How HR Can Support Employee Mental Health During Life Transitions

Life is full of transitions. There are moves, breakups, health challenges, becoming a parent, changing jobs, experiencing a personal loss, taking care of aging parents, readying for retirement, and much more.

Those events aren’t just vital components and time stamps of life — they can have a major impact on employee mental health and well-being. And they are things that organizations need to be aware of.

“Life isn’t static,” Marjorie Morrison, executive in residence for mental health at SHRM, said May 7 during a SHRM webinar. “And that means it affects HR professionals because it’s how people show up at work — whether or not it impacts what they’re doing at work or how they’re doing it.”

Although events such as illness, divorce, or the death of a loved one are widely recognized as being painful, even events that on the surface seem positive — such as getting a promotion, welcoming a child, or having a child go to college — can result in episodes of depression, anxiety, or stress as employees adjust. 

But many workplaces fail to focus on life transitions and how they affect employees’ mental health, the webinar speakers said.

“We’re not talking about them enough at work because we’ve lived in a society for a long time that has had stigma against being anything other than big, brave, and strong all day, every day,” said Dr. Caroline Carney, president and chief medical officer of Magellan Health in Phoenix.

During the webinar, Morrison and Carney discussed how HR leaders can support employees’ mental health through life transitions.

Recognize the signs. Look for signs of change and distress in employees, such as an increase in missed days at work, reduced productivity, diminished focus, fatigue, a change in attitude, substance abuse, and more. “It may be complete withdrawal and wanting to sleep all the time, or just acting out, but the key thing for HR professionals to look at is a change in behavior,” Carney said. 

Prepare for certain transitions among different employee groups. While some transitions can happen at multiple stages of life, employers can expect other ones to commonly happen among certain age groups in employee populations. For instance, “the 18- to 30-year-old group are finding relationships and starting families and maybe getting their first homes and the kinds of things that have different sorts of pressures than, say, someone who is in their 40s, who is navigating taking care of their elder parents and their teenage kids and trying to make it through life with everything that’s being thrown at them,” Carney said.

Understand that employees will have different reactions to transitions. Some employees will react to the changes well, and others will have a harder time adjusting. “Employers need to recognize that what may seem like not a big deal in terms of a transition to some individuals may be a very, very big deal and become somewhat debilitating, or take their focus away from work, while others are going to do OK with it,” Carney said. “Know the individual you’re dealing with.” 

Morrison agreed. “The point about not everybody experiences things the same is so critical,” she said.

Provide the right tools. Resources and benefits including coaching, therapy benefits, and flexibility are key to supporting employees during times of change. Organizations can also develop a resource guide for employees going through major life events, such as caregiving, divorce, or job changes, that includes information on available support services and strategies for navigating these transitions. 

Get the proper training. HR professionals can receive training on how to have compassionate conversations with employees about life changes and transitions, while setting appropriate boundaries. “HR professionals have to recognize they’re not the therapist, and they’re not the person who is meant to solve the problem,” Carney said. Instead, their role is to help recognize signs or symptoms of distress and point employees to the right resources.

Know the difference between stress and mental illness. There is a difference between going through something hard and experiencing acute stressors and having a mental illness. “The stressors and the ongoing challenges of life can bleed into and become major depression, but everyone who comes to a therapist or a coach with a set of symptoms doesn’t necessarily have an anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder,” Carney explained. “They may need different kinds of interventions. We have to look at individuals and stratify them and get them to the right help from the very beginning.”

Morrison agreed, saying it’s important not to overdiagnose mental illness. “Our pendulum has swung from, ‘Nobody wants to talk about mental health, we had big stigma,’ [way] to the other end — especially younger people [who are] very comfortable leading with their different mental health symptoms and conditions,” she said. “Not all of them are true mental illnesses, and some of them are even in the range of just a spectrum of things that we all go through.” 

That doesn’t mean HR should be unempathetic, Morrison said, but it’s important to understand in the context of what kind of treatment or help employees may need. Someone with a true mental illness may need medication indefinitely, while someone going through a life event might benefit from short-term coaching or flexibility. 

HR, don’t forget yourself. Finally, HR professionals need to take care of themselves and use their own employee assistance programs and support services to manage the stress and emotional impact of their roles.  

“As an HR professional, you are the recipient of all kinds of stress, whatever is happening in the workplace, in the company, at an individual level and in your own life,” Carney said. “You bring your life to work too. So along the way, don’t forget to use your support and take care of the same services that you would offer your employees.”