🔒How Maine companies are supporting mental health in the workforce

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into another year, businesses may be thinking more seriously about its mental health toll on employees.

Stress, burnout, financial insecurity and mental health issues, along with feeling a lack of supervisor support were all on the rise in the pandemic’s second year, Mental Health America reported this spring.

The report revealed that 83% of workers across 17 industries felt emotionally drained from their work and 59% said that their supervisor does not provide enough support to help them manage their stress.

While these numbers sound disheartening, they also provide an opportunity for employers to learn more about employee mental health challenges and what to do about them.

We asked a few Maine companies to share how they’ve supported employee mental health along with an HR expert to weigh in on what companies can do to continue to make mental health a priority.

Increase awareness

One of the easiest things employers can do for their employees is let them know what mental health services are already available to them through their Employee Assistance Program.

“Prior to the pandemic, most companies would tell their employees about their EAP, but usually only around Open Enrollment time each year, and that was the extent of any discussion about mental health,” says Rhoda McVeigh, consulting services director at KMA Human Resources Consulting LCC in Falmouth.

She says since the pandemic “there has been a greater focus on making sure employees are aware of the resources available to them.”

On the flip side, it is also important for leaders to be more aware of and invested in their employee’s well-being.

“This doesn’t mean they pry into the employees’ personal lives, but having an awareness that mental health is as important as physical health,” she says.

KMA encourages their clients to issue regular communications through company newsletters, blogs or other methods on how employees can attend to their own mental health and well-being.

Tyler Technologies, which has been on the Best Places to Work in Maine list for 13 consecutive years, used its intranet to better support the mental health of its employees. The tech company, which has offices in Yarmouth, Falmouth and Bangor, significantly beefed up its intranet’s mental wellness section by adding resources like links to articles about creating healthier work habits, breathing exercises and guided meditation apps, according to Jennifer Kepler, Tyler Technologies spokesperson.

Connect differently

While some employers were already making the shift to remote work, the pandemic quickly made it the norm for many businesses. Employers needed to look beyond office equipment and ergonomic chairs and think about creating opportunities for physical activity and co-worker interactions to support an at-home workforce.

Bangor Savings Bank, which made the Best Places to Work in Maine list for 12 consecutive years, including ranking fourth in the large employers category last year, has gotten creative in helping their remote workers stay connected.

The bank, which has nearly 2,000 employees and is the largest bank based in Maine, hosts regular virtual bank-wide coffee connects, staff-led book clubs, trivia nights, holiday celebrations and even a virtual cookie-decorating class for employees and their families.

The Portland-based animal health tech company Covetrus has had to navigate support for both remote and onsite workers. About half of their 6,000 workers around the globe, including 300 in Portland, continued to work in facilities like distribution centers and pharmacies while the other half worked remotely.

“We have tried to be mindful of both groups of employees as we design programs,” says Dustin Finer, chief administrative officer out of the Denver office of Covetrus.

All Covetrians, as they call themselves, can access virtual mental health supports through the company’s healthcare provider and personal resilience training courses.

On “Video-Free Wednesdays,” geared toward remote workers, Covetrus asks everyone to keep their video camera turned off for meetings and calls, which alleviates some of the pressure and intensity of workweeks spent in front the screen and has reduced the number of meetings in general on Wednesdays.

“You don’t have to stare into the screen during meetings, and it means you can and should take a meeting from your phone while taking a walk around the room or even outside,” says Finer, who tries to find time to connect with his employees via phone instead of Zoom, which he says can be exhausting.

Be flexible

McVeigh reminds employers who may worry about productivity of remote workers to trust their employees and continue to measure performance in the same way they did for onsite workers.

“If the work is done on time, on budget, in a quality way, and the clients or customers are satisfied, then they are performing,” she says. And if that’s not the case then performance management would be done the same way as onsite.

“I’m a big proponent of trusting remote workers,” says McVeigh, who works out of her home in New Hampshire. “When employers put tight and rigid controls on their remote workers, using either monitoring software or heavily scheduled reporting, that is going to cause stress and undue pressure on the employees. The great majority of employees are professional and want to do their best work for their employers.”

Covetrus implements “flexible Fridays,” which first began as “summer Fridays” and allows workers to frontload some of their work into the earlier portion of the week.

“It’s a small thing to gain two or three hours on your weekend, but it can feel immense at the end of the week,” says Finer.

When parents go remote

Pandemic-related stress has often been more acute for working parents who may be dealing with homeschooling and childcare issues on top of working from home.

McVeigh says the key is strategic flexibility. She suggests employers engage in an interactive process with working parents to identify work arrangements that meet the needs of both parents and employers.

“[The pandemic] was more challenging for our employees who are working parents who had to suddenly balance homeschooling with meeting the needs of our clients,” says McVeigh. “But our approach to strategic flexibility continued to work well in that those of us who could pick up more work while others had to do a bit less resulted in total support for our clients and for KMA achieving our business goals.”

She notes that since the pandemic employers are realizing that childcare is an employer issue, not just the parents’ responsibility, “and one they need to proactively help their working parents navigate.” She advocates consulting with professionals who specialize in helping working parents and companies balance parenting and working, such as Soutiens, a company that offers resources to help businesses better support parents.

Measure success

Although McVeigh doesn’t believe many employers have thought about assessing their performance in supporting employee mental health, “the smart and people-first companies will be sure to do so going forward.”

One way to assess is to track how much accrued but unused vacation or other paid time off is left on the table on a quarterly and annual basis. Low to no usage of paid time off needs to be addressed.

Another way is to actively review how Employee Assistance Programs are being used. EAP usage by employees has historically been very low, since most companies only make employees aware of the program at open enrollment each year.

McVeigh also recommends employers ask their employees how they are doing in supporting their needs and what they could be doing better.

Covetrus reviews employee use of mental health supports to ensure the programs they offer are meeting needs.

“Along with greater access and program offerings, the company has seen an increasing trend in virtual [mental health provider] visits,” says Finer.

First steps

For companies interested in either starting or improving their mental health support to staff, McVeigh recommends connecting with their health insurance brokers for available resources and to make sure those are regularly communicated.

“Also ensure that leaders lead by example by taking their own disconnected time off from work to recharge, refresh and renew,” says McVeigh. “And then they can share with their employees how great it is to have taken that time off.”

It’s important that employers don’t send mixed messages to their employees by recognizing and praising employees who call in to conference calls while on vacation or cut vacations short because of business demands. Instead, make sure employees plan for and actually take disconnected time off from work, and praise them for that.

“When so many of our teams are working remotely, we really need to build in space for ourselves and each other to disconnect,” says Finer, who goes mountain biking or paddle boarding to recharge. “This is something we need to do more at Covetrus — it’s easier said than done, and it continues to be a core focus for me at work and in my personal life.”

Employees in crisis

Employers have to walk a fine line when experiencing an employee with a significant mental health crisis, says McVeigh. Responses will differ depending on where and when the crisis occurs and what information the employee discloses.

If the employer is notified by an employee or their family that there is a significant mental health crisis keeping the employee from work, the employer can make sure the employee or their family are aware of all of the mental health care options available to them through their healthcare benefits as well as other community resources.

If, however, the employee appears to be in the midst of a significant mental health crisis while at work, this needs to be handled much more delicately and discreetly, McVeigh says. In this case, HR should speak to the employee behind closed doors, to find out what is going on with them, maybe noting that they don’t seem to be their usual selves or seem to be in some type of distress.

HR can advise the employee based on their responses, but unless the employee discloses they are experiencing a mental health crisis, an HR rep cannot suggest it. If an employee seems unable to function at work, HR can ensure they get home safely and notify the employee’s emergency contact about what has been observed. At that time, depending on what has been disclosed, HR can make the employee or their emergency contact aware of all health care benefits and community resources available to them.