The Mental Health Trust Gap Between Employers and Employees

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For years, companies have expanded mental health benefits—offering therapy stipends, mindfulness apps, and even dedicated mental health days. This highlights the growing responsibility being placed on employers to address the gaps in current mental healthcare. Yet despite these efforts, many employees still don’t feel supported. In fact, in some cases, they feel the opposite.

A recent survey provides a wake-up call to employers on workplace mental health. In a survey of U.S. workers, 75 percent of employees report experiencing low mood, and 62 percent say they’ve been pressured to work through burnout or mental health struggles. Only 36 percent believe their workplace benefits provide adequate mental health support.

Employees are clamoring for support like never before: 81 percent of employees believe workplaces need stronger mental health benefits, and 88 percent say work culture must actively encourage the use of those resources. In some ways, these responses speak to the success of efforts to reduce stigma around mental health and highlight why stigma reduction alone may not be sufficient to meaningfully address mental health in the workplace.

Despite a vocal conversation about workplace mental health, there’s also a paradox in the workplace. While employees want more benefits, they don’t always trust their employers when it comes to mental health. Fifty-eight percent of employees believe their company’s mental health efforts are performative. Fifty-six percent have hidden their struggles to avoid appearing weak at work.

Even more staggering is this: 50 percent of employees feel safer talking to an AI chatbot about mental health than their HR department. This speaks to the need for broader systemic work within organizations to support mental health, as well as the necessity of providing mental health benefits that are what employees actually want and that deliver results.

Identifying the gap

For many employees, workplace mental health initiatives feel like a checkbox exercise rather than a true commitment. Companies may roll out benefits, but may not have the resources to invest in more comprehensive organizational changes to support workforce well-being.

Additionally, employees still hear mixed messages about what’s really valued in the workplace. It’s no surprise employees feel conflicted when they hear leaders championing “resilience” while simultaneously pushing teams beyond sustainable limits. Or when managers voice support for mental health, only to then applaud employees who power through exhaustion and burnout. These mixed messages undermine trust and can send a clear signal: Well-being is valued in words, not in action.

There’s a disconnect happening, and it’s fueling skepticism, and it’s one that’s likely to continue as many industries face economic headwinds and are requiring their employees to do more with less. This dynamic can create a lack of psychological safety and contribute to an environment where employees are afraid to be honest about their struggles—a reality that’s especially concerning for younger workers.

Moving beyond the checkbox mentality

If organizations want to more meaningfully support mental health, they will have to move from checking the box on mental health initiatives to creating environments where employees feel psychologically safe and supporting employees with effective mental healthcare that they actually want to use. Like most changes, that shift has to start at the top.

Leaders who are trained in navigating difficult conversations with empathy and compassion, and who invest in effective resources for employees to take care of their mental health, can contribute to psychological safety as well as a sense of belonging for their employees—two key areas in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework on Workplace Well-Being. This kind of support helps reduce stigma, reassures employees that seeking support won’t come with consequences, and normalizes mental health conversations at every level of the business. Transparency from the top sets the tone for the entire organization.

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But leadership alone isn’t enough. Managers are often the first line of support, and the pressure they feel to play that role is growing. Sixty percent feel a growing expectation to provide mental health support for their teams, yet only 23 percent feel equipped to handle conversations about mental health. Employers must invest in manager training that builds confidence, sets clear boundaries, and fosters psychologically safe teams.

Checking the box on benefits won’t cut it either. Current solutions may be challenging to navigate (e.g., for employees interested in therapy, it may require a lot of work to find a provider with availability) or not necessarily what employees are looking for (e.g., an employee is looking to improve their own leadership skills and doesn’t have the time for weekly sessions). One-size-fits-all solutions fail to meet the complex, diverse needs of today’s workforce.

Employees need flexible, personalized support that reflects their lived experiences—especially if the goal is broader organizational well-being. They need to know how to access it because visibility matters. That means consistently communicating what’s available and how to use it, as well as what the benefits of using those resources may be, such as having more energy, stronger support systems, fewer days derailed by stress, and a greater sense of control and confidence at work.

Finally, progress requires measurement. This includes the mental health benefits themselves—platforms that are using evidence-based care to deliver outcomes may feel more meaningful to employees because they work. Evidence of impact—whether through peer-reviewed studies or transparent outcomes data—should be a cornerstone of any mental health solution.

At an organizational level, regularly gathering and responding to employee feedback shows people that their voices matter. It also gives organizations the data they need to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and where to go next. Without it, efforts become guesswork.

Employees aren’t just asking for better mental health benefits—they’re asking for workplaces where mental health is seen, supported, and built into the culture. The companies that listen—and act—will be the ones where people truly thrive.