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How Employers Are Activating Workforce Mental Health

How Employers Are Activating Workforce Mental Health

Date posted

Jul 08, 2026
In the news

How Navigate is helping organizations with one year of Mental Wellbeing Coaching included for eligible employer groups
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Workforce Mental Health Initiative
Written by

Brooke Ossenkop, Executive Vice President Strategy and Marketing, Navigate

Why helping employees manage everyday stress strengthens workforce mental health.

Stress has become one of the defining challenges of today's workplace.

Employees are balancing demanding workloads, caregiving, navigating financial uncertainty, adapting to constant change, AI concerns, and trying to maintain healthy habits amid it all. These everyday experiences shape resilience, engagement, productivity, and overall wellbeing.

HR.com’s State of Mental Health and Stress in the Workplace study reported 61% of employees report often feeling personally stressed at work, making stress one of the most common health challenges affecting today's workforce.

For employers, the conversation around workforce mental health has evolved. It's no longer focused only on responding when employees reach a crisis. Increasingly, organizations are asking a different question:

How can we help employees build resilience before everyday stress becomes something more?

That shift is creating a new opportunity for workforce mental health, one that starts long before therapy or clinical care enters the picture. Because employees don't experience their health in benefit categories. They experience it through life.

How Workplace Stress Management Supports Employee Mental Health

Therapy and Employee Assistance Programs are essential components of a workforce mental health strategy. But they're not where most employees begin.

Most employees aren't looking for clinical care. They're looking for ways to better manage the everyday stress that influences how they think, feel, and perform.

National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI)’s Workplace Mental Health Poll found employees are far more likely to describe themselves as stressed, burned out, or overwhelmed than they are to say they're experiencing poor mental health. That's why workplace stress management matters.

Supporting employees before stress escalates helps build resilience, encourages healthier behaviors, and creates a natural pathway to therapy or other mental health resources when they're needed. Mental wellbeing doesn't start with a diagnosis. It starts with everyday experiences.

How Health Coaching Supports Workplace Stress Management

Health coaching fills an important space within a comprehensive workforce mental health strategy. Rather than replacing behavioral health therapy or an Employee Assistance Program, Navigate’s Mental Wellbeing Coaching complements those services by providing employees with practical, personalized support before everyday stress begins to affect their health, relationships, or work.

Employees work alongside a certified coach to:

Build healthier responses to stress.
Strengthen resilience
Develop sustainable habits
Create practical action plans for everyday challenges.
Gain confidence navigating life's transitions.

This approachable first step is especially important because many employees never ask for help. According to NAMI, only 13% of employees have told their manager that their mental health was suffering because of work demands, yet one in four have considered leaving a job because of their mental health.

For some employees, coaching is all the care they need to move forward. For others, it becomes the bridge that helps them recognize when therapy, an EAP, or additional clinical support is appropriate.

Instead of expecting employees to navigate a complex benefits ecosystem on their own, coaching helps them confidently take the next step.

Watch: The Space Between Stress and Therapy

Jennifer Musick, PharmD, Vice President of Clinical Strategy at Navigate, explains how Mental Wellbeing Coaching complements therapy and Employee Assistance Programs by giving employees an approachable first step.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to learn more about Navigate's Mental Well-being Coaching Program. I'm doctor Jennifer Musick, vice president of clinical strategy at Navigate. As we continue to see growing emotional strain across the workforce, many employers are asking an important question. How do we provide meaningful accessible support for employees before stress, burnout, and emotional fatigue begin impacting well-being, engagement, performance, and retention? Today, I'll provide a brief overview of the workforce need we continue to see, where many traditional solutions fall short, how mental well-being coaching works, and why more organizations are expanding preventative emotional well-being support as part of their overall well-being strategy. The reality is that emotional well-being challenges continue to be highly prevalent across today's workforce. Research shows that seventy seven percent of US employees experience work related stress. Seventy two percent report moderate to heavy to very high stress levels, the highest reported in six years, and eighty four percent say workplace conditions have contributed to their mental health symptoms. What's important here is that employers are increasingly recognizing that emotional well-being impacts much more than health alone. It impacts productivity, engagement, retention, workplace culture, absenteeism, presenteeism, and overall employee experience. At the same time, many employees are not necessarily experiencing severe mental illness or needing crisis intervention, but they are still struggling, and many simply need support, perspective, coping tools, connection, and an approachable place to process everyday stressors before those challenges escalate further. The gap is exactly where mental well-being coaching fits in. One of the most important concepts to understand about mental well-being coaching is that it fills the gap between doing nothing and needing therapy. Employees today are commonly struggling with stress and burnout, overwhelm, communication challenges, grief and coping, work life integration, relationship strain, and emotional fatigue. Many traditional solutions remain reactive, fragmented, or difficult for employees to access consistently. For example, therapy access may involve waitlist. EAPs are often separate vendors outside the well-being experience, and despite improvement over time, mental health stigma still exists today. What employers increasingly need is a scalable, approachable, preventative support option that employees actually feel comfortable using. That is the role mental well-being coaching was intentionally designed to serve. Navigate Mental Well-being Coaching is a confidential one on one coaching experience focused on preventative emotional well-being support. The program is designed to complement existing EAP and broader well-being strategies, not replace them. Participants work with certified professional mental health coaches through virtual or telephonic sessions focused on helping individuals identify root causes of stress or emotional strain, build coping strategies, strengthen resilience, improve communication, and navigate everyday life's challenges. Sessions are forward focused and solution oriented. Common topics include stress at work or home, parenting, grief, relationships, self care, communication, and life transitions. The program is open to all employees and provides unlimited inbound access which helps create a low barrier, approachable support experience. One important differentiator is that this support is integrated into the broader navigate well-being ecosystem and platform experience, making access easier and more visible to employees. This slide shows a simplified participant experience within the Navigate platform. Employees can access mental well-being coaching directly through the platform, enroll, schedule appointments, receive reminders, and continue engaging with their mental health coach over time. One of the advantages one of the one of the advantages of an integrated model is that participants may also be guided toward mental well-being coaching through other well-being touch points, including the total health survey results or broader well-being engagement activities. That integration matters because the easier support is to find an access, the more likely employees are to engage before challenges escalate. The goal is to reduce friction and normalize emotional well-being support as part of the overall employee and well-being experience. This is an important slide because clear scope definition builds trust and credibility with our program. Mental well-being coaching is preventive, not clinical emotional well-being support nonclinical emotional well-being support focused on practical strategies, coping tools, emotional resilience, and everyday stressors. It is not psychotherapy, psychiatric treatment, crisis intervention, medication management, or long term mental health treatment. Navigate uses professional mental health counselors as coaches to help ensure appropriate support and timely referrals to clinical care when issues exceed coaching scope. This is extremely important because it allows the program to remain approachable and preventive while also ensuring participants receive guidance toward higher levels of care when appropriate. One of the most common questions employers ask is this, how does this differ from EAP? The most important takeaway is that EAPs and mental well-being coaching serve different but complementary roles. EAPs remain critically important for crisis support, counseling, trauma, substance abuse, and more intensive mental health needs. Mental well-being coaching focuses on preventive emotional well-being support for highly prevalent everyday concerns before they progress into more intensive clinical needs. Another key distinction is accessibility and integration. Because mental well-being coaching is integrated into the broader well-being platform and experience, support becomes more visible, easier to access, and more normalized within the organization. For many employers, this creates an important additional layer of mental well-being support that complements existing behavioral health resources. What continues to stand out to me most about this program is the participant response. To date, participant satisfaction is exceptionally strong. Engagement rates are high, and participants average multiple sessions indicating ongoing value and continued utilization. The most common topics being supported include stress management, communication, work life balance, and overall life enrichment. This tells us employees are using the program for exactly the kinds of highly prevalent workforce challenges organizations are increasingly trying to address proactively. Beyond the numbers, one of the most meaningful parts of this program is hearing directly from participants. One participant shared that she was ready to quit my job before the positive support from my mental health coach. That quote quote captures something important. Many workplace challenges are not necessarily HR issues, disciplinary issues, or clinical psychiatric issues. Sometimes employees simply need support, perspective, coping tools, and a trusted space to process challenges before those situations begin impacting performance, relationships, morale, or retention. Again, this reinforces the value of accessible preventative emotional well-being support. From an employer perspective, organizations also increasingly want to understand the broader value of emotional well-being investments. Population level research continues to show that preventive emotional well-being support can reduce stress related productivity loss, improve workplace satisfaction, reduce absenteeism, and improve present presenteeism. Research from organizations, including the World Health Organization, the APA, Gallup, and Deloitte, suggest that preventative emotional well-being support may generate approximately two to four dollars in value for every dollar invested. While outcome while outcomes will vary by organization, what continues to be to become increasingly clear is that emotional well-being support is not simply a nice to have. It is increasingly viewed as part of a broader workforce engagement, retention, productivity, and culture strategy. This slide summarizes why organizations are increasingly expanding preventive emotional well-being support. For employees, fast access matters. Confidentiality matters, and approachable support for everyday issues matters. For employers, emotional well-being needs remain highly prevalent. Many organizations are experiencing burnout and retention concerns, and many employers are seeking scalable preventive support options that complement their existing mental health resources. And from a well-being strategy perspective, integration matters. Programs integrated directly into the well-being ecosystem and platform can help reduce fragmentation, improve visibility, and elevate overall engagement across the well-being experience. To summarize, emotional well-being needs remain highly prevalent across today's workforce. Many employees need support before they need therapy. Preventive emotional well-being support helps fill that gap, and integrated approaches can make support more visible, accessible, and approachable for employees. Mental well-being coaching is designed to provide confidential con confidential forward focused support for highly prevalent workforce challenges while complementing existing EAP and well-being strategies. If your organization is exploring ways to expand preventative emotional well-being support for employees, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss whether Navigate mental well-being coaching may be a fit for your population and your goals. Please feel free to con connect with your Navigate client success manager to learn more. Thank you again for your time and your partnership.

Is Your Workplace Stress Management Strategy Supporting Employees Early Enough?

As you think about your workforce mental health strategy, ask yourself:

Do employees have support for managing everyday stress before it becomes something more?
Is there an approachable first step before therapy or an Employee Assistance Program?
Can employees confidently move between coaching, wellbeing resources, an EAP, and clinical care as their needs change?
Do you understand how employees are experiencing your mental health strategy, not simply what benefits are available?

If you aren't yet where you want to be, we are right here for you. Check out our Workforce Mental Health Initiative that includes one year of Mental Wellbeing Coaching for eligible employer groups to see how can help support you and your employees.

Why Employers Are Investing More in Activating Employee Stress Management Support

Helping employees manage stress isn't just about providing resources. It's about helping them recognize when support could help.

WTW found that employees are almost seven times more likely to take action to improve their wellbeing when their employer helps them understand the issues they face, highlighting the value of approachable, personalized support that encourages action before challenges escalate

That's why workplace stress management coaching isn't simply another initiative. It's an investment in a healthier, more resilient workforce.

Navigate's Workforce Mental Health Initiative

Organizations invest in employee health benefits to improve people's lives. But employees don't experience their health in benefit categories. They experience it through everyday life.

It’s a simple observation, but one that’s reshaping how many organizations are thinking about workforce health.

Increasingly, our conversations with employers and brokers aren’t about whether they offer enough; rather, they are asking:

How do we activate support before everyday challenges become something more?

That shift in thinking is what led us to introduce our Workforce Mental Health Initiative. For eligible employers with 200+ employees, we are including one year of Mental Wellbeing Coaching, along with workforce mental health benchmarking, population insights, executive reporting, and an annual impact review.

Together, these resources help organizations not only strengthen mental health benefits but also activate the greater health ecosystem strategy by giving employees an approachable first step while providing leaders with greater visibility into how support is being experienced across their workforce.

Because the future of workforce health isn't measured only by the benefits organizations offer. It's measured by how confidently employees use them.

Activate Your Workplace Stress Management Strategy

Supporting employees' mental health doesn't begin by waiting for them to reach a crisis. It begins by helping people navigate everyday stress with confidence.

When employees have practical, personalized support, they're better equipped to build resilience, overcome challenges, and connect with the right level of care when they need it.

Health coaching doesn't replace therapy. It strengthens the entire mental health strategy by helping employees take the first step.

Explore how Navigate addresses workforce stress and mental health through one year of Mental Wellbeing Coaching included for eligible employer groups.

Or, download the Workforce Mental Health Initiative Overview to send to your broker.