There’s a good reason for this. Happy employees create a positive ripple effect across the business. People want to work with and buy from happy people. Plain and simple.

I talk about wellness a lot with my LinkedIn community because I’ve been there myself—pushing through fevers just to impress my boss. It’s eye-opening how many people admit to working through vacations and illnesses because “that’s just who they are.” Despite all the initiatives and open conversations, workplace mental health issues still feel as real as ever.

Employee well-being costs you more than you think

Twelve billion lost working days and $1 trillion. This is how much untreated mental health disorders cost the global economy each year, according to the World Health Organization.

Obviously, your company doesn’t bear this total cost, but it’s a reminder that workplace well-being remains unacceptably low. Behind the stats are real people: employees struggling with anxiety, depression, and burnout; employers dealing with quiet quitting, absenteeism, and high turnover.

Companies literally can’t afford a spray-and-pray approach to wellness anymore, throwing in occasional pulse surveys or team-building events. To move the needle in building high-performing workplaces, leaders should start by shifting toxic mindsets.

Practical ways to build a supportive workplace

Here are five ways to better support your staff and workplace.

• Find strength in kindness

“Be tough if you want people to take you seriously.” It’s one of the biggest pieces of nonsense I’ve heard as a CEO. Especially now, with millennials and Gen Z dominating workplaces, employees value leaders who see them as people, not just performers.

Kindness doesn’t mean lowering standards or ignoring accountability; it means leading with empathy and compassion.

Here’s a simple exercise: Try active listening in your next one-on-one. Instead of jumping right into tasks and performance, ask how the person is doing.

• Recognize workplace bullying

Verbal abuse, constant criticism, taking credit for others’ work, and downplaying achievements are some of the obvious signs of workplace bullying. But it can also show up in subtler ways that often go unnoticed.

• Micromanagement indicates a lack of trust in an employee’s abilities.
• Inconsistent expectations with changing goals and deadlines set employees up for failure.
• Silent treatment—ignoring coworkers’ input or excluding them from discussions—creates a toxic environment.

You often need more than awareness to address the problem. We prioritized team training and set up safe reporting channels to ensure employees feel comfortable speaking up. Another key step was outlining clear consequences for bullying, including warnings, mandatory counseling, or termination.

• Implement stay interviews

Employees go through multiple interviews when hired and have an exit interview when they leave, yet companies often overlook regular check-ins in between. In fact, 69% of managers admit they feel uncomfortable talking to their team.

Stay interviews don’t require many resources. Managers or HR can conduct them with a list of questions, a short time slot, and a willingness to listen and act on the insights gained.

Here are some questions from BetterMe stay interviews:

• What motivates you to come to work every day?
• What frustrates you at work, and how can we improve it?
• Are you getting the support you need to succeed?
• Are there any skills you’d like to develop that we can help with?
• What can we do to keep you here for the long term?

• Stop branding your workplace as a family

The “we’re a family” mentality often signals a company that doesn’t respect personal boundaries and encourages employees to go above and into burnout to perform. This dynamic can also weaken accountability and productivity, as poor performance is sometimes excused under the guise of loyalty.

Review your mission statement, employee handbook, onboarding materials, and job listings, and reframe the language.

I like to think of BetterMe as a sports team. It emphasizes shared goals, clear roles, healthy competition, and a culture of supporting each other through losses. Your team might feel more like a jazz band or a Sesame Street film crew—whatever captures your unique dynamic.

• Rethink your meetings

Traditional meetings are often dominated by the loudest voices, leaving reflective thinkers without a chance to contribute. Over time, this can create a culture where people feel their opinions don’t matter.

Many companies are moving toward silent meetings as an alternative. Everyone spends the first part of the meeting reading and commenting on a shared document in silence, then a focused discussion begins. Buffer, for instance, has taken this a step further, replacing most weekly meetings with long-form, async communication.

This type of communication promotes equal participation. It’s more sustainable for teams spread across time zones, too—far better than expecting an employee to hop on a 9 p.m. Zoom call and be bursting with ideas.

Workplace mental health needs a multilevel approach

Designing a workplace that centers on employee well-being begins in everyday team interactions. But for real impact, the efforts need to extend across different levels and beyond one particular company.

At the team level, managers should stay aware of general and personal events that may affect employee performance and know how to adjust their support accordingly. Hurricanes in Miami or the Russian drone attack in Ukraine require different responses.

At the company level, the focus should be on normalizing conversations about well-being and working on strategies that foster a culture where employees feel safe reaching out for help.

At a national level, countries should prioritize and support workplace mental health through legislation. For example, the U.K. has introduced initiatives to make mental health training mandatory for managers, emphasizing the role of supportive leadership.

Victoria Repa is the founder and CEO of BetterMe.