SHRM26 Debrief · Health & Wellness · #1352
From Stigma to Support: How HR Shapes Employee Mental Health
with Chad Sorenson
"Silence is not the same as wellness."
What it was about
HR's job is to be the bridge between an employee in a mental health crisis and the support they need, not to diagnose or fix them. That starts with teaching leaders a simple four-step behavior: notice, ask, listen, connect.
By the numbers
$1 trillion
Lost every year globally to anxiety and depression (absences, lost focus, avoidance)
76% of workers
Have experienced at least one mental health symptom
60% of people
Have never told anyone at work that they are struggling
Key notes
- Train managers and leaders to use the four-step framework: Notice signs, Ask open questions ('How are you really doing? I have time.'), Listen without interrupting or fixing, and Connect the employee to actual resources.
- When performance suddenly declines, ask what changed underneath before writing someone up: a performance issue is often a mental health or caregiving issue in disguise.
- Promote your EAP constantly and visibly (paycheck stubs, reader boards, regular reminders) rather than burying it on page 42 of a benefits booklet employees see once a year.
The contrarian takeYou don't need perfect words to help someone — just having the conversation matters more than getting it right. That's "presence beats polish," and it runs against the instinct to stay silent until you're sure you'll say the right thing.
Take this back Monday
Do this for your team
Post EAP details on paycheck stubs or a reader board, and teach managers the notice-ask-listen-connect script.
Say this in your next leadership meeting
Sixty percent of employees never tell anyone at work they're struggling, so we're training managers to notice, ask, listen, and connect, not diagnose.
Watch out for
- Treating a performance issue purely as a performance issue instead of asking what underlying cause (health, caregiving, grief) might be driving it.
- Assuming silence equals wellness: 60% of people never tell anyone at work they're struggling, so absence of complaints isn't absence of problems.
- Making EAP resources hard to find or funneling access through HR in a way that undermines confidentiality trust ('If you need the EAP, come to HR' signals it isn't private).
Fun fact · Chad Sorenson
Chad Sorenson's five keys to success end with a refreshingly unbusinesslike rule: always remember to laugh.
If this landed, see these
↳ Go deeperThe Hidden ROI of Mental Health: Building Recovery-Ready Workplaces That Retain and Revitalize TalentTakes notice-ask-listen-connect further into ROI math and a full recovery-ready business case.⇄ The counterpointStop Demanding Fruit from Dead Soil: A Repair-First Approach to BurnoutArgues the fix isn't a better conversation, it's repairing the depleted system underneath.✦ The unexpected oneLeading with Bravery in the Age of Transformation: How Courage Shapes the Future of WorkReframes the courage to ask "how are you really doing" as a bravery skill.