Turning Employee Mental Health Concerns into Tangible Support

Natalie Schneider

05-15-2025

The phrase “mental health” has become a common buzzword. While this normalizes mental health conversations, it doesn’t tell organizational leaders and constituents what type of mental health support is meaningful.

While covering workplace stressors in my organizational behavior introductory course, I asked my students what stressors they experience in college. They told me, “Everything is stressful!” This answer seemed easy to brush past. Yet, I found it actionable.

Here are three ways we can meaningfully advocate for mental health concerns in our organizations:

Advocate by normalizing and listening

Expanding this class conversation, students shared a plethora of concerns related to the expectations of being a college student and early career employee. In the order most frequently reported, students experienced the following stressors: time management expectations, overlapping deadlines, poor work-family balance, worries about job performance, lack of sleep, financial uncertainty and mental health challenge diagnoses. While listing these concerns together aloud, students realized that they were not alone in their struggle.

Advocate by voicing concerns on behalf of others

It takes guts to share when we struggle with stress. When someone offers you an insight into their stressors, as a listener, you have a unique opportunity to advocate that your organization address these challenges. If one person in your organization is experiencing this stressor, chances are that others are too. For instance, rather than letting this conversation end when class was over, I voiced my students’ concerns to Kelly Blanchard, Associate Dean for Student Experience and Undergraduate Programs, and Cara Cray, Associate Director of Student Success. Together, we planned a new support program.

Advocate by creating tangible support mechanisms

With the support of the Dean’s Office, we developed an inaugural Mitch Daniels School of Business Mental Health Action Week. During the first week of March, coinciding with Purdue University’s campus-wide Mental Health Action Week, we organized four events specifically for Daniels School students to learn and practice a buffet of stress management techniques. We also launched a mental health support app for our students.

There is power in creating tangible support that addresses mental health. While mental health can be lightly used as a buzzword, when concerns are taken seriously and then tied to a support mechanism that publicly acknowledges the challenges we all face, it normalizes mental health as a meaningful conversation. When the Daniels School of Business tied its name to Mental Health Action Week, we recognized our constituents — students, faculty and staff — who need this support. This is a first step in normalizing that it is okay to experience stress and mental health challenges and that this organization will be there to support you in meaningful ways.