As we move into Mental Health Awareness Month amid a global pandemic, the fierceness and totality of the moment invites us to stop, reflect, and consider the impact of this crisis on our collective mental health. As humans, we are wired to seek certainty and predictability, and while many organizations are focused on business continuity planning, employee mental health is emerging more poignantly than ever as an urgent focus.

While we are sheltering in place, the line between home and work has become blurred. We are challenged to be mothers, fathers, caretakers, employees, and romantic partners all at once while sitting at our kitchen tables with our laptops. Moment to moment we are called to role- and task switch without the usual rituals of transition that helped us shift from one tapestry to another, pre-COVID-19.

The average workday in the U.S. has increased by almost three hours (or 40%), which has Americans working 11-hour days, the largest increase in working hours in the world. And it's no surprise that stress is also on the rise. Ginger recently conducted a survey in which 70% of U.S. workers stated that COVID-19 was the most stressful time of their entire professional careers, compared to the September 11 terror attacks and the 2008 Great Recession. Trends in our data reveal a dramatic increase in U.S. employee stress levels, a significant drop in productivity, and an uptick in the demand for virtual mental healthcare.

Despite the increased need for support, many employees do not feel that they have the bandwidth to focus on self-care and identifying mental health support resources. Additionally, with Memorial Day and the official start of summer just around the corner, many are cancelling long anticipated summer vacations and much needed time off, further exacerbating an already stressful situation, and leading to the potential of employee burnout.

Mental Health Awareness Month presents a tremendous opportunity for us as a business community. This is the time to double down on culture and create moments of meaningful conversation and support, so that employees feel truly known and cared for. During this heightened time of uncertainty, business leaders, managers and HR leaders are called to set the tone in destigmatizing and elevating conversations around mental health. Here are five ways to proactively support your people:

1. Stay close to the pulse

Whether it's through regular surveys, anecdotal feedback or group dialogue, find a way to ensure you are keeping pulse on your people. Share these results with employees and find a way to have deeper conversations, addressing any areas that call for optimization. Remember that openly discussing mental health requires a baseline for trust and safety. Regular communication from leadership and frequent check-ins with managers are essential to ensuring that people are sharing openly and honestly, and that they feel supported.

2. Support time off and work-life balance

Can you offer employees more time off or a mental health day? While a physical vacation might not be feasible, a day off can help employees be more productive and perform better when they are back on the clock. At Ginger, we are running a #TakeTime initiative throughout the month of May, encouraging all of our employees to take at least one day off this month in support of their mental health.

While this isn't achievable at every organization, it's critical for leaders to help support employees in achievable ways. If you are unable to offer additional time off, try promoting a healthy work-life balance for your employees. Enforce workforce policies that support boundaries, such as not sending emails late at night and on weekends and keeping to stated time and agenda during meetings.

3. Where possible, be explicit about flexibility

Much of this advice comes back to clarity and clear communication. As leaders, if we clearly articulate support around flexibility needs, and encourage communication with managers, employees are more likely to open up and seek out the support they need. It's important to discourage making up for lost productivity by working endless hours – this is a sure-fire recipe for employee burnout. Again, when this is communicated clearly and modeled by leadership, employees are much more likely to follow suit.

4. Remind employees of the resources and benefits at their disposal

Remember that employees are likely unaware of the benefits and support resources available to them. In addition to refreshing employees on your organization's health benefits, Employee Assistance Program, and other internal support offerings, there are plenty of outside resources to provide extra support. We recently curated our top COVID-19 related content from within the Ginger app and made this available to the public on our Ginger Roots page. Organizations like NAMI, Crisis Text Line and Calm, among many others, have put together valuable resources for those struggling during COVID-19.

5. Elevate the conversation around mental health

Simply creating a forum for talking about mental health helps reduce stigma associated with getting support. The more this can be modeled at the leadership level, the more impactful it will be.

While Mental Health Awareness Month will end, our continued focus on mental health in the workplace remains vital. While it's clear that we may be nearing the peak in COVID-19 cases, the "second curve" of mental health impact is still on the rise – and when it does peak, it will have a long tail. While every business and employee is unique, unspoken mental health challenges can profoundly affect all of us, and along with it the integrity of business continuity.

As leaders, we have an opportunity to model and encourage our workforce to take time. Time to lean in, time to connect with one another in meaningful ways, and time to bend our efforts toward self-care and prioritizing mental health support so that we may meet the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow with resiliency and strength.

Desiree Pascual is chief people officer at Ginger.

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Instant Insights /

5 ways to support employee mental health (and why it matters)

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