5 ways to strengthen employee wellness in 2025

December 24, 2024 5:30 AM

A woman with her eyes closed in peace holds a cup of coffee.

Rates of burnout and stress have not eased in the last four years, despite increasing employer-provided mental health support. Next year will likely see a continuation of the same story.

According to insurance company Aflac, 60% of workers are facing moderate to high burnout, and three in four employees are experiencing at least a moderate level of stress at work, marking a 5% jump from 2023. Meanwhile, an estimated 94% of employers with 500 or more employees claim they have increased mental health coverage or wellness-related benefits in the last three years. Benefit leaders are left to question what employees need to improve their mental health and bring their best selves to work.

From specialized mental health support to inclusive company policies, EBN looked back at some of our biggest stories that underscored important lessons employers can take with them into 2025.

In times of crisis, employees need psychological first aid

Over the last several years, Americans have experienced "cascading collective crises," says Jeff Gorter, VP of crisis response services at R3 Continuum. The organization provides immediate crisis care to employees and businesses during disasters and other traumatic events, and guides employers on best practices for responding appropriately and offering the right resources.

"Our specific focus is how to support organizations when a crisis strikes," Gorter says. "Employees are looking to their workplace as a source of support and employers are also being judged according to their corporate responsibility. Are you responding to these things? Are you offering resources? Are you getting that these things have power for us as individuals?"

At R3, their team of trained mental health professionals provides immediate "psychological first aid" for those who have experienced a traumatic event firsthand. For example, Gorter was most recently sent to Maui to help employees displaced by wildfires. His goal is to validate an employee's response to the event, in order to help them move forward feeling like they have the coping skills and the support they need from their employer and others.

Mental health benefits should include specialized support

In the workplace, those with OCD can struggle with missed days of work and incomplete tasks, along with high levels of stress over projects and an inability to focus — all which eventually affect an employer's bottom line. Gallup reports that over the course of a year, workers with fair to poor mental health miss almost 12 days of work and cost the economy nearly $48 billion in lost productivity.

Inclusive benefits can go a long way to offering employees relief, says Gregory Chasson, psychologist and director of behavioral interventions at the University of Chicago. Because there is no cure for OCD, offering employees mental health benefits that include no caps on therapy sessions and access to OCD specialists are extremely important. Organizations such as The International OCD Foundation and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies are a good place to find providers who are specially trained to treat OCD, he says.

"People with OCD tend to be highly conscientious, loyal and intelligent — they can be some of your best workers," says Chasson. "There's been this huge divide between how our society sees mental health versus physical health. There needs to be a climate of acceptance and awareness in the workplace."

You can’t improve employee mental health without an inclusive company culture

Ron Marhofer Auto Family's approach to employee mental health is straightforward: Offer a culture grounded in inclusivity, trust and connection, where people feel like they belong.

Despite this being easier said than done, the company has figured out how to do it very, very well.

"It starts with, from day one, creating open dialogue with our team members to make sure that we have relationships with everybody, that they know we're here to support them, and that we have them and their families best interest at heart," says Robert Hamer, the company's CHRO. "We incorporate that into decisions we make across the board."

Employers risk losing burned-out talent, even if temporarily

Despite the influx of new wellness apps and employee benefits, workers are still struggling — to the point that they need to take a medical leave of absence.

According to mental health services provider ComPsych, mental health-related leaves of absence have increased by 300% between 2017 and 2023; by 2024, they increased by 22%, with one in ten of all leaves of absence now due to mental health. Notably, employees who need this time off aren't guaranteed full pay.

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employees are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they're experiencing a serious health condition or have to care for a sick loved one. Severe mental health conditions can qualify employees for short-term disability, which typically covers at least a portion of the wages.

In other words, with the exception of employees who have access to more progressive leave policies, an increasing number of workers are willing to forgo at least some of their pay to take time away from their job. For Dr. Jennifer Birdsall, licensed clinical psychologist and clinical director at ComPsych, it's clear workers have reached their breaking point, and for a good number of reasons.

Employers’ wellness efforts are not in vain

The onset of the pandemic pushed employers to pay attention to mental health support in the workplace, and after nearly five years, many employers have something to show for their efforts.

According to insurance company Aflac, 54% of employees are now confident that employers care at least moderately about their mental health, which is an improvement over last year when the number was at 48%. In addition, 47% of employees believe their organizations have improved how they address mental health needs in the last year. In other words, workers have an increasingly positive outlook about their employer's role in their mental health, despite the political and economic stressors that have defined 2024.

"Employers are listening to employees who are saying that they're overloaded at [work] and at home," says Jeri Hawthorne, chief HR officer at Aflac. "They're starting to offer more programs and services in a way that employees want to access them, and making the mental health conversation more mainstream and safer for employees."