HR & employee mental health: What is (& isn’t) HR’s role?

Employee mental health is one of today’s most urgent workplace challenges. But if you’re an HR leader, knowing how to support your people, without overstepping, can feel like walking a tightrope.

Are you responsible for listening to their work struggles?
Should you proactively reach out when you’re concerned?
Or is connecting them to benefits as far as it goes?

Dr. Ryan Todd, psychiatrist and Headversity co-founder, shares expert guidance to help you feel more secure in your role. Keep reading to learn how to provide support safely and confidently, what to watch for, and when to escalate.

What falls within HR’s scope?

HR professionals are on the front lines of organizational wellbeing. While HR shouldn’t act as a therapist, there is a duty to support employees with mental health needs through reasonable accommodation.

You likely already support employee wellbeing by promoting benefits, responding to personal leave requests, or handling complex employee relations issues. These efforts are closely tied to people strategy and retention.

According to a SHRM report, 88% of HR professionals say that offering mental health resources increases productivity, and 86% believe these resources improve employee retention.

To realize these benefits, HR can:

• Advocate for mental health initiatives and resources
• Connect people to appropriate support (e.g., EAP, benefits, crisis lines)
• Foster a psychologically safe culture
• Partner with leaders to handle complex or emotionally intense situations
• Train managers to recognize and respond to mental health red flags

In a poll of HR leaders in our LinkedIn audience, 48% voted that HR’s role should be leading proactive strategies.

Partnering with people leaders

Managers spend more time with employees than anyone else. They need to be equipped to respond and provide appropriate support when their employees need it.

The challenge is that people leaders aren’t trained for this, and it’s stressful for them. Research suggests that only 38% of HR professionals believe managers are equipped to have mental health conversations.

Because they have more mental health training, HR can step in during high-stakes moments, like emotionally intense situations.

Dr. Todd specifies that HR should be involved whenever there’s a concern about a person’s quality of work due to a mental health issue. “It’s a very symbiotic relationship, because leaders want the help, and HR people have the help to give.”

What’s outside of HR’s scope

It’s beyond your scope to diagnose employees, give clinical advice, or carry the responsibility alone.

However, “there is no manual or rule book for this,” says Dr. Todd. “The best compass for what your boundaries are is your gut feeling, your ‘Spidey senses.’”

Dr. Todd advises HR leaders to pull someone else in whenever they feel overwhelmed or recognize that an employee may be at risk. Including other HR teammates or company leaders helps ensure that HR is legally protected.

When to escalate individuals to professional help

How do you know when an employee needs more than HR can offer?

It goes back to that gut feeling, according to Dr. Todd. When you interact with a person and sense discomfort or just feel something is off, follow your intuition.

Some red flags that an employee needs professional support:

• Behavioral changes
• Expressing thoughts of self-harm or suicide
• Hopelessness, not talking about the future
• Isolation or withdrawal from others
• Physically looking unwell or not taking care of themselves

What to do if an employee has mental health issues? In these cases, refer the teammate to your EAP, benefits provider, or crisis resources.

Crisis warning signs in teams

It turns out that there isn’t a clear barometer for team mental health, like there is for individuals, Dr. Todd notes. It’s complex to assess and identify because individuals in each team have varying levels of resilience and challenges in their personal lives.

However, there are organizational factors that can lead to a decline in mental health. Factors like high work volume or expectations, interpersonal conflicts, and seasonal pressures are key workplace stressors.

Dr. Todd shares how Headversity’s psychometric assessments show trends in how people rate their mental health. Teams often have seasonal changes in wellbeing that align with internal company stressors. For example, an accounting team feels added pressure during the audit season.

This highlights an opportunity for HR teams to provide targeted support with a preventative strategy.

Providing effective workplace mental health support

To go beyond reactive crisis support and truly promote team wellbeing, organizations need a proactive mental health strategy built on trusted standards.

Developing a successful mental health strategy includes:

• Meeting workplace wellbeing standards set by global authorities
• Assessing your team’s mental health climate
• Aligning efforts to business outcomes
• Involving organizational leaders to champion wellbeing
• Creating a focused, measurable plan

Not sure where to start? Download our step-by-step guide to building a workplace mental health strategy.

What gets in HR’s way?

Are you still hesitant about supporting mental health at work? Here are some common concerns we hear, and why they may be holding you back.

Fear: “I’m not a therapist; this isn’t my job.”

Reality: Yes, professional advice and treatment is outside your scope.

But for HR, supporting mental health means enabling your people to thrive and connecting them to the right help.

Fear: “If I say the wrong thing, I risk doing more harm.”

Your workplace can increase participation rates and support meaningful health improvements with targeted employee engagement strategies. A study in health care workers found that a proactive digital engagement strategy led to greater improvements in anxiety and depression over six months compared to offering the same resources without an engagement plan.

Fear: “We don’t have time to deal with this right now.”

Reality: Employee mental health issues will compound over time.

In 2024, half of U.S. employees reported work burnout and 37% felt so overwhelmed it was hard to do their job. Unaddressed mental health concerns are already costing time—and money—through absenteeism, turnover, and decreased performance.

With a proactive approach, you can prevent these outcomes and protect your people in the long run.

Support starts with structure

You can’t have an effective people strategy without protecting your people’s greatest asset: their minds. HR’s responsibility is to help people leaders, refer employees to professional resources when needed, and champion wellbeing in the workplace.

Start building your tailored, evidence-based mental health strategy today. Download our free guide and checklist.