The Privacy-Support Balance: What Employees Really Want from Workplace Mental Health Support

Our recent workplace survey revealed something fascinating about mental health support: it’s not just about having resources available – it’s about having control over how they’re used.

When we analysed responses across different organisational levels, from individual contributors to executives, a clear pattern emerged. 92% of respondents cited ‘control over who sees the information’ as a crucial factor in their willingness to engage with mental health support. This wasn’t just a preference – it was a prerequisite.

What’s particularly interesting is how this desire for control manifests differently across organisational hierarchies. Senior leaders, while generally more open to discussing mental health, still emphasised the need for bounded sharing. As one executive put it: “Clear privacy guarantees and control over information flow are non-negotiable.”

The data reveals three key elements employees want from workplace mental health support:

1. Granular Privacy Control Our survey showed that even in organisations rated as having ‘excellent’ mental health support, employees want fine-grained control over their information. 76% expressed interest in tools that allow them to selectively share with trusted colleagues while maintaining privacy from broader management.
2. Trust-Based Networks The concept of ‘trusted circles’ emerged strongly in our data. While only 15% of respondents were comfortable discussing mental health broadly at work, 68% were open to sharing within small, trusted groups. This suggests a move away from organisation-wide programmes toward more intimate support structures.
3. Anonymous Insights A surprising finding was the strong interest in anonymous aggregate insights. 72% of respondents indicated they would engage more with mental health support if they could see anonymised patterns and trends across their organisation – suggesting a desire to understand their experiences in context without compromising privacy.

This presents a clear challenge for organisations: how to provide comprehensive mental health support while maintaining the level of privacy and control employees demand? Traditional top-down wellness programmes may need to evolve into more nuanced frameworks that enable trusted connections while preserving professional boundaries.

The implications are significant. When MIT Sloan Management Review studied successful mental health initiatives in 2024, they found that programmes emphasizing user control and privacy saw engagement rates three times higher than traditional approaches.

As we continue to analyse our data, one thing becomes clear: the future of workplace mental health support lies not in broader rollouts of existing programmes, but in reimagining how these programmes can work within employees’ trust and privacy requirements.

What control features would make you more likely to engage with workplace mental health support? Have you seen examples of organisations successfully balancing support with privacy?

Watch for the final part of this series tomorrow, where we’ll explore how organisations can build genuine psychological safety using a data-driven approach.