Gymnast Simone Biles is one of the most recognized and respected athletes on the globe: 11 Olympic medals—including seven gold—30 World Championship medals, five women’s gymnastics skills named after her. The most-decorated gymnast of all time is also one of the most recognized and respected voices on mental health stigma.

Biles’ mental health journey started at age 14, she told a packed room at this spring’s conference by the intelligent talent experience platform Phenom. And it catapulted into the global spotlight in 2020, when a phenomenon known as “the twisties” disrupted Biles’ much-hyped appearance at the Tokyo Olympics. The mental block that Biles says can cause gymnasts to lose their focus and sense of self was stress-related, and it prompted her to withdraw from several competitions, as she publicly acknowledged she needed to tend to her mental health.

“I felt ashamed I couldn’t continue,” Biles said. “But people kept coming up to me, saying, ‘Thank you for what you’ve done. Because of this conversation you’re having, I talked to my coach for the first time about getting into therapy.’ ”

Biles said the global response marked the first time in her career that she recognized her “worth was more than gold.” She has gone on to become an outspoken advocate for mental health support, leading with transparency. She shared with the Phenom crowd that she attends therapy weekly, usually on Wednesday or Thursday.

“It’s a journey I’m still going on, and I’ll be on it for the rest of my life. I know now that’s OK—and I’m not ashamed of it,” she said, adding that normalizing mental health challenges “is a global conversation that needs to be had.”

COVID’s immediate influence on mental health stigma

It was a conversation that exploded globally five years ago.

Almost immediately, the COVID-19 pandemic started driving up rates of anxiety, depression and substance use disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Within the first year after the start of the pandemic, about four in 10 American adults reported symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The crisis prompted many employers to shine an unprecedented light on employee mental health—from the launch of new benefits to storytelling efforts driven by rarely seen vulnerability from leadership. The response helped many organizations to begin breaking down the barriers caused by mental health stigma, says Deb Smolensky, national practice leader of Vitality and Wellbeing Solutions at advisory firm NFP.

“The pandemic blew the door wide open on mental health,” Smolensky says.

Before 2020, organizational approaches to employee wellness were largely tied to “chasing the next big thing” like high-tech wearables—with HR efforts to lead transparent conversations about mental health largely “failing to gain traction.”

Then, “the world stopped,” she says, and the crisis touched everyone in some way.

“Even if it was just about not being able to find toilet paper, every single person experienced some impact on their mental health,” Smolensky says. That collective understanding helped normalize conversations about the topic and paved the way for organizations to take meaningful steps toward reducing mental health stigma.

Post-COVID conversations

In the ensuing five years, employee mental health has increasingly become a core focus for HR. By 2021, Boston College research found that 91% of employers surveyed said they were expanding their investment in mental health offerings. However, the intensity of the efforts to reduce stigma that the early pandemic prompted has “leveled off,” Smolensky says.

“I think that drive, that focus to help managers have those robust conversations, to undergo the training, to build the psychological safety that’s needed—that’s somewhat stabilized or even lost a little momentum,” she says.

Yet, risks to employee mental health haven’t. Research out last week from The Hartford revealed that 40% of Gen Z employees surveyed report feeling anxious or depressed—and 46% said stigma is preventing them from seeking care. Despite some concerns that discussing the stigma around mental health could drive it up even more, the ongoing mental health crisis necessitates a proactive approach, experts say.

“The pandemic drove up the global prevalence of things like anxiety and depression, and I’m convinced they have not gone down—if anything, they’ve increased because of the stressors in our lives and environments,” says Sara Fyfe, chief people officer of telehealth platform provider Iris Telehealth.

“Often, there is still a stigma that comes with an ongoing lack of understanding and a fear of talking about mental health in the workplace,” she says. “We have come a long way—but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Creating safe spaces

At Iris, leadership has continued to prioritize “normalizing” the conversation about mental health, working to embed such efforts in the company culture.

For instance, the company introduced an employee resource group dedicated to the topic—called Mental Health Matters—led by its chief medical officer, a psychiatrist.

“This gives people an opportunity, in a safe environment, to open up and talk about whatever they’re dealing with,” Fyfe says.

Keeping employee mental health front and center through organizational decision-making—about everything from workload management to flexible work policies and proactive performance management—can enable a company culture where psychological safety can flourish, she adds.

“People need to be told, ‘This is a human thing. It’s OK to talk about and we’re going to create the safe venues for you to do that,’ ” Fyfe says.

ERGs have also become a critical safe place to tackle mental health stigma for employees at healthcare provider Cityblock Health, says Jordan Furbee Vroblesky, chief people officer. About 63% of the organization’s 1,100 employees have participated in an ERG, through which they have “engaged and connected with different communities, which allows their voices to be heard and creates a stigma-free environment,” she says.

Particularly in the healthcare environment in which Cityblock operates, she says—a sector rife with burnout—proactively giving employees a place to talk about feelings and frustrations is “critical to their holistic wellbeing.”

“It’s not just about offering the [mental health] benefits; you have to foster a culture of openness, support and empathy,” she says.

The core message the organization hopes to send to its employees, Furbee Vroblesky adds, is that they should prioritize taking care of themselves just as much as they do the members and communities the organization serves.

A pulse on current events

Such messaging, Smolensky says, can be amplified at moments like April’s Stress Awareness Month or Mental Health Awareness Month now. HR and benefits leaders, she adds, also need to keep their finger on the pulse of the workforce’s health and wellness to drive future strategy.

She recommends measuring employee sentiment, engagement and more—on at least a monthly basis. More frequent check-ins may be necessary, given today’s uncertainty—from the economy to politics, Smolensky says.

It’s critical for HR to keep up with current events, consider how they could affect employees, acknowledge the impact and offer the right resources. Transparency is key, she says.

“Clarity is kindness in this world right now,” she says. “If a company doesn’t complete the loop for our brains, our brains will fill in the story.”

To ensure uncertainty doesn’t overwhelm workers and mental health stigma doesn’t stop them from speaking up, Smolensky says, HR should lean into nimbleness and vulnerability. Encourage team members across levels to openly discuss the mental health impact of current events, as they happen.

“Sometimes, it takes a long time to craft that message, and it’s often too late,” Smolensky says.

3 ways to help reduce stigma

Smolensky advises HR and benefits leaders to remember the “3 S’s” when approaching mental health stigma reduction.

1. Share the stats.

In email campaigns, town halls and more, HR can use simple stats on mental health to continuously direct employees’ attention to the issue—and emphasize that the workplace is a safe space to discuss mental health. For instance, given that a quarter of American adults suffer from a mental health issue, according to the National Institutes of Health, conveying that one out of four people at any given work meeting may be struggling is a powerful message to send.

2. Share the stories.

Addressing mental health stigma involves making it a “we issue,” Smolensky says. Fear of colleagues’ reactions may hold some employees back from being open about or seeking support for a mental health issue.

“When I share my story, someone else may say, ‘I’m going through the same thing,’ ” Smolensky says. “It helps people feel seen, heard and supported.”

3. Shape the skill sets.

Setting the stage for a workplace free of stigma around mental health involves training employees—to have the “right words,” the compassion, the nonjudgmental mindset it takes to allow empathy to flourish.

“How we show up—curious versus judgmental—and knowing the biases our brains have built in, those are skill sets,” Smolensky says.

Apart from actual training for such skills, HR can guide managers to help their teams build these skills by modeling them in their everyday work. For instance, closing each meeting with “How can I best support you?”—even if there is no stated crisis or issue affecting the team at the moment—can communicate compassion and care, and encourage team members to follow suit, Smolensky says.