By Kay Turner
It has been a long and challenging two-and-a-half years for human resources professionals in higher education.
We have hit many twists and turns along the road as we managed the move to almost entirely remote workplaces, then to an incremental return to hybrid workplaces, then to the mix of work arrangements that have emerged on campuses over the past year.
Yet one of the most significant elements of our work has been transitioning to a new level of involvement in the area of employee mental health.
As I come up for a breath and take stock of what we have done over the course of the pandemic, these are the key lessons I think we’ve learned when it comes to employee mental health in the workplace.
Lesson 1: Monitor Employee Mental Health Data
Amid the suffocating isolation and uncertainty of the lockdown phase of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, the first major lesson became crystal clear: Monitoring and understanding the data on employee mental health is essential to being able to offer appropriate support.
Fortunately, we were able to know with statistical certainty that employees were suffering because we could track the increased utilization of our Employee Assistance Programs and the behavioral health services offerings in our Health and Wellness benefits plans. Our colleagues were often facing a work crisis within a larger life crisis, and the data was screaming that they needed help.
Knowing this made all the difference in shaping our response to an array of circumstances, ranging from increased feelings of “the blues” to abject hopelessness, despair, and suicidal ideation.
Lesson 2: Keep the Communication Simple and the Resources Easily Accessible
The gradual return to some on-ground instruction and operations brought different challenges, as employees navigated conflicting quarantine rules, vaccine protocols, and any number of variations on the theme of “how to live through a pandemic.”
In our zeal to help relieve some of the stressors introduced at this stage, human resources professionals learned that employees were being overloaded, even paralyzed, by reams of allegedly helpful information. Little did we know that the very resources aimed at abating the mental health crisis sometimes, in fact, contributed to the problem.
We learned the hard way about the importance of direct, succinct communication and the benefit of presenting resources in an orderly, easily accessible format. Once we adjusted, we came to understand that careful attention to presentation and accessibility allowed employees to focus on the resources themselves while reducing the time and frustration attributed to “data mining” our communication.
Lesson 3: Customize Care for Caregivers
Amid the pandemic, human resources professionals also discovered that caregivers required distinctive and sometimes separate solutions to meet the specific challenges and the heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout they face.
Employees who cared for children, parents, spouses, domestic partners, elderly relatives, immune-compromised roommates, and infirm neighbors often had limited or no access to support from family or friends in the pandemic, primarily because of travel restrictions and isolation protocols. These same employees also did not take advantage of the workplace wellness resources, virtual support groups, therapeutic videos and podcasts, affinity groups, and other interventions we initiated.
Among the many key lessons for human resources (HR) professionals during the most severe period of the pandemic was keeping communication simple and resources easily accessible. Like many other Jesuit institutions, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles hosted a COVID Vaccine Webinar with a panel of medical experts that was livestreamed, recorded, and shared. Photo courtesy of Loyola Marymount University.
It took us time to connect the dots, but in the end, we realized that what we were offering was not suited to this particular group and that we must do better in customizing care for caregiver colleagues. We responded, for example, by forging new subsidized, external partnerships that provide caregivers access to enhanced in-home and out-of-home back-up child and elder care and afford them the needed time and space to partake in mental health programs. We also launched a Faculty Child Care Connections app designed to connect members of the community, including students, so they can assist each other with childcare responsibilities.
Lesson 4: Prepare for the Long Haul
The biggest lesson learned is that dynamic behavioral health solutions must become a part of the long-term strategy in higher education human resources departments.
A 2021 American Council on Higher Education survey of college and university presidents revealed that “more than 70 percent of all college and university presidents identified faculty and staff mental health as the second most important issue facing their campuses.” At the same time, Leo Flanagan of the Center for Resilience has highlighted “a lack of appreciation that the mental health crisis gripping our societies and our university communities will last an estimated seven years after the COVID pandemic is brought under control.”
Accepting the reality that human resources must be in it for the long haul—along with monitoring the data, communicating clearly and accessibly, and developing our capacity for customized care—will make all the difference in ensuring that the trauma of the pandemic does not continue to limit our ability to move forward in the service of our colleagues and of our mission.
Kay Turner is vice president for human resources at Fordham University.
The featured cover photo (above) is courtesy of Tyler Franta via Unsplash.