OneDigital’s Shira Wilensky Identifies Key Strategies to Boost Employee Mental Health for BenefitsPRO

Although the worst of covid-19 pandemic is (hopefully) in the rearview mirror, its effects on the mental health of America’s workforce will linger for years to come.

While employer-sponsored health programs have historically been focused on incentives for physical wellness, the tumult of the last two years has finally prompted companies to seriously contemplate their role in the mental health of their employees.

Shira Wilensky, OneDigital’s National Practice Leader for Health and Wellbeing, recently penned an article for BenefitsPRO on this increasingly important topic and places it within the context of a holistic wellbeing strategy.

Wilensky, a longtime advocate for strategic workplace mental health initiatives, cited a Gallup study that linked such initiatives to increased employee loyalty, reduced workplace accidents, and even higher levels of charitable donations and volunteering. Wilensky’s article concludes with six pieces of strategic advice for employers, such as placing a renewed emphasis on employee mental health education:

Educate employees on mental health resources available to them and how to access these resources. Often, there are free options available within traditional health plans. Provide support through existing resources, internal initiatives, and third-party vendors where necessary. Different types of education that can help increase wellbeing include, cognitive training (resiliency, memory, focus, and coping), clinical and behavioral therapy, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainings and enhancing social connectivity among employees.
 
— Shira Wilensky, National Practice Leader, Health and Wellbeing

Read the full BenefitsPRO article here.

Shira Wilensky discusses mental health concerns and more during the advisory session “How Social Determinants of Health Are Costing Employers – Whether They Know it or Not”. Watch the session on-demand here.