Mental health has emerged as a public health threat in the United States, and it's difficult to find a person today who has not been impacted in one form or another. A recent CNN/Kaiser Family  Foundation poll found that 90% of Americans feel we are in a mental health crisis. This crisis is  manifesting itself in our workforce, with an American Psychological Association survey noting nearly 80%  of U.S. employees experienced some form of work-related stress in the prior month.  

Fortunately, employers are well-positioned to play a crucial role in assessing, promoting, and protecting  employee mental health while adhering to the highest standards of confidentiality and data privacy. And  you, as a trusted advisor, are in a unique position to equip them with tools to integrate mental health into employee benefits programs. Here are some considerations. 

Use of mental health assessments

A group of my colleagues from the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) recently  published research demonstrating how readily available assessments can help identify mental health  conditions associated with employee attrition, absenteeism, and presenteeism. These assessments can also  be used to gain psychosocial/mental health data that can be used to refine and adjust an existing  benefits program and evaluate the impact of current program initiatives.