well to stress and recover from adversity, trauma, or tragedy. While there are many different types of resilience training, organizations can use listening data to ensure their specific programs are promoting the intended, positive outcomes.

For example, one Perceptyx customer administered two resiliency programs to reduce stress and burnout in a subset of their workforce. They then used listening data collected from the participants to measure how well each program improved resilience and decreased stress. This data helped the organization make an informed, evidence-based decision on where to focus its efforts and resources in order to best improve resilience and stress levels across the organization.

4. Offer Mental Health Assessments and Support

In many cases, employees do not know where to find mental health resources or are poorly informed about the resources available to them. To remedy this, consider creating a hub on the intranet that provides resources for mental health and reminds employees how to find this information. Provide the option of virtual therapy sessions or more easily accessible offerings to employees, so that time, convenience, and availability does not stop them from receiving help when needed. If virtual resources aren’t an option, extend the appropriate time off work to utilize these resources — and make sure employees know they won’t be penalized or stigmatized for taking that time. As an alternative, some healthcare facilities actually have mental healthcare professionals rounding the floors of hospitals, offering on-the-spot consultations, conversations, or simple check-ins with employees. For employees who might need only short-term, targeted assistance during work assignments, one of our consultants has written about a simple intervention she developed to provide "psychological first aid" to colleagues.

Perceptyx customer research has found that when employees who are self-reporting high anxiety or depression due to a safety event on the job receive help from within the organization, they are more inclined to have more favorable perceptions of the organization overall compared to colleagues who did not receive support from within their organization. To exemplify this point, one Perceptyx customer offers a mental health support program for its employees who experience anxiety or depression due to events experienced at work. As part of this program, employees who have been trained to provide support receive decals on their clothing, clearly noting that they are support resources. Since this program’s inception four years ago, data proves the program is having a positive impact, and use of the program continues to grow. Specifically, employees who have utilized the program and received support are significantly more likely to rate the organization higher on all aspects of employee safety and the employee experience, including that they feel managers care, that they are being listened to, that they are supported, and that they have the resources they need.

5. Urge Use of a Mindfulness Checklist

Mindfulness is defined as the ability to be fully aware and present in the current moment, including the ability to focus and acknowledge where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing. Mindfulness can reduce stress and improve feelings of well-being, making it an important practice for organizations to encourage. Mindfulness functions as a form of inward listening — a practice that helps employees recognize their own stress signals before those signals escalate into burnout or disengagement.

Organizations can use listening data to identify which mindfulness or stress-reduction practices employees actually want. When employees co-create these solutions — for example, through crowdsourcing tools that let the workforce prioritize well-being initiatives — the resulting programs reflect real needs and carry stronger adoption rates.

One organization’s checklist includes the following:

• Acknowledge one thing that was difficult in your day then let it go.

• Think of three things going well and be proud of your work.

• Reflect on something you are grateful for.

• Concentrate on one sound, one visual, or one smell that you are experiencing right now.

• Take a few deep breaths.

6. Consider Physical Health and Wellness Programs

Healthy eating and being physically active can also boost one’s mental health. Offering healthy food alternatives in cafeterias and vending machines, sharing healthy recipes or offering cooking classes, encouraging walking groups at lunch, having an on-site gym or virtual exercise classes, offering discounts to gym memberships or other types of healthful programs can play a part in helping employees feel better overall — physically and mentally. These are solutions that needn’t be implemented in a top-down manner, as employee listening can help source answers regarding what employees want in this respect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can employers support mental health in the workplace?

Employers can support mental health by building a culture where employees feel safe asking for help. Six evidence-backed strategies include creating psychological safety, encouraging mental health breaks, training managers to recognize and respond to struggles with empathy, making resources like EAPs easy to find and use, promoting mindfulness practices, and offering physical wellness programs. Employee listening data helps organizations identify which supports employees actually need and measure whether those supports are working. Research from the National Safety Council shows companies that invest in mental health programs see an average return of $4 for every $1 spent.

Can employees take time off work for mental health reasons?

Yes. Employees should use sick days, paid time off, or other available leave for mental health, the same way they would for a physical illness. Organizations that genuinely support mental health make this expectation clear by having managers model the behavior and by removing stigma around requesting time off. Employees who feel they can step away when needed are less likely to burn out, more likely to stay engaged, and more likely to remain with the organization. Perceptyx research identifies lack of organizational support for health and well-being as a top four driver of employee turnover.

What should employees do when their job is affecting their mental health?

Start by naming what's happening. If work stress is causing anxiety, poor sleep, or reduced focus, those are signals worth acting on. Employees can speak with a manager or HR contact if they feel safe doing so, use available resources like an EAP or virtual therapy, take scheduled breaks or use available paid leave, and build daily mindfulness habits to create clearer boundaries. When speaking up feels risky, anonymous employee listening programs give organizations a way to surface concerns at scale so leadership can act without putting individuals in a difficult position. More than 80% of employees who receive treatment for mental health issues report improved levels of work effectiveness and job satisfaction, according to the Center for Workplace Mental Health.

What returns do employee mental health programs deliver?

Investing in employee mental health is a sound business strategy. Key financial impacts include:

• High ROI: Businesses realize an average return of $4 for every $1 spent on mental health programs.

• Retention Savings: A 7% physician turnover rate costs an organization with 500 physicians over $6.7 million annually.

• Productivity Gains: The global economy loses $1 trillion each year to untreated anxiety and depression; effective programs mitigate these losses.

• Reduced Absenteeism: Addressing mental health reduces "presenteeism" and disability claims, which cost approximately $27 billion per year.

Data from the World Health Organization indicates that the global economy hemorrhages a staggering $1 trillion each year from untreated anxiety and depression affecting productivity. These economic losses manifest in a variety of ways, from absenteeism and presenteeism — costing around $27 billion per year as per the Harvard Business Review — to disability claims and skyrocketing healthcare costs. One study found that companies saved $1.38 for every $1 invested, and for smaller companies with fewer than 500 employees, the ROI was even higher at $1.67 for every dollar invested.

These ROI figures likely underestimate the real potential gains, as they don't fully account for qualitative benefits like improved company culture, employee engagement, and overall workplace satisfaction. Effective mental health programs also build capabilities like empathy and communication, making the company more attractive to current and prospective talent.

This matters because employees are paying attention. Research cited in the U.S. Surgeon General's Framework shows that workers increasingly factor mental health support into their future job decisions. Organizations that treat mental health as a checkbox exercise risk losing talent to competitors who take it seriously. A proactive, evidence-based approach is essential for both ethical and economic reasons.

Perceptyx can help your organization prioritize employee mental health

Obviously, employers should offer these services because caring about your employees’ overall well-being is the right thing to do. But there are also business benefits to supporting the mental health and well-being of your employees. When employees are struggling with their mental health it can negatively impact business outcomes, including job performance, productivity levels, engagement, communication with managers and co-workers, workplace safety, and absenteeism. It can also lead to higher healthcare costs for the employee and employer. Perceptyx research further finds lack of organizational support for health and well-being is a top 4 driver of turnover; when employees do not feel organizations are supporting their health and well-being, they are much more likely to leave.

When employees receive the mental health care they need, however, it can effectively lower total medical costs (because they tend to improve physical health as well), absenteeism, and presenteeism (defined as employees being physically present but not fully functioning in their role due to illness). Proper treatment and care also lead to higher levels of engagement and increased productivity. According to the Center for Workplace Mental Health, more than 80% of employees who are treated for mental health issues report improved levels of work efficacy and satisfaction.

For organizations, the benefits of mental health support and services are clear for both employees and the business. And with public health bodies like the WHO and the U.S. Department of Labor increasingly calling on employers to prioritize mental health at work, the expectation is only growing.

Employee listening gives you data-based insights on where to start if you aren't yet offering mental health resources, and it helps you measure efficacy if you are. A mature listening program can reveal whether you are delivering what employees are telling you they need. Reach out to Perceptyx for more information.