Written by: Rebecca Kangwa, LMHC

Let’s be honest, HR departments are trying. But when it comes to employee mental health, good intentions can still lead to bad strategy. Supporting mental health in the workplace isn’t about throwing a wellness app at your team and hoping for the best. If you want real change, you need real understanding.

Here are three common mistakes and what actually makes a difference:

1. Believing mental health is one-size-fits-all

Offering a meditation app or an EAP line no one calls doesn’t equal support. Your employees aren’t all struggling in the same way. Some are battling anxiety and burnout. Others are silently carrying grief, trauma, or family stress.

What works: Personalized therapy options. Confidential access to real mental health providers. Trauma-informed, culturally competent support. The days of generic “wellness” are over. People need depth, not checklists.

2. Mistaking perks for culture change

A one-time mental health day is a nice gesture, but it doesn’t solve deep issues like burnout, poor boundaries, or resentment. If leadership isn’t modeling emotional safety, no initiative will stick.

What works: Building a culture where people feel safe to professionally talk about stress, mental load, and emotions. That starts at the top, with leaders who show up with vulnerability and offer real support systems, like therapy and team mediation.

3. Treating burnout as a workload issue

Burnout isn’t just about doing too much, it can also be feeling emotionally depleted, unrecognized, or powerless. You can’t PTO your way out of that.

What works: Team-based counseling. Emotional regulation training. Communication coaching. Boundaries. Systems. Optimizing talent. The root causes of burnout are emotional and structural, not just logistical.

Real mental health support doesn’t just improve morale, it builds connection, resilience, and retention. If you’re ready to go beyond surface-level solutions, therapy-informed corporate counseling should be your next move.