#5 - Mental Wellness

• Challenge

• Long hours, high demands and work-family conflicts could be as harmful to health as secondhand smoke. COVID-19 accelerated the mental strain for many.

• Exhausted people aren't productive and tend to resign.

• Opportunity

• Prioritizing mental wellness at workplaces makes both people and the company better off. Mental health support is often valued higher than gym memberships and free meals.

• Actions

• Take care of yourself first. Reducing doomscrolling and phone usage are good first targets. Keep working hours at a sane level. Exercise every now and then. Try to maintain a somewhat balanced diet.

• Build a culture of connection within your team and company. Check-in regularly with colleagues and employees. Listen thoroughly and carefully, but don't intrude. Understand the real worries beneath the surface.

• Offer flexibility to easen up the burden. New parents need daycare. Caretakers need fewer hours. Some want to work from different places. Everyone's different, make it inclusive.

• Provide access to new tools. Ginger offers on-demand mental care remotely. Headspace builds meditation habits. SleepScore tracks recharging at nights. Leverage the wellness app ecosystem.

• Set an example. The change starts from the top. Share your own experiences, if you have them. Destigmatize mental health issues. As Paul Greenberg puts it: "As soon as you normalize it, other people do too."

• Tools

• Ginger, Talkspace, BetterHelp, Modern Health - On-demand corporate mental health

• Calm, Headspace, SleepScore - Meditation, mindfulness, sleep

• Wisdo - Share challenging experiences

• Lyra - An all-around platform

• Ladder - Mental health services for BIPOC

• Real Therapy, Cerebral - Subscription-based therapy

• Thyself - A chrome extension for mental health

• Spring Health - Precision mental care

• Mantra Health - Mental care for university students

• Pros

• Mental health investments on average have 5:1 returns.

  • Proactive cultural change, training and raising awareness yield the best results (6:1 ROI).

  • Reactive therapy is less effective, but still very positive (3:1 ROI).

• Additional benefits: increased productivity, commitment, engagement, talent acquisition and quality of work.

• There's a link between the mind and the body. People who feel well tend to look after their physical fitness. On the other hand, movement can arm you against stress.

• Cons

• Don't settle for reactive or bolt-on wellness programs. Solve problems before they arise. Make wellbeing a core value.

• The total effect of COVID-19 on mental health is unclear. A long tail of mental health problems could form.

• Cases

• Starbucks offers 20 therapist sessions per year for employees and family members.

• Zappos' benefits include paid paternity leave, pet adoption and wellness challenges.

• KKR extended mental health resources to employee families, reimburses 250$ for virtual classes and $300 for improving your home office setup.

• SAP launched daycare, flextime for parents and a mental health program. Operating profit increased $900M in 5 years.

• Propellernet invests 5% of monthly profits to a wellbeing fund. They also fulfill one dream each quarter.

• Forecast

• Stigmas continue to decrease. What was once taboo is now mainstream. Big Tech is trying to help by integrating mental wellness to their apps and services.

• Depression and anxiety will become more socially acceptable, and it starts with the C-level example. "Hiding breeds shame. Shame is destructive."

• New services will be increasingly virtual. This is a double-edged sword. Remote services solve distance and time issues but can lack human connection and body language.

• Resources

• How’s your mental health? - Advice from the trenches.

• Being open about my mental health makes me a better boss - Ryan Bonnici shares his therapy session bookings openly in his calendar.

• Mental health and employers: Refreshing the case for investment - Deloitte's report includes over 30 case studies and ROI figures for mental health initiatives.

• The Best Mental Health and Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs - A list of 9 podcasts covering mental health.

• Takeaways

• Investing in mental wellness has a real, proven return on investment. And often it's big.

• Top management has to set the example. Stigma is decreasing, but it's still there. Lead by example, be vulnerable.

• It's all about the people. Check how they are, listen to their worries, support and provide help when they need it.

• Want more?

Thanks for reading. See you next week!