HR Policy’s latest mental health webinar focused on the practical ways employers can help employees manage stress and build resiliency with tools such as self-monitoring, building healthy habits, and reducing stigma around seeking help.
Resilience helps us bounce back more quickly from stressful or adverse situations and can be improved through consistent habits like resonant breathing and meditation. Emotional resilience is highly correlated with workplace productivity. Total Brain Founder and CMO, Dr. Evian Gordon presented on the neuroscience behind stress and resiliency.
Company perspectives: Lincoln Financial SVP of Total Rewards, HR Technology and Operations George Murphy, Eastman SVP and CHRO Perry Stuckey, and Southern Company SVP, Total Rewards and HR Technology James Garvie discussed how they are offering mental health services to employees.
Supporting employees by communicating the importance of self-monitoring and self-care: Tools to monitor stress allow individuals to recognize their stressors before they are at risk for health conditions like weight gain, high blood pressure, and concentration issues. Adults with stress-linked health conditions tend to have higher health care costs than those whose conditions are not linked to stress.
Mental health stigma keeps many employees from getting help. Leadership can reduce the stigma by increasing communication around company-provided mental health services. Many employers use frequent pulse surveys to understand what their employees need and offer services depending on those needs. Some of the actions our panelists have taken include increased childcare offerings, opening networks to out-of-network behavioral health providers, providing trainings for managers to identify employees under stress, and using data platforms like Total Brain to better support their employees.
A recording of the complete webinar can be found here.