Prioritizing and Supporting Mental Health

Just like our heart, liver, or any other vital organ…our brain needs to be cared for and to be kept healthy. Sometimes, it gets sick and needs attention. I’m no doctor but that seems to make sense to me.

If that’s the case, then why are we so hesitant to talk about mental health challenges we may be facing?

Maybe it’s a pride or ego issue. Maybe it’s because we aren’t comfortable talking about things that feel too personal. Or, maybe we are afraid of being stigmatized as mentally weak and not the strong or independent person everyone thought we were.?

Well, I’ve been there. I’ve felt the hesitation to seek help when going through a mental health challenge.

Time to Be Vulnerable

In fact, there have been two instances in my career when work and personal life issues were leaving me feeling so stressed or worried, that I felt physically and mentally sick.

Projects and looming challenges consumed my mental energy and overtook my personal life. My mind was consumed with stress and worry. My stomach churned often, and it was difficult to sleep.

In each of these instances, I dismissed my feelings and pains as “just part of life”.? I knew others who were going through much more significant challenges than me and countered all of it with a need to just “grin and bear it”.?

Certainly, there are times when we need to have some grit and push through tough times. With the benefit of hindsight, however, these moments in my life were different. There were many other factors contributing to my mental state outside of just a stressful job situation. In each of these instances, I was also dealing with a heavy plate in my personal life from growing financial, family, and other community commitments. As a result, I felt mentally drained and overwhelmed in all aspects of life.

On one of these occasions, my wife and I had just moved across the country in the dead of winter and were navigating financial debt from graduate school while anticipating the birth of our fourth child to boot. In the other instance years later, we were getting very little sleep after months of nightly battles with our very colicky sixth child, while trying to keep up with all the other needs of five active children: music practicing and homework, coaching baseball and other sports, constant housework and yard work, and not to mention many other responsibilities in our church and community.

Looking back on both times, I now realize that I was probably going through some level of depression, anxiety or burnout and, frankly, that would be understandable given everything I was dealing with. But why was it so difficult to realize that in the moment? And why did I find it difficult to talk more openly about it with my leader or seek out other resources for help through my employer?

Turns out, my experience is just one small example that is representative of a widespread crisis.

The Mental Health Crisis

O.C. Tanner ’s most recent 2025 Global Culture Report calls attention to the reality that mental health issues are common, costly, and are top of mind for many employees. In fact, 76% of U.S. workers report having at least one symptom of mental health – burnout, depression, or anxiety; sadly, only 42% of employees say they feel comfortable talking about it at work. This is concerning, especially since depression alone is estimated to be costing the world economy $1 trillion in lost productivity every year (see the National Library of Medicine, 2023 Report). Not surprisingly, the report from O.C. Tanner also found that a poor workplace culture can significantly contribute to mental health struggles as 84% of employees say workplace conditions – such as emotionally draining work, challenges with life balance, and lack of recognition – negatively impact their mental health.?

“Creating a mentally healthy workplace should no longer be considered a peripheral concern for leaders. It is something that needs to be at the core of successful, thriving organizations.”? —Professor Samuel Harvey, Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute Australia

More than ever, organizations need to play a key role in actively supporting mental health challenges more directly and transparently. Especially since we found that 81% of employees say that they will seek out workplaces specifically who prioritize mental health. The 2025 Global Culture Report provides three strategies to help guide organizations in this effort to support and enhance mental health in the workplace:

1. Build healthy cultures and destignmatize mental health.
2. Enable employees to give and receive recognition.
3. Include mental health offerings in Total Rewards packages.

Build Healthy Cultures and Destigmatize Mental Health?

Many people say that they are tired, stressed, or worried when they may actually be depressed or anxious. Organizations use terms like “absenteeism” or “quiet quitting”, instead of acknowledging the more likely source – burnout.? Too often, we dismiss terms around mental health and mask them with other descriptions to avoid being stigmatized.

The stigma around mental health challenges is real. The key to overcoming this stigma is to build healthy workplace cultures where employees and organizations can address mental health issues in an open, caring, and non-stigmatized environment. Implementing policies that prioritize mental health and then building a culture around that can go a long way. Leaders should be trained on mental health and how to communicate genuine care. They should lead by example in taking time off and to openly share how they are placing importance on making time for self-care. They should share their stories of dealing with mental health struggles openly to give permission for other employees to do the same.

Once employees feel comfortable sharing what they are experiencing and that the organization prioritizes their overall wellbeing, that can make all the difference in giving them increased capacity to care for others and to deliver great work. Look no further than the most decorated gymnast in history - U.S Olympian and 11-time medal winner, Simone Biles.?

It is well documented that Simone dealt with unexpected mental challenges during the Tokyo Olympics of 2021 and had to step away from gymnastics for a time. Many, however, didn’t know the extent of what she was going through.

Leading up to the Paris Olympics this past summer, she talked publicly about what she had experienced and reminded us that sometimes we just need to stop and take care of our mental wellbeing before we are able to continue to perform at a high level (full interview is available here: What Really Happened at the Tokyo Olympics).

Here is what she went through in Tokyo during the vault competition:

Simone noticed during her warm-ups that something was off. Her teammates could sense the same and asked if she was OK. Despite feeling like she was “fighting demons”, she told her team she was fine, but there was an internal battle going on inside her. After going through so much back and forth on which routine she was going to do on her next vault, her mind started panicking about what the judges would say if she changed her intended routine, what her coaches would say, and how she could let down her team. She was suffering from what some call the “twisties”.?

"The ‘twisties’ in gymnastics terms is when your mind and body are disconnected. You no longer have control of something that you are very familiar with.” - Simone Biles, U.S. Olympic Gymnast

Simone was suffering from a mental breakdown in the middle of her workplace. Even up to the very point she hit the vault table, Simone said that her body and mind were still not aligned on the plan and she uncharacteristically “opened up” in mid-air.?

"When I saluted to start my [next] vault, I didn’t even know what I was going to do. My body and mind opened up in the air…as soon as I landed, I wanted to run. If I could have gotten on a plane and flown home, I would have done it…I was like, America hates me. The world is going to hate me, and I can only see what they are saying on Twitter right now. That was my first thought. I thought I was going to be banned from the Olympics.” - Simone Biles, U.S. Olympic Gymnast

After pulling out of the competition, Simone said she realized: “I need to take care of myself and do what’s right for my team and not let my pride get in the way…I need to go sit down, take a rest, and see what’s wrong mentally.”

Obviously, we’re not all olympians, but what Simone Biles went through has all kinds of implications to each of us and what we (or our co-workers) could experience in the workplace. Fortunately, she was in a setting with coaches and teammates that were supportive, understanding, and encouraging. They empowered her to work through it and she was able to return to perform at the highest level during the recent Paris Olympics, winning four medals and, most notably, claiming gold in the individual women’s vault. ?

A mental health crisis can hit any of us at any time, but the odds are minimized when employees work in a positive culture filled with purpose, opportunity, appreciation, and strong leadership focused on the wellbeing and success of its team members (see table below):

Poor workplace cultures significantly contribute to mental health issues but intentional efforts to reduce daily stress, limit team conflicts, and improve connection and community can go a long way. When employees come to a leader or co-worker expressing a mental health challenge they are experiencing, they also need to know which resources are available and be able to point their team member to them in times of need.

Enable Employees to Give and Receive Recognition

The positive impact of receiving recognition is clear but clinical research has verified that expressing gratitude and giving recognition can also improve mental health. In fact, expressing appreciation or keeping a gratitude journal are often prescribed as part of treatment for various symptoms of mental health (“Gratitude interventions: Effective self-help? A meta-analysis of the impact on symptoms of depression and anxiety,” David R. Cregg and Jennifer S. Cheavens, Journal of Happiness Studies, February 22, 2020). Our research re-affirmed the positive impact of giving recognition to enhance mental health as well.

In fact, we found that when employees have given recognition in the past 30 days, they report significant decreases in the odds of burnout (57%), probably diagnosis of anxiety (24%) and probable diagnosis of depression (28%).

Certainly, recognition is not a cure-all and should not be confused as a substitute for comprehensive mental health care from a qualified professional, as needed. Still, when a recognition program is present in the workplace, the tangible benefits on key business outcomes are tough to ignore, especially among employees dealing with probable depression, anxiety, and burnout.

In our study, we tested the impacts that recognition has on the likelihood of four key business outcomes: absenteeism, presenteeism, workplace accidents, and formal grievances.?In each instance, recognition was found to reduce these challenges.

For example, look at the impact of a recognition program on presenteeism (see table below). Presenteeism is when people show up to work but are not engaged. This can be a costly bi-product of employees who are experiencing mental health challenges, caused by factors in or out of the workplace.

As you can see, when a company provides a program that allows everyone to give, receive, and observe recognition frequently, it reduces the average number of “less productive” days each month from 7 to 5 among employees with probable depression – totaling a cost savings of 15% per employee every month. You can see that recognition had similar impacts for employees dealing with probable anxiety and burnout as well.

Include Mental Health Offerings in Total Rewards

Our research found that the micro and macro challenges of the past several years have left nearly 1/3 of employees merely surviving rather than thriving at work. They are doing the bare minimum to get by and are barely able to keep their heads above water. As evidenced by Simone Biles or my past experience, a personal crisis can hit us at any time. In fact, when we asked employees what benefits were most important to them, we found that mental health benefits were one of the most important elements to meet basic needs for survival (compensation, physical health benefits, and recognition were the other three).? We also found that 81% of employees say that they will specifically be looking for workplaces that actively prioritize and support mental health.

As a result, medical benefits that cover mental health are vital in helping employees survive and ultimately thrive at work. Our study recommends that organizations consider adding specific resources, such as:

More than just making these offerings available, organizations need make sure that employees know about them and can easily access them. Furthermore, leaders can support mental health (within appropriate boundaries) by being aware of these benefits so they can point employees to them, as needed. Also, leaders need to allow for flexibility and autonomy so that employees can take time off to improve their emotional wellbeing.?

In the end, these benefits need to be provided in a way that communicates genuine care for employees – their wellbeing, growth, and long-term stability. Then, employees will be better positioned to thrive throughout their careers.

Conclusion

Returning to my past experiences mentioned earlier, I have since been able to talk more openly with close family members and I have experienced the emotional lift from being part of a positive workplace culture at O.C. Tanner where I have received and been encouraged to give recognition more often than any other point in my career. Additionally, I have been able to take advantage of free counseling resources offered by O.C. Tanner which has helped me better understand myself and to how proactively guard against mental health struggles that may arise in the future. As a result, I feel like I am happily thriving.

Mental health challenges are much more common than we realize. Organizations, leaders, and employees need to lean into mental health more than they have in the past so that they can openly address and support it. Positive workplace cultures that produce environments where mental health can be discussed transparently, where recognition is a common part of the culture, and where supportive offerings are provided will go a long way to offset both the human and financial costs of mental health.

When have you dealt with a mental health challenge?

To what extent was it caused by poor workplace culture vs. outside factors?

How have you seen organizations proactively support and prioritize mental health?