Boosting mental health platform utilization: A practical guide for HR

When it comes to mental health, an increasing number of online tools and platforms are emerging every month. While it is great to see more awareness around mental health challenges, how do we know, as HR, that we'll end up choosing the proper support? And even a more complex question: how do we ensure that people will actually use it?

What We Have Learnt From Our Customer Engagement

Low engagement can be one of the barriers that companies must address when introducing mental health benefits. It is essential to understand what prevents employees from using these resources, regardless of whether they are on or offline.

What can discourage people from using the Mental Health Resources:

• Stigma. While things are clearly evolving, mental health issues, especially in the workplace, remain a sensitive topic, and many people still feel uncomfortable opening up about their challenges. They might see using the platform as a risk of being stigmatized.
• Lack of time. More often than not, people who most need to use these tools are the ones who do not have time (or do not make time) to utilize them properly. They are stressed and on tight deadlines, and can consider this a distraction.

• Unclear communication. Sometimes it just comes down to poor communication. Many employees claim not to be aware of their company's mental health resources.
• Low awareness around benefits. Another communication issue is that many people are unsure whether a platform will be able to help them.
• Privacy concerns. The information shared on those platforms is sensitive, and people still have difficulties trusting online tools.
• Too complicated to use / unable to form the habit. Some tools are overcomplicated and require too many actions to access a resource or find an answer, making it difficult to engage users and establish a new habit.
• Wrongly associated with the Employee Assistance Programme. EAPs have low engagement (average 5%) due to their lack of personalisation, accessibility, and the perception that they are only for crisis intervention, not proactive mental health support.

How do you ensure your investment does not go to waste and actually benefits your employees?

Select the Right Tool Based on Your Team's Needs

Make sure you choose the platform that will best benefit your team. To do that, you first need to understand what your employees' needs and expectations are.

• Talk about it! Organise workshops and brainstormings around mental health in your organization. But also make sure people can talk freely about mental health, encourage it from the management side to be leaders by example.

• Gather inputs through anonymous surveys in addition to those workshops, as some people will find it easier to open up about their challenges that way.
• Create a map of needs that are specific to your organisation.
• Explore the different options. Do not hesitate to shop around and have multiple discovery calls and trials before you settle on one.

Introduce it properly

This should be more than an email or a newsletter. Make it an event with a proper launch. Then, ensure that everyone understands what it is for and how they can use it. Organise training and demonstrations of the different tools and services. Make sure to engage all employees. If possible, invite some bold employees to share their stories. Ensure information about the benefits is easily accessible at all times.

Present all facets and Options

Many people associate mental health issues with psychologists, but there are many more tools in the toolbox! Coaching, for example, can be an answer to many issues.

Reassure Users About Privacy

Address privacy as a separate topic. Explain how the platform works on the back end and what type of data you are seeing on the dashboard to reassure employees that their mental health remains a private matter (unless they choose to share it).

Set Regular Reminders

It is not just about launching and moving on. Without regular reminders, employees might very well forget as they get caught up in the day-to-day of the office. Have regular check-ins, especially in the first few months, to make sure the habit sticks.

Use platform updates or new services added as an "excuse" for a new workshop or reminder to make sure everyone is up to date with the extra services. Encourage your team to start with small steps to try and stay consistent, and use the tracking tool to monitor their own progress. Utilize international or national thematic months, such as October or May, to host larger events and campaigns.

Monitor, Check in, and Gather Feedback

Regularly check the dashboard of the platform to monitor usage and check in with employees regularly, individually, and in groups when appropriate.

Have surveys and feedback sessions (anonymous or not) to keep improving the services and better understand the evolving needs of your employees.

If possible, assign a mental health task group or a person who would be an internal point of contact and advocate for the topic. Be in constant communication with your third-party platform to stay informed about new updates and tools that could best serve your employees, and provide feedback to them on how to improve their tools for increased engagement.

Third-party mental health platforms are essential tools to support your company's mental health, but they cannot be a one-time band-aid solution. They can only work if they are one pillar of a comprehensive mental health policy and culture within a company.