Writing a Workplace Mental Health Policy: Sections, Wording and Common Gaps
In this article
Most mental health policies I have reviewed fail in one of two ways. Some are a paragraph of good intentions about valuing the wellbeing of our people, with nothing an employee could act on. Others run to fifteen pages of legal cross-references that nobody outside HR has ever read. A useful policy sits between the two: short enough to read in ten minutes, specific enough that an employee knows who to call and a manager knows what is expected of them.
This is a section-by-section walk-through with example clause wording you can adapt. The clauses are starting points, not finished legal text. Obligations vary by state and by employer size, so have employment counsel review your final draft. Nothing here is legal advice.
Before you draft
Three decisions shape everything else.
Standalone or folded in? Some employers put mental health inside a broader health and safety or wellbeing policy. A standalone policy is easier to find and signals intent. A folded-in one ties mental health to the same governance as physical safety, which has its own advantages. Either works, as long as people can find it.
Who owns it? Name a policy owner, usually an HR leader, and a senior sponsor. Policies without an owner don't get reviewed, and policies that don't get reviewed quietly go stale.
What is it for? Write a one-sentence answer before you start. For example: so that employees know what support exists and how to ask for it, managers know their role, and the company meets its obligations. Every section should serve that sentence. If one doesn't, cut it.
If you haven't assessed where you stand, do that first. Our workplace mental health self-check takes about ten minutes and scores four areas, and your weakest area tells you which sections deserve the most drafting time.
The sections, with example wording
1. Purpose and scope
Say who the policy covers and why it exists. Name part-time, temporary and remote staff explicitly. They are the groups most often left wondering whether a policy applies to them.
Example: This policy applies to all employees of [Company], including full-time, part-time, temporary and remote staff, and to managers at every level. Its purpose is to support employees' mental health, prevent work-related harm where we can, and explain how employees can get help and request changes to their work.
2. Statement of commitment
Keep it to three or four concrete commitments. Avoid adjectives nobody could test.
Example: [Company] commits to treating mental health conditions with the same seriousness as physical health conditions; reducing work-related causes of stress that are within our control; making support easy to find and use; and protecting the privacy of anyone who discloses a mental health condition.
3. Roles and responsibilities
This section does the most work and usually gets the least attention. Break it out by role.
Example:
- Employees are encouraged to raise concerns about their wellbeing or workload early, with their manager, HR or the EAP.
- Managers are expected to check in with team members, respond supportively to disclosures, refer employees to available support, and involve HR in any request for changes related to health. Managers are not expected to diagnose or counsel.
- HR handles accommodation requests, leave and the confidential storage of health information, and supports managers in all of these.
- Senior leadership sponsors this policy, reviews its effectiveness each year and funds the support it describes.
The line "managers are not expected to diagnose or counsel" earns its place. It reassures managers who fear being out of their depth and warns off the ones inclined to overreach. If your managers need help with the conversations themselves, our piece on training managers to talk about mental health has sample wording.
4. Support available
List what exists and how to reach it. This is the section employees actually read, so make it practical: phone numbers, links, hours.
Example: Support available to all employees includes the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides free, confidential counseling sessions and can be reached at [number and hours]; mental health coverage under our medical plan, described in the benefits guide; and [other resources, such as peer supporters, an on-site clinic or digital tools]. Anyone in crisis can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any time.
EAP numbers and plan details change. Link to a maintained page instead of hardcoding them, or check them at every review.
5. Requesting adjustments and accommodations
Explain that employees can ask for changes, and how. Don't make the process sound legalistic, and don't require specific words.
Example: Employees who need a change to their work because of a mental health condition, such as adjusted hours, a quieter workspace, remote work days or a modified workload, may ask their manager or HR. The request doesn't need to be in writing or use any particular terms. HR will discuss options with the employee and may ask for information from a healthcare provider where appropriate. We will provide reasonable accommodations consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state law.
The ADA's employment provisions cover employers with 15 or more employees, and many state laws reach further. The Job Accommodation Network has practical accommodation ideas sorted by condition and by job function.
6. Confidentiality and privacy
Say plainly who sees health information and who doesn't. Employees read this section before deciding whether to disclose anything at all.
Example: Information about an employee's health is kept confidential and stored separately from personnel files. It is shared only with those who need it to arrange support or accommodations, and only to the extent necessary. Managers will be told about any agreed changes to work, not about diagnoses or treatment. We will not share health information with coworkers.
If you run any screening or wellness program, add how its data is handled: who administers it, what the employer receives, if anything, and that reports are aggregate only. The details are in our article on what employers can and can't do with mental health screening.
7. Leave and return to work
Reference your leave policies and describe what coming back looks like.
Example: Employees may be eligible for leave for a mental health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act, state leave laws or company leave policies. HR will explain the options. When an employee returns, their manager and HR will meet with them to agree on any phased return, temporary adjustments and check-in points.
The FMLA covers private employers with 50 or more employees, along with public agencies and schools, and gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year for a serious health condition, which can include a mental health condition. Eligibility depends on tenure, hours worked and worksite size, so leave the detail to the leave policy and the people who administer it.
8. Preventing work-related harm
This section moves the policy from reacting to individual crises toward dealing with causes. It's also the one most often missing entirely.
Example: We will identify and address work-related factors that can harm mental health, including excessive workload, unclear roles, lack of control over work, poor communication during change, and harassment or bullying. We will do this through regular employee surveys, review of absence and incident data, and consultation with employees, and we will report actions taken to senior leadership each year.
ISO 45003, the international guidance on managing psychosocial risk at work, is a solid framework if you want more structure behind this section.
9. Non-retaliation
Short, unambiguous, and worth stating on its own rather than burying it in the confidentiality section.
Example: No employee will be penalized, disciplined or treated less favorably for disclosing a mental health condition, using support services, requesting an accommodation, or raising concerns about work-related stress in good faith.
10. Training and communication
Example: All managers will complete training on supporting team members' mental health within three months of taking on a management role, with refresher training every two years. This policy will be shared at onboarding and re-communicated to all employees annually.
Put a timeframe in the clause. "Managers will receive training" with no deadline tends to mean managers never do.
11. Review
Example: HR will review this policy annually, using employee feedback, survey results, aggregate EAP utilization data, and leave and accommodation trends, and will recommend changes to the senior sponsor.
Common gaps, as a checklist
Before you sign off a draft, run through this list. In my experience, most first drafts miss at least two or three of these.
- Remote and part-time staff aren't mentioned. They assume the policy isn't meant for them.
- The manager role is undefined, or defined only as "support employees."
- There's no route for accommodation requests, or the route sounds as if it requires a doctor's letter up front.
- Confidentiality is promised but not explained. Employees want to know, specifically, whether their manager will be told.
- There's no prevention section. The policy handles crises but never touches workload or how work is designed.
- Contact details are out of date. Check the EAP number at every review.
- No crisis line appears. 988 should be there, stated plainly.
- Nothing covers return to work. People coming back from leave are left to improvise with their manager.
- No owner, no review date. The policy ages without anyone noticing.
- It's written only for HR. If a frontline employee can't follow it, rewrite it until they can.
A quick readability test
Picture a hypothetical 300-person food distributor in Georgia with a freshly drafted policy. Before publishing, the HR director hands it to three people: a forklift operator on the night shift, a new supervisor and a remote sales rep. She asks each of them two questions. If you were struggling, who would you contact first? If you needed to change your hours for a few weeks, what would you do?
The operator finds the EAP number on page two but can't tell whether calling it means his supervisor will hear about it. The supervisor isn't sure whether she can agree to a schedule change herself. The sales rep assumes the whole policy is about the warehouse. Three readers, three fixes: a sentence in the confidentiality section, a clearer line in the roles section and an explicit mention of remote staff in the scope. None of those gaps would have shown up in a legal review.
Keeping it alive
A policy is only as useful as the habits around it. Tie the annual review to something with a fixed date, such as benefits renewal, so it doesn't drift. Repeat the readability test with new readers every couple of years. And check the policy against the four key areas: if it says nothing about leadership commitment or about reducing stigma, it is probably missing a section.
Our resources library has free templates and guidance to draw on while you draft, and if you have suggestions for improving this guide, get in touch.
