By Mental Health First Aid USA on September 16, 2025
Research has shown that stress is a risk factor in the workplace with two in three employees naming work as a significant source of stress in their lives. Building resiliency, or how people manage and recover from difficult situations is a crucial skill for improving mental health and well-being in the workplace, while increasing productivity and maintaining employee engagement.
“The Great Gloom” is a new term coined that describes an old trend: simply put, employees seem unhappier than ever. After “the Great Resignation” of 2021, a focus on wellbeing in the workplace has grown as employers are starting to recognize the importance of mental health and how it impacts personal and organizational success.
To drive employee satisfaction and success, regardless of the latest terminology, employers and businesses need to prioritize the employee experience in a meaningful way, including creating a culture that embraces the wellbeing of all employees. When employees feel that their employers care about their overall wellbeing, they are three times more likely to be engaged at work.
As a leader, business owner, human resource professional or people manager, you can use these five tips as a starting point to help build a more resilient workforce:
- Normalize the conversation around mental health: Foster a work environment where employees feel comfortable discussing their challenges and needs through an open dialogue. As a leader, you can encourage honest conversations about mental health and help break down stigmas by sharing your own experiences, if you feel comfortable doing so. You can also share your self-care strategies and what has worked for you to relieve stress such as exercise and meditation, prioritizing adequate sleep or journaling.
- Remove stigmatizing words and phrases from vocabulary: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) describes stigma as negative attitudes (prejudice) and negative behaviors (discrimination). Language is powerful, and your choice of words can either break down misconceptions and stereotypes or feed into them. Using person-first language such as “person living with depression” instead of “depressed” leads to more inclusive discussions about mental wellbeing at work.
- Integrate mental health training and awareness into the workplace: By investing in skills-based mental health training for your workforce, you can help increase employee productivity, morale and retention by cultivating a supportive team culture. You’ll also equip employees at all levels with the skills to recognize and respond appropriately to a colleague who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge in the workplace.
- Conduct annual reviews of your company’s wellbeing initiatives: Simply rolling out a mental health program or training in the workplace without monitoring progress is not an effective solution. Through pulse checks, employee surveys and other opportunities to provide anonymous feedback, you can better identify what is working well and areas for continued improvement to meet the needs of your employees.
- Proactively support employee’s overall wellbeing: Such support can include encouraging and reminding employees to take their vacation days, making mental health days available when needed and creating opportunities for employees to recharge during the day through dedicated no-meeting or “focus hours.” As a leader, one of the best ways to encourage your team to use their PTO is by taking your own time off, signaling that you personally prioritize vacation time and understand the importance of it.
In order to thrive, organizations need to be led by strong leaders who recognize the value of prioritizing employee wellbeing. To get started, take the first step by exploring how Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) at Work, from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing can positively impact your organization. Following completion of MHFA at Work, learners will be able to identify factors in the workplace that can impact mental wellbeing, take appropriate steps to help someone who may be experiencing a mental health challenge in the workplace and practice self-care at work.