Need to know:
- Acknowledging different preferences for content, format and method ensures support remains relevant and accessible.
- Combining reactive and preventative benefits can enable staff to access relevant support in the way they want it.
- A way to ensure relevancy within mental health benefits is to collect regular employee feedback about their needs.
Mental health support has continued to remain important to today’s workforce. Towergate Employee Benefits’ March 2025 research, for example, found this ranked top on employers’ list of expected employee needs, with 31% of employers anticipating an increased demand. It is important, therefore, that not only is sufficient mental health support offered, but also that it remains relevant to staff and their needs.
Evolution of support
As mental wellbeing support evolves, employees can now access a wide variety of workplace support including mental health apps, wellbeing champion networks, and mental health first aid training.
Over the past three years, employers have become more understanding about what employees need in different situations and career stages, says Mike Hay, chief people officer at Benenden Health.
“We’ve gone from a position of something that was not talked about at all, to a lot more understanding of the nuances of mental health,” he says. ”Organisations are at the forefront focus on education around it.”
Tom Curran, head of wellbeing at Lockton, believes society is now seeing a shift: “Employers are embedding wellbeing into day-to-day workflows through manager training, peer networks and digital apps,” he says. ”Despite a booming wellbeing industry, programmes fail if they aren’t tied to culture and leadership behaviours.”
Right benefits for current demographics
Rather than assuming what is needed, employers should talk to their employees, gather feedback and look at utilisation data patterns on existing provisions to understand common themes and trends.
Karen Taylor, founder of Wellness Cloud, says: “Setting up predictive communications to respond in moments that matter helps, along with acknowledging if there’s a peak period where people struggle with their mental health. This is about being preventative, identifying at risk groups and understanding those pathways. This way, employers can approach mental health support understanding unique challenges for individuals.”
Employers, therefore, need to understand the nature of their workforce and what is important to employees. They should also look at various providers to see what is available and ensure their design is relevant.
“The answer isn’t to keep layering on more, it’s to replace outdated models with preventative, integrated frameworks,” says Curran. ”The real differentiator is alignment: benefits need to sit within an employee value proposition (EVP), culture, and strategy, not as a bolt-on. Success comes when benefits are embedded into how an organisation operates.”
To make sure benefits are relevant for all types of employees, employers could choose a platform that offers broad mental health support that can be accessed 24/7 and in a variety of formats. They should also acknowledge that employees will find different formats relevant to them, for example, younger staff may prefer on-demand digital support.
“Employers should engage with providers which understand the difference between the demographics and can adapt,” says Taylor. “Gen Z are probably more likely choose short-form content and carers who are time poor need flexibility in when they can reach out for support.”
Mental health benefits related to financial wellbeing and family support will be relevant for employees balancing cost-of-living pressures and caregiving responsibilities. Meanwhile, relevant mental health support should be accessible to neurodiverse employees, those experiencing the menopause, and those from different cultural backgrounds.
Reviewing mental health strategies
Once they have a package in place, organisations should continuously review their mental health provision to assess whether the support is still relevant for their workforce. They can do this by looking at engagement data, trends and employee feedback.
“Employers should conduct reviews of benefits periodically, getting external expert advice,” says Hay. ”Draw on benefits providers because they will have information that can help. Look for ways staff are being disincentivised to access good support.”
Regular feedback is essential to keep mental health benefits relevant. Organisations can run anonymous surveys to review employees’ needs, accessibility of available support and potential utilisation barriers.
“Feedback should be segmented by role, region and life stage,” explains Curran. ”Strategies should be audited annually, with underperforming support removed and new interventions piloted. An honest review means asking whether mental health is truly embedded or just offered as a tick-box benefit.”
Communicating benefits
Understanding the best times to communicate is also important, along with using the right terminology and methods for different employee groups. For example; videos and short-form content may be more appropriate for some groups of staff.
For dispersed and deskless employees, employers can get creative with benefits communication. Examples include notes on pay slips, having posters where they clock in, and videos that can be accessed online or via apps.
“It’s about tailoring communications to how different groups consume information and has to feel relevant,” says Curran. ”Communication needs to be ongoing and part of onboarding, check-ins and campaigns.”
Jo Taylor, managing director and founder at Let’s Talk Talent, adds: “Consistent leadership modelling can tackle low mental health benefit utilisation due to stigma, by managers openly discussing it and communicating what’s available.”
By ensuring that mental health benefits remain relevant to employees, employers can effectively support their whole workforce and maximise utilisation.
