Workplace culture has made strides in mental-health support — but small-businesses need to catch up, survey reveals | hioscar Blog | Oscar
Workplace culture has made strides in mental-health support — but small-businesses need to catch up, survey reveals
Small-business decision-makers and employees are not on the same page about mental health at work.
Employee Health BenefitsTips for Small Businesses
6 min read
Share article
Employers and their employees disagree on whether small businesses have enough resources to support employee mental health.
Small-business owners and health insurance/employee-benefits decision-makers believe more strongly in their commitment to worker mental wellness than workers themselves perceive. In other words, if their bosses care about their mental health, small-business workers aren't feeling it as much.
This gap is exposed in a new survey that explores challenges small businesses face in the health-insurance market. The research was led by Cigna + Oscar, Insider Studios, and the first-party data and insights platform provider Dynata, in July and paid special attention to ways small-business owners/benefits decision-makers and employees value mental health at work.
The survey included the smallest of small businesses — companies with 50 employees or fewer, in some cases as few as five. Participating companies represented all facets of small business, from the retail and food services industries to professional services, construction, and manufacturing.
At the owner and decision-maker level, 77% of respondents (1) said their company cares about the mental health of workers. Only 64% of workers (1) felt that way.
More starkly, only 53% of workers (1) who are people of color feel the small businesses where they work care about their mental health.
A focus on resilience at work minimizes employees' mental-health struggles
The Cigna + Oscar survey was conducted against the backdrop of heightened sensitivities to mental-health issues at work. The rise of remote work, for example, created feelings of isolation compounded by financial insecurity, health concerns, and disruptions to work-life balance.
The term "resilience" became a buzzword celebrating workers who could persevere and remain productive through these challenges. For some, this became a way of minimizing mental-health concerns rather than making space to address them.
This could be one reason small-business employees continue to feel they should whisper about mental-health challenges rather than speak openly about them. Only 56% of surveyed workers (1) said they feel comfortable discussing their mental health with coworkers, compared to 64% of owners and decision-makers. (1) Fifty-five percent of small-business workers (1) said they feel comfortable talking about mental health with their boss.
Only 56% of surveyed workers said they feel comfortable discussing their mental health with coworkers, compared to 64% of small business owners and decision-makers.
These results showcase opportunities for improvement in refining approaches to mental-health benefits for small-business healthcare plans, said Lauren Presti Morrison, a clinical program advisor at Cigna.
"Small businesses require different solutions than enterprise-sized operations, and mental-health support for workers is no different," Morrison said. This information highlights that mental health is a focus for small business owners and their employees and that both desire customized and comprehensive mental-health benefits.
People of color get less mental-health support at work
When it comes to being a person of color struggling with mental health at work, the sense of isolation is even more profound, according to the research.
People of color who responded to the survey expressed a much lower comfort level discussing mental health in the workplace. Forty-four percent said they would discuss these issues with a manager, compared with 55% of the general workforce. (1) And only 40% (1) said they feel comfortable pursuing these discussions with coworkers, a 16-point drop from the full sample results. (1)
These findings do not surprise Joy Harden Bradford, a psychologist and host of "Therapy for Black Girls," a podcast that explores mental health according to the unique needs of women of color. She pointed to the cultural and historical context that people of color bring with them into the workplace.
"History has taught us that it is better not to share anything that could be used against us," Bradford said. "Additionally, much of the damage that is done to the mental health of people of color stems from workplace issues, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to share about the problem with the people who may have been creating the problem."
The ways smaller companies can disadvantage people of color who need mental-health support are a microcosm of the broader ways small-business resources are allocated according to race and ethnic background, Bradford said. For example, research by a dozen Federal Reserve Banks discovered that white-owned small businesses are twice as likely to receive financing as those with Black or Latinx owners. (2)
How small businesses can support employees facing mental-health struggles at work
What can be done?
To create more equitable environments for discussing mental health, Bradford suggested small-business owners and decision-makers should model behaviors that are consistent with their professed empathy for workers who might be silently struggling.
"While companies may be putting more resources into providing support for mental-health services, when it comes to mental health in the workplace, much is still controlled by a person's direct manager and the type of approach they take to these conversations," she said. "Managers who speak openly about their own mental health, who encourage their team to take days off to take care of themselves, who check in with their team members about situations that may be impacting them set up an atmosphere that feels far safer than the manager who simply shares a website for an employee assistance program because human resources told them to."
Additionally, the small-business community would benefit from removing cost barriers that limit them from offering comprehensive health-insurance plans, Bradford said.
"We know from talking to our small business clients that many feel constrained by health-insurance costs when they shop for plans for their employees," Morrison said. "It's understandable — these owners are spread thin as it is, and performing due diligence in the insurance marketplace can take time. But the improvements to quality of life for their team make the additional research worthwhile."
And, Morrison pointed out, small-business workers are embracing telehealth. Seventy percent of the workers surveyed (1) said they agree that virtual care saves them time and allows them to be productive elsewhere. This option can also increase access to mental-health resources, in part because it limits time needed to take off from work.
"What's clear from this research, and from the larger cultural conversations around mental health, is that workplaces must offer the resources, and the time and space to take advantage of them, as part of a baseline wellness-benefits package," Morrison said.
"Maybe it's a resource like Talkspace, a service Cigna + Oscar offers for access to fast and simple online therapy, or another method for matching workers to affordable, outcome-oriented care. But I think these owners and workers would agree that no one should have to choose between mental-health support and their love for the workplaces that only small business can offer."
Cigna + Oscar coverage is insured by Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company. CA: benefits administered by Oscar Health Administrators. Other states: benefits administered by Oscar Management Corporation. Pharmacy benefits provided by Express Scripts, Inc. Cigna + Oscar health insurance contains exclusions and limitations. For complete details on product availability and coverage, please refer to your plan documents or contact a representative.
Sources:
1 Insider Studios and Cigna + Oscar. "Small business attitudes toward healthcare and benefits." July 2021.
2 Federal Reserve Banks. "Small business credit survey." April 2021.
