There’s a disconnect between the C-suite and employees when it comes to the state of employee mental well-being. According to new research from Deloitte, the vast majority of the C-suite (77%) believes workforce mental well-being improved last year, but only 33% of employees agree. In fact, 25% of employees say their mental health got worse, and about half of employees say they feel stressed or exhausted “often” or “always.” Just 3% of the C-suite recognized this in their workforce.
It’s never been more important for employers to bridge this gap and take meaningful steps to improve employee mental well-being. The health of employees isn’t all that’s on the line—the health of organizations is too. Sixty percent of employees are considering quitting their jobs to work for an employer that takes better care of their mental well-being. That’s a big risk for employers struggling to attract talent.
Deloitte recommends empowering managers to support employee well-being, holding executives accountable, and embracing human sustainability.
That’s a great long-term approach, but you can also take steps now to help employees reduce stress, anxiousness, burnout, and sleep issues every day. It starts by developing an understanding of how your employees are feeling.
Stay in tune with employee mental health needs with data insights
Over the past few years, employers have begun to recognize that conducting an annual employee survey is no longer sufficient. In fact, many benefits leaders tell us that quarterly employee surveys also aren’t enough; they need the ability to understand employee sentiment and feedback on an ongoing basis to ensure their programs are meeting employee needs as they evolve.
Benefits leaders want to complement their existing employee surveys with sentiment tools to cross-reference results and drill down in specific areas. Keeping in tune with employee sentiment and feedback will allow them to identify trends on a timely basis and know where to focus their mental health efforts, helping to guide their decisions about mental health resources and programs.
Calm increases organizational intelligence around employee mental well-being
Calm has introduced five new mental health analytics and reporting tools designed to help you gain a deeper understanding of employee needs and take action on the basis of this data to tailor your mental health support. As a benefits leader, you can expand beyond utilization metrics and give your leadership more confidence in the kinds of mental health issues your employees are facing. All employee data collected in these tools is anonymous and aggregated. Here are the five reporting tools:
Mood check-ins
Calm’s Mood Check-ins tool allows you to gauge how employees are feeling over time. Employees are asked within the Calm app to share how they’re feeling on a regular basis. This data is then compiled and surfaced to HR benefits leaders as an overall organization mood report. For example, if your organization has just experienced layoffs or if an employee has passed away, you’ll be able to keep your finger on the pulse of your organization’s overall emotional and mental health.
Content topics
You can also see which content topics in Calm (e.g., stress, anxiousness, focus, burnout) your employees are engaging with most in the Calm app, which will help you understand what guidance they’re looking for. For example, if your employees are going through a change in leadership or strategy, you might see a spike in people reaching for Calm content to reduce their anxiousness. You can take action on these insights and deploy a custom Stress and Burnout Pathway in the Calm app to help employees relieve anxiousness and stress during this period.
Portraits
The Portraits tool allows you to double-click into Calm utilization to understand the split between “casual” and “power” users. This will help you observe behavioral shifts within your user base from those who are casually exploring mental health support compared to those who are engaging frequently.
Industry Benchmarking
The industry benchmarking tool enables you to compare your enrollment and engagement rates with those of companies of similar size in similar industries.
Employee Sentiment Tool
Currently in beta testing, the Employee Sentiment Tool allows you to launch a repeatable in-app survey to track how your people are feeling about their mental health and track the impact of Calm through key outcomes data.
Deploy mental health programs that target your employees’ specific challenges
With the insight gained from these new analytics and reporting tools in Calm, you’re equipped to take action on the mental health challenges most relevant to your workforce.
For example, if you can see from the Mood check-ins tool that employees are saying they feel stressed, and you also see in Content Topics that “stress” is the most popular content among employees, then you can feel confident about deploying a Calm Workshop or Calm Pathway focused on stress management.
Calm Pathways guide your employees through curated collections of in-app Calm content designed to support specific mental health challenges in your organization. Each Pathway includes a mix of practical tools that teach individuals techniques they can apply in their daily lives.
Recently, a Calm customer using our Advanced Analytics saw a spike in overall employee engagement in Calm. Specifically, it saw a large uptick in employees engaging with anxiety content in the Calm app. Working with its dedicated Calm Customer Success Manager, the customer discovered that employees were turning to Calm for anxiousness during their self-performance review period.
Our Customer Success Manager suggested that the customer deploy the “Manage Stress & Overwhelm” Pathway during review periods to help reduce anxiousness during this stressful time.
Make real progress on your mental health strategy with actionable insights and targeted programs
Despite employers’ efforts to improve workforce mental health in recent years, employee mental health and well-being remain low, and retaining talent remains challenging for most employers. The trend is not sustainable for employees or employers.
But you can change the trajectory by taking a more customized approach that targets specific challenges your employee populations are facing. Calm Advanced Analytics gives you deeper insight into the mental and emotional well-being of your workforce and makes it easy for you to address their challenges.
For more information on proactively supporting employee mental health and well-being, check out our pricing or connect with a Calm specialist today.
