May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to focus on mental well-being, reduce stigma, and encourage support for those facing mental health challenges. While public conversations about mental health are increasing, the workplace remains a space where silence and stress often go unchecked.

Mental health issues don’t just magically go away at the office door, they follow employees into meetings and day-to-day interactions. When organizations fail to recognize this, they risk not only the well-being of their people but also the health of the business.

Human Resources plays a critical role here. HR professionals are in a unique position to influence culture, shape policy, and ensure that mental health support is embedded into the overall work experience. This Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s important to reflect on how HR can help organizations move from awareness to meaningful action.

Why Mental Health Matters at Work

Mental health is foundational to employee well-being and directly tied to organizational outcomes. When mental health is poor, absenteeism, disengagement, and turnover rise. When it’s supported, companies benefit from stronger collaboration, creativity, and retention.

The American Psychological Association’s 2024 Work in America Survey found that nearly one-quarter of American workers (24%) rated their overall mental health as fair or poor, compared to 28% in 2023 and 19% in 2022. While the slight year-over-year improvement is encouraging, the longer-term trend suggests a growing challenge.

This data underscores that mental health struggles are not isolated or uncommon – they affect a significant share of the workforce every day. When nearly one in four workers describe their mental health as fair or poor, it’s not just a personal issue but a workplace reality. These challenges don’t stay hidden; they ripple across teams and operations, influencing performance at every level.

The fact that this percentage has remained high over several years shows that mental health challenges aren’t going away on their own. For HR, it’s a clear signal that addressing mental health needs to be an ongoing responsibility that’s built into policies, culture, and leadership priorities.

HR’s Central Role in Supporting Mental Health

HR professionals operate at the intersection of policy, culture, and employee experience. This positioning gives HR the ability and the responsibility to influence how mental health is supported across an organization.

Here are some key ways HR can lead:

1. Policy Development and Oversight HR shapes the policies that define how mental health is treated at work. This includes leave policies, flexible work arrangements, accommodations, and more. Policies should be inclusive, clearly communicated, and easily accessible. Mental Health Awareness Month is an excellent opportunity to audit existing policies and ask whether they support the realities employees face today.
2. Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety The APA report emphasizes the importance of psychological safety – feeling safe to speak up and ask for help without fear of negative consequences. Workers in psychologically safe environments report higher job satisfaction, lower burnout, and stronger performance. HR plays a significant part in creating and reinforcing this culture – through leadership messaging, manager training, and consistent practices, HR can help establish trust and encourage openness around mental health.
3. Promoting Access to Mental Health Resources Even when benefits like Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), counseling services, or wellness stipends exist, many employees either don’t know about them or don’t trust that using them is safe or worthwhile. Thankfully, HR has the tools to bridge this gap. Rather than relying on sparse reminders, HR should weave resource promotion into regular communications, onboarding, and management training. Visibility and credibility are just as important as availability.
4. Equipping Managers with Skills and Awareness Managers are often the first to spot warning signs like disengagement, irritability, or burnout, but they’re not always prepared to respond. HR can provide training to help managers recognize when something may be wrong, initiate supportive conversations, and guide employees to appropriate resources. This isn’t the kind of training that should be optional, but a core part of manager development.
5. Encouraging Workload Balance and Boundary Setting HR can also influence how work is structured. Overbearing workloads, unclear expectations, and excessively high-energy cultures contribute to stress and erode well-being. By conducting workload assessments, setting norms around availability, and encouraging use of PTO, HR can play a preventative role in protecting mental health.

The Cost of Overlooking Mental Health

Failing to prioritize mental health has real consequences. Aside from the personal impact, it contributes to avoidable turnover, legal risks, and damaged reputations. Workplaces that ignore or minimize mental health concerns become environments where employees quietly disengage or eventually leave.

The APA’s findings make this clear: employees who experience low psychological safety are more likely to struggle, while those in more supportive environments are better equipped to cope and thrive. Organizations that do not adapt will continue to fall behind, not just in performance, but in trust.

Mental Health Awareness Month: Sparking Lasting Change

Awareness campaigns and themed events can inspire important conversations, but the real value of Mental Health Awareness Month lies in its potential to prompt real, positive change. For HR, that means shifting from temporary programming to long-term investment in mental health infrastructure.

This month can be a moment to really commit to what matters most: the people in your organization. That includes reviewing policies, listening to employees, training managers, promoting benefits, and developing a culture where well-being is not seen as separate from performance, but essential to it.

A Better Workplace Starts with Care

HR has a powerful opportunity to shape environments where employees feel supported, heard, and valued – not just during Mental Health Awareness Month, but every month. As work continues to evolve, mental health must remain at the center of any conversation about employee success.