Evolving with Employee's Mental and Behavioral Health Needs

May is Mental Health Awareness month and a good time to review your company’s well-being policies. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, 87% of employees are taking the opportunity to work flexibly if it’s offered. Implementing a flexible, hybrid workplace has become the new normal. When designing benefit plans, it’s essential for organizations to take well-being into consideration to help support individual’s mental health.

Employees are looking for tools in these five areas:

Physical: Offering diverse health benefits such as fitness memberships or enhanced employee assistance can give employees the opportunity to focus on physical health unique to their lifestyles.
Emotional: Provide frequent reminders from the company or manager to encourage employees to take care of their mental health. These reminders can come in the form of forced time off, mental health days and paid parental leave.
Financial: Providing employees with the ability to expand their financial growth through benefits such as retirement planning, personal investment fund and financial counselling can improve mental health by relieving financial stress.
Social: Opportunities such as paid volunteer time, company retreats and peer acknowledgment programs allow meaningful connection in groups. Employees who have relationships with their team members have a better well-being than those without.
Development: Business coaching, tuition assistance and enhanced learning and development programs give employees space and support to grow professionally and personally.

Employees value benefits that promote flexibility, career growth and well-being. Identifying your workforce’s needs allows you to develop ways to normalize mental and behavioral health while discovering new solutions.

Contact a member of our team to learn more about the services that can help you care for your employees in areas you may have overlooked.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tony Alberico

Tony Alberico is a Senior Vice President and Practice Leader at Assurance. Tapping into 20-plus years of experience, Tony leads one of Assurance’s Employee Benefits practices, setting the vision and strategy of the team. He serves a key role in advising the company’s benefits consultants and helping them develop multi-year strategies for clients. As a team leader, Tony is also responsible for creating and maintaining strategic relationships with insurance carriers and vendor partners to continually bring value back to clients. Tony earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications from Augustana College. He currently serves as the Vice President of the MGA Scholarship Foundation, which has provided more than $35,000 in college scholarships to high school students since 2009.