Employee Stress & Mental Health: Understanding Risk & Protective Factors

Society is more open than ever about mental health—support is accessible via apps, public resources are widely available, and therapy is no longer taboo. Yet in the workplace, mental health often remains unspoken, impacting employee well-being and productivity.  

That’s why more organizations are weaving mental health support into broader wellness initiatives. Small incentives can make a big difference, whether used to boost engagement in mental health training or to recognize supportive behaviors among peers. With the Engage2Reward™ Gift Card Ordering Platform, employers and HR professionals can instantly deliver health and wellness-focused gift cards, streamline program fulfillment, and personalize incentives that promote a culture of care. 

The 2025 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll found that just over half of American workers knew how to access mental healthcare through their employer. Combine that with the 15% of working-age adults who had a mental disorder in 2019—even before the pandemic—and it’s clear many employees aren’t getting the help they need.  

Workplace mental health isn’t just about individual stress; it’s also shaped by organizational conditions. This post will explore key mental health risks and protective factors, how to identify them, and actionable steps to build better mental health initiatives in the workplace. 

Understanding the Current Employee Mental Health Risk Factors  

Employee health and wellness heavily influence how company culture is perceived and whether employees want to stay. Just as gym memberships and fitness perks support physical health, mental health coverage is essential to supporting the whole employee. Here are key improvement areas from the 2025 NAMI survey and World Health Organization: 

• Access to Mental Health Coverage: While 60% of employees report that mental health care is included in their employer-sponsored plans, 92% say such coverage is essential for fostering a positive workplace culture.  
• Education About Mental Health Resources: 75% of employees say that receiving information or training on mental health conditions would support their well-being. This is especially important for front-line managers, who play a critical role in supporting their teams. 
• Support Now, Productivity Later: An estimated 12 billion working days are lost globally each year due to depression and anxiety. Proactive mental health support can reduce absenteeism and protect productivity.  
• Creating Safe Spaces: 43% of employees worry that discussing mental health at work could harm their careers. Building a culture of psychological safety is key to changing that.  

These statistics show that employers must proactively address mental health risks—especially in high-burnout industries like food service or isolating remote roles like delivery and trucking—to foster employee well-being, loyalty, and productivity.  

Undermining Factors to Employee Mental Health  

Employee mental health impacts productivity, performance, and workplace perception—but not all risk factors originate at work. Understanding these underlying issues is key to building effective mental health and wellness initiatives that provide meaningful support.  

• Financial and Job Security Factors: Employees facing financial stress or job insecurity carry a heavy mental burden. This risk increases when compensation doesn’t meet cost-of-living needs, career advancement is limited, or there’s fear of job loss. According to the WHO, unemployment, financial instability, and recent job loss are all risk factors for suicide attempts.  
• Work Design and Autonomy Issues: This broad risk factor includes lack of autonomy, unclear role expectations, and unmanageable workloads. It also covers rigid job arrangements that prevent work-life balance. Mitigating these issues means ensuring workloads are realistic and clarifying expectations around where and when employees work.  
• Social and Cultural Factors: Toxic workplace culture can severely impact mental health. Poor manager-employee relationships, lack of peer support, or workplace bullying all contribute to this risk. It's more widespread than many employers realize: 35% of employees report experiencing discrimination or stigma at work due to mental health issues, according to a 2024 MHFA survey of U.K. workers. 

Together, these risk factors highlight the importance of a comprehensive approach to employee mental health—one that addresses structural, cultural, and economic challenges in the workplace.  

Protective Factors That Support Employee Wellbeing  

As organizations need to pay attention to employee mental health risk factors, they also want to be mindful or protective factors that support employee well-being. Employers should look to build and protect these components of their company culture to protect employee mental health and prevent mental health issues that can impact the employee-employer relationship.  

• Organizational Support Systems- Full-time workers often spend more waking hours at work and with co-workers than with their friends or family. Needless to say, work can be a protective factor for mental health when properly structured. Ensuring access to mental health resources, building a physically and emotionally safe workspace, with a culture of learning and growth can really impact employee mental health. Flexible scheduling and remote work options can also uniquely support employee mental health by giving employees the space to work when works best for them.  
• Leadership and Management Practices- Training front-line managers in mental health is essential, but leadership must also model openness. Headspace’s 2024 “Workforce State of Mind” survey found 89% of employees say their leaders discuss their own mental health, helping normalize these conversations. Paired with regular check-ins, consistent feedback, and recognition programs, this creates a supportive culture where employees feel valued and mentally supported.  
• Peer and Community Connections- This may seem obvious, but building community among employees protects mental health by fostering a sense of belonging. Incorporating opportunities for team building and social connection, building collaborative work structures, and providing mentorship opportunities builds community for both sides of the mentor-mentee relationship and makes employees at all levels feel a part of something bigger than themselves.  

Implementing Change: A Practical Action Plan for Employee Mental Health  

Step 1: Assess Your Current State  

Assess where your employee mental health sits today, and what risk and protective factors exist for your workforce. This could include conducting employee surveys to identify factors of employee mental health in your organization. In the assessment you should also review existing policies and programs to identify areas that might negatively impact employee mental health, or components that might be particularly protective. Once you’ve got a data set to work with, analyze trends from the employee survey along with data on employee turnover and absenteeism to see if you can support or debunk risk factors identified by survey respondents.  

Tip: If you need to boost survey responses, consider providing spot rewards, like small-denomination gift cards, which can increase participation. You can even offer brands like the CVS Select^® Gift Card that align with the health and wellness initiative.  

Step 2: Design Targeted Interventions  

Once you’ve identified the mental health risk factors within your organization, plan targeted interventions. While deeper issues like organizational structure or work arrangements may take time to resolve, connecting employees to mental health resources through health insurance or supplemental benefits is a relatively simple, high-impact first step.  

To kick-start these initiatives, small incentives like gift cards can encourage participation and help normalize mental health support at work. A tool like the Engage2Reward Platform can streamline this process by offering instant digital gift card delivery via text or email, both digital and physical gift card options to suit your workforce, personalized program-specific gift cards, and access to hundreds of brands—including the versatile Engage2Reward™ Choice Card and many health and wellness-focused options. The Engage2Reward Platform also offers flexible payment options, making it easy for HR teams and program administrators to launch and manage these initiatives.  

Step 3: Drive Participation Through Strategic Initiatives  

Once you've launched a few high-impact interventions, the next step is to embed strategic initiatives into your employee mental health program. These initiatives should engage all levels of the organization and form the foundation of a supportive, resilient workplace culture. Examples include:  

• Mental Health Training Incentives: Reward employees and managers for completing workplace mental health training.  
• Peer Support Recognition: Recognize employees who identify and respond to mental health needs in their peers—whether by offering support or guiding them toward available resources.  
• Manager Training Support: Ensure managers have the time and resources to complete training that equips them to support their team’s mental health.  

These strategic initiatives not only boost participation but also strengthen the protective factors that sustain a mentally healthy workplace over time.  

Step 4: Measure and Iterate  

The survey you executed and the data you analyzed during the assessment should evolve to become an always-on measurement of your employee mental health initiatives. These measurements might monitor employee feedback and satisfaction scores with the employee mental health program, track participation, or begin to track the impact the program is having on larger organizational indicators like employee turnover or absenteeism more broadly.  

Based on the findings of the ongoing measurements, your employee mental health support initiatives should evolve, with iterations and adjustments over time to meet the changing needs of your employees.  

Employee mental health may seem to personal to bring to the forefront of your health and wellness initiatives. But employee mental health risk factors can have real impact on your organizational culture, and on your staff’s ability to be productive, focused, and present at work. Small investments can make big impacts and employee mental health is worth protecting.  

Contact our team today to start building a healthier workplace or consult Bianca AI, our all-new AI-powered gift card strategist, to learn how gift cards can support mental health initiatives in your organization.