With rising stress levels and mental health claims, the spotlight is on workplace leaders to deliver results that not only improve employee wellbeing but also contribute to the organization’s bottom line.
HR and leaders often turn to standard mental health workshops to educate and support their teams. If you’ve implemented wellness workshops, you may already know that these solutions fail to deliver lasting change.
We’ll consider the drawbacks of mental health workshops—and how to overcome them with a continuous, empowered learning approach.
Mental health workshops are in-person or online educational sessions designed to increase awareness and enable individuals to manage mental health in the workplace.
Topics for these wellbeing workshops can include stress management, recognizing mental health issues, and providing immediate support to those in crisis.
Depending on the specific session, these workshops might aim to:
So, what’s the concern? While well-intentioned, one-off mental health workshops can’t adequately support organizations’ diverse teams and complex health needs.
Because mental health is so personal, mental health training should be, too. Many standard workshops don’t address individual differences in learning styles and health requirements.
Like in any learning environment, people will start to forget the mental health information they learned, known as the forgetting curve. Without repeat learning, retention may be as low as 24% only one month after the learning session.
Dr. Ryan Todd, psychiatrist and headversity co-founder, highlights a need for organizations to help develop their employees’ real-world skills.
He shares, “I would like a system where we are starting to give responsibility back to individuals for their mental health. What we all need is to develop a personal skill set around resilience that is crucial for everyone.”
One-time workshops or seminars lack opportunities for this practice and upskilling beyond the event.
Mental health issues, employee needs, and culture dynamics are all changing, and having a one-time wellness workshop fails to address these complex needs over time.
This leaves HR leaders overwhelmed by persistent employee complaints and struggling to establish a comprehensive strategy for mental health support.
A mid-sized retail organization facing high turnover and low morale during the COVID-19 pandemic partnered with headversity to implement a comprehensive training program. Over six months, most teams completed 10 or more training sessions.
As a result, 80% of employees reported feeling equipped to create a psychologically safe workplace—an outcome rarely achieved through one-time workshops.
The following alternatives to mental health workshops can help HR leaders manage workplace conflicts more effectively and potentially reduce the number of mental health-related claims.
These solutions often focus on practice-based learning, activities where employees apply knowledge to real-life scenarios.
Training through an online learning platform can provide a level of personalization and privacy not afforded by wellbeing workshops. Digital platforms also provide accessibility for hybrid, remote, and dispersed workforces.
Research suggests that best practices for successful health promotion and disease prevention programs involve engaging employees and leaders in communication and joint participation. Team learning sessions provide an opportunity for groups to share experiences, develop skills, and support one another.
Short, frequent learning activities, known as microlearning, improve knowledge retention and real-world application. Employees can effectively train and maintain a few core resilience skills through regular microlearning, making a lasting difference in wellbeing and performance.
Unlike mental health workshops, continuous wellbeing training provides leaders with an enduring strategy for addressing workplace mental health issues. It offers a scalable solution that can adapt to the evolving needs of your workforce, helping to build resilience and reduce the strain on HR resources.
“A lot of the organizations we’re working with now find foundational training needs to be shorter and also ongoing to keep people appraised of what’s current in these issues, so it’s not one-and-done,” says Wayne McNeil, co-founder of Respect Group, a headversity company.
By providing more opportunities for meaningful learning, support, and engagement, ongoing training contributes to a healthier work environment.
Dr. Todd finds that 50% of leaders and managers are not currently equipped. “They say that they do not feel comfortable having a mental health conversation… if we don’t have a good conversation with our manager, we maybe go to the disability arm or the HR arm of the organization, leading to an increase in mental health days and long-term disability.”
Ongoing mental health training closes that gap, helping leaders develop and maintain their skills to support teams effectively.
Resources such as EAPs, therapy, and recovery programs cater more to treating existing conditions. Combining proactive, ongoing mental health training with EAPs creates a more comprehensive approach to employee wellbeing.
For every dollar invested in mental health programs, Deloitte has found a return of $1.62 to $2.18, driven by reduced absenteeism, lowered healthcare costs, and enhanced productivity. According to the report, high-impact areas to invest in include leadership training and preventative interventions.
Ultimately, this can motivate employees to keep participating in mental health training.
As a workplace leader, you face the challenge of managing escalating mental health claims, employee conflicts, and the pressure to implement effective solutions.
At headversity, we deliver proactive, continuous mental health training designed to empower your employees and leaders. Our approach helps organizations establish a robust strategy that prevents and addresses the root causes of workplace mental health issues, rather than just treating the symptoms.
Ready to transform your workplace mental health strategy? Download our free eBook, The Definitive Guide to Workforce Mental Health.
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