For years, companies treated employee mental health as peripheral rather than central to their core operations. It was something you offered employees as a benefit, pointed people toward as a resource, or handed off to HR rather than owned at a leadership level.
That era is over.
Mental health now shapes how people lead, collaborate, solve problems, manage stress, and stay in the workforce—in other words, it shapes the very things organizations depend on to perform. The most forward-thinking companies recognize this and are already acting on it: designating mental health days, investing in manager training so leaders can spot and respond to signs of struggle, and embedding well-being alongside traditional performance metrics.
Companies that still treat employee well-being as peripheral are missing what is right in front of them. The future of work will be defined in large part by how well we support the humans doing the work and right now, those humans are carrying a lot.
Your employees are stressed
On any given Monday morning, millions of employees log into work carrying more than deadlines and deliverables. They carry stress, anxiety, financial pressure, caregiving responsibilities, and loneliness. These are burdens that aren’t captured by any dashboard, yet they shape how people show up every day.
For many, the workday does not begin at 9 a.m. It begins in the middle of the night, worrying about bills, illness, aging parents, or a child who needs extra support. It continues through back-to-back meetings and packed calendars, with very little room to breathe.
This is not an isolated challenge. It is the lived reality of today’s workforce.
The economic impact of stress
Across industries, employees are navigating the compounding pressure of a 24/7 digital culture, sustained economic strain, caregiving across generations, political and social tension, global instability, and a growing sense of disconnection, even in environments that seem constantly connected. People are still showing up. But many are doing so at a cost.
That cost is not always dramatic or visible. It shows up in quieter ways. A high performer who is still delivering, but with less energy. A manager supporting everyone else while running on empty. A team can look productive on paper but be increasingly disconnected in practice.
The economic toll is real. According to Gallup, low engagement costs the global economy an estimated $8.9 trillion in lost productivity each year—a reminder that disconnection is not just a human cost, it is a business one.
Employers are beginning to respond with intention. With help from CHC: Creating Healthier Communities, Ameriprise Bank recently piloted Mental Health Mondays, a three-part webinar series this past May during Mental Health Awareness month. The sessions were made possible through a growing model in workplace well-being: connecting employers directly with nonprofit organizations that bring deep subject-matter expertise on the health and social challenges employees are facing. In this case, that meant mental health support grounded in what employees are experiencing, not generic wellness language or one-size-fits-all advice.
That distinction matters.
Too many workplace well-being efforts remain broad, reactive, or disconnected from the realities employees are facing. Ameriprise Bank took a more thoughtful approach, and in doing so, offered a five-point model other employers can replicate.
1. Start with reality, not assumptions
Rather than designing a top-down initiative around a generic idea of wellness, Ameriprise Bank acknowledged the sustained stress many employees are carrying every day. The evidence is clear: research shows that 80% of financial institution employees experienced at least one symptom of a mental health condition in the past year, and 69% have left roles due, at least in part, to mental health reasons—nearly 20 percentage points higher than workers in other industries. That includes the personal weight of family caregiving responsibilities and financial pressure, as well as the occupational stress unique to financial services professionals, high-stakes decision-making, client demands, and the emotional burden of managing others’ financial futures. That grounding shaped the tone, the topics, and the relevance of the series.
2. Bring in trusted expertise
Ameriprise Bank tapped into a network of nonprofit leaders and mental health experts, including the American Psychiatric Association Foundation and NAMI, to create credible, evidence-based, and useful content. Employees didn’t just hear a company message. They heard from experts who understand mental health from clinical and community perspectives.
3. Make the content specific
Sessions focused on self-care and mindfulness offered practical tools employees could use right away. Another session addressed the unique pressures facing financial services professionals and reframed mental health as essential to resilience, sound decision-making, and long-term performance. A third session focused on workplace belonging and the need to feel welcomed, known, included, supported, and connected.
4. Create space
The series resonated with employees because it offered them an opportunity to reflect, engage, and participate. Each session was designed to be interactive, giving employees the ability to ask questions directly of the presenters or post comments and questions in a live chat, creating real dialogue rather than a one-way presentation. That shift from broadcasting information to listening to employee concerns helped normalize conversations that too often stay hidden because of stigma.
5. Treat mental health as a shared responsibility
The series was not framed as a one-time initiative or a talking point for leadership. It reflected a broader understanding that supporting people is everyone’s job— executives, managers, and peers. That message was modeled from the top: senior leaders visibly participated in and promoted the sessions, and managers were encouraged to attend alongside their teams—signaling that mental health is not just an individual concern, but a shared leadership responsibility. Ameriprise Bank is actively exploring offering another series.
Final thoughts
Technology, policy, and productivity targets are not the only factors shaping the future of work. Everyday moments also impact our work such as when an employee speaks up about stress, a manager chooses empathy over urgency, or a company decides employee well-being is truly a priority.
When employees feel supported, they show up to work differently. They are more focused, more engaged, and more connected to their teams and their purpose. That’s good for people. It’s also good for business.
Organizations that lead in the mental health space will not simply respond to change. They will help define it. They will build workplaces where well-being and performance reinforce one another, where belonging strengthens teams, and where people can do their best work because they feel supported enough to bring their full selves to it.
This is not just the future of work. It is the future of leadership.
Jean C. Accius, PhD, is president and CEO of CHC: Creating Healthier Communities.
