Why Companies Must Embrace Technology to Support Workplace Mental Health

Last night I watched the Netflix hit documentary-drama "Social Dilemma" and I was immediately sucked in while witnessing Tristan Harris open up about the dark side of the technology that has consumed our work lives. I met Tristan in New York City back in 2017 while writing my last book, Back to Human, and interviewed him in person capturing his words in the introduction. During our conversation, he compared the use of technology devices to that of pulling a lever on a slot machine and how they both activate our reward system, release dopamine, and cause addiction. In the film, Tristan and the rest of the former tech executives exposed how the technology they created, and we depend on, has worsened our mental health. While the documentary paints a negative portrait of technology, there is a light side, one that can be beneficial in helping contain, prevent and manage the growing mental health epidemic that we are experiencing globally right now.

During my book interviews, the most common way leaders described their use of technology was a "double-edged sword". They said that it can be beneficial or detrimental to our lives depending on how you use it. I would argue that during this pandemic the benefits have far outweighed the drawbacks. Without technology, there would be no remote work or learning, which would have substantially increased unemployment and made schooling near impossible. We are fortunate to have the technological infrastructure in place that has scaled to meet the demands of the workforce, keeping many businesses afloat. If we've learned anything during the past several months it's that humans alone can't continue to exist without a partnership with technology - technology augments and supplements our work experience.

Technology has a role in alleviating our mental health issues at work

The reason why workers don't ask their manager, co-workers, or HR for help when they are experiencing stress, anxiety, and burnout is because of the stigma attached to mental health. They don't want to be judged or viewed as ineffective employees by talking about their suffering, especially during this recession when companies are laying people off. The problem is that three out of every four workers have struggled with mental health during Covid and 80 percent would consider quitting their current job for one that focused more on employee mental health. When employees don't feel comfortable talking about their mental health their productivity declines, they become dissatisfied and start applying for jobs elsewhere.

While there's no denying the power of a human one-on-one mental health conversation, workers would much rather turn to technology instead. In a global study by my firm and Oracle of over 12,000 workers in eleven countries, we found that only 18 percent of people would prefer humans over robots to support their mental health. When asked about this preference, workers said robots provide a judgment-free zone (34%), an unbiased outlet to share their problems (30%), and receive quick answers to their health-related questions (29%). Technology doesn't care about your job title, gender, ethnicity, sex or if you have anxiety or depression, it treats you the same no matter who you are. While it's not acceptable to call your therapist or manager at 4:00 AM asking for help, technology never sleeps and is your support system 24/7. Furthermore, we will never have a billion therapists to meet the needs of the global population, so we need technology to help scale support and treatment for mental health.

Based on our research, humans have a vital role to play when it comes to mental health. At least one of your friends has a therapist but aren't vocal about it due to the stigma. And, your manager may be able to give you a "mental health day off", but you could be too afraid to ask because of the stigma. The study found that humans are better than robots when it comes to relating to their feelings (45%), understanding the pressures of their job (37%), and interpreting their feelings when they don’t know how to explain them (37%). As someone who has had multiple therapists in my life, I can attest to the importance of empathy, compassion, and understanding they have that I wouldn't receive from a machine.

We can relate to humans more than machines concerning our health because while they may need maintenance or upgrades, we need an emotional connection to heal our mental and emotional wounds.

But, technology has a vital role to play in supporting workers and therapists. Without it, therapists wouldn't be able to conduct their business nor would managers be able to check-in with their employees. By understanding the "job description" of both robots and humans, we can provide both scalable yet individualized mental health attention that all workers need even if they aren't vocal about it.

Modern technologies are trying to solve the mental health crisis

As the mental health crisis has accelerated during Covid, the number of technology solutions to meet worker's needs has grown so rapidly that it's almost impossible to keep up. I know this from first-hand experience as someone who has witnessed the growing number of corporate wellness vendors every year I speak at the SHRM Conference that attracts upwards of 20,000 attendees. The corporate wellness market is set to grow from about $57 billion to upwards of $97 billion in the next seven years. The market includes technology vendors that provide mental health support like smartphones, wearables, apps, artificial intelligence, and even virtual reality solutions for workers. In the Apple store, for instance, there are over 15,000 mental health apps that people can take advantage of even if they're unemployed.

Wellness companies fall into several different categories:

• Meditation apps: The two most popular meditation apps are Calm and Headspace, both of which provide content in the form of video and voice that teach workers how to meditate, get better sleep, and lower stress.
• Fitness apps: Classpass, Peloton, and Fitbit offer on-demand virtual fitness classes, track your health data, allow you to compete against your co-workers or friends. These apps don't just help you stay physically healthy but provide a community of support.
• Dieting apps: Lose It! and Noom helps you learn about the foods you're eating and keeps your calories within your daily amount so you can achieve your nutrition goals.
• Chatbot therapy: X2 and Woebot are AI-powered chatbots written and built by psychologists that coach people through their mental health issues through a text messaging system.
• Online counseling: Talkspace and BetterHelp allow workers to get online help from licensed therapists through text, audio, and video messaging.
• Virtual reality therapy: Psious is a VR platform therapist and mental health professionals can use to deliver treatment in over seventy different environments.
• Corporate wellness: Castlight Health, Thrive Global, and Virgin Pulse provide organizations with resources, assessments, and behavior change solutions that improve employee overall wellness.
• Virtual community: 7 Cups connects you with trained mental health volunteers in a private chatroom with 24/7 accessibility.
• Mood tracking: Moodpath tracks your moods throughout the day, asking you questions, and providing insights based on your responses to help you improve your emotional health.

While technology isn't the complete solution to our mental health issues, these companies have a myriad of solutions that can provide additional help for employees wherever they are. During Covid with so many people working remotely, they are especially beneficial since you can access them from anywhere at any time. Most companies are partnering with tech vendors as part of their employee assistance programs because they don't have the internal resources, yet see the demand and importance of providing mental health support.

The future of workplace mental health

Both humans and robots have a vital role to play in addressing our mental health epidemic that continues to grow due to our public health crisis. Employees expect that companies are part of the solution since long working hours have caused much of the stress, anxiety, and burnout they've been experiencing. Workplace productivity and mental health have an inverse relationship - as productivity goes up, mental health has gone down. While companies have profited greatly from higher levels of productivity it will come at the cost of higher attrition and lower employee satisfaction and morale. And, burned-out workers will become less productive and more unhappy.

That's why companies have to put mental health technology services and solutions on the agenda because we can't possibly expect employees to fend for themselves without an institution and community to support them during these troubling times.

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