Here are seven tips to help employers increase access and improve results with mental health programs.

You can't just say you care about your employees' mental health; the quality of your programs and policies has to match. For example, employers should provide access to mental health resources and flexible time off to participate during work hours without clocking out or taking a personal day. Partner with a behavioral health solution that fits your population and provides in-person as well as virtual access.
Make mental health conversations part of your culture. Leaders and managers should share stories about their own stressors and what they're doing to manage and encourage their teams to do the same. And you have to consistently promote the behavioral health programs you offer – it can't just be listed in your benefits guide or buried in the EAP.
Employers need to take accountability for things within their control that are creating stress. Do you have a known policy or supervisor that is making the environment toxic? Make a change.
Implement a confidential workplace stress assessment. Review the results and actually do something with the feedback. You can purchase a tool or collaborate with your health partner to create one that's tailored to your population. Quarterly is a good cadence – once or twice a year could highlight seasonal stressors, but four times should normalize what's really going on.
Identify change agents within the organization that will watch for negative reactions to the topic of mental health and step in to change the narrative. For example, if Tom says, "Great, another dumb webinar about mental health," then Robert can step in and remind Tom why it's a benefit for the team.
If you have an in-house therapy solution, don't put their office right next to the HR leader. Behavioral health is more mainstream, but privacy is still important.
Be mindful of the words you use to talk about mental health and don't use diagnoses as personality traits, like "Mary is bipolar" or "Donnie must be depressed."

The bright line between work and home doesn't exist, so it's nearly impossible to decouple life stress from work stress and vice versa. Employers are in a unique position to help accelerate the positive momentum around mental health by implementing impactful programs and building a culture that makes it ok to ask for help.

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Mental health: Prioritizing access to services and treatment for employees is key

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