When an App Is Not Enough: Why Managers Need to Be Prepared to Have the Mental Health Conversation

As a leader, do you struggle to  have conversations with your employees about their mental health? Believe it or not, a manager’s ability to support mental health has far greater impact than that of any doctor. Sandra Boyd details the importance of training leaders so they can become psychologically safe leaders in the workplace.

During a very candid discussion with my client, an executive in a professional service firm, we shared the struggles we had managing our own mental health while working, as well as recognizing and trying to respond to the mental health related issues of our employees.

AUTHOR

Sandra Boyd

Managing Director

Sandra Boyd is a Managing Director of the Organizational & Talent Development practice at B. Riley Farber. Her experience lies in partnering with individuals and organizations to anticipate and understand their needs and to develop innovative solutions for building leadership teams, employee engagement & performance, executive coaching, and career transition & outplacement.

She disclosed she was not comfortable discussing mental health challenges with her employees, in fact she had gone out of her way to avoid the conversation.  “What if I say the wrong thing? I am not a therapist.” She had a recent conversation with an employee who shared she was depressed.  She listened politely to her employee but felt awkward and at a loss at what to say.  Her advice was to call HR or go to the corporate EAP app to find a therapist.  She knew her employee left the conversation disappointed and not feeling supported, and she felt the same way.

We know this employee’s experience is not an isolated situation:

• According to WHO: Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US$1 trillion per yearin lost productivity.
• 21% of employed individuals experienced high to very high levels of work-related stress in 2023 (Statistics Canada)
• 1 in 3 Canadians will experience mental health problems in their lifetime, with younger generations reporting the highest levels of anxiety, loneliness, and feelings of depression.

Likewise, most leaders feel the same way my client did. They struggle to have basic performance, career, and other difficult workplace conversations and are now being asked to have conversations about mental health. All while managing a business and ensuring profitability.

Yet, research shows a leader’s ability to support mental health has more impact on an employee’s mental health than a doctor.

Many companies have increased spending on mental health, but it mostly comes in the form of technology.  The average employer has 16 different vendors as part of their mental health approach. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and this provides options to employees, the volume is often inefficient, confusing to employees, and expensive to employers.

To get the most impact, organizations must nurture their leaders and invest in training them how to speak to employees about their mental health. They don’t need to have all the answers or be a trained therapist, but they do have a responsibility to go beyond “how are you?” to proactively checking in and responding quickly when an employee is experiencing mental health challenges.

Prepare your leaders

Leaders need training on how they can be psychologically safe leaders so they are clear on how their actions can prevent mental harm and promote mental health. Educate them on:

• Warning signs to look out for among the average employee, such as increased challenges in managing work (i.e., mistakes, missed deadlines, talk about feeling overwhelmed and stressed); perceptions that the work culture is uncaring, more incivility and conflict, and higher absenteeism and turnover rates.
• The policies, support, services, and internal processes offered within the organization.
• How to listen deeply, ask intentional questions, and respond with empathy.

What next?

Although this is a complex topic for managers to navigate, employees of all generations have an expectation managers will play a role in the conversation beyond referring them to EAP or a meditation app. Building a culture of caring depends on human connection, supported by technology, not the reverse. As neuroscientist António R. Damásio said, “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.”