Advancing workforce well-being through integrated, proactive mental health strategies

In a recent Becker’s Healthcare podcast, Kristen Ford, General Manager of the Employer Division at Carelon Behavioral Health, discussed how employers are transforming mental health support into a proactive, integrated strategy that drives engagement, aligns leadership, and improves workforce outcomes.

As behavioral health needs grow more complex, employers are rethinking how well-being fits into their broader business strategy. Rising stress, burnout, and access challenges are shaping both employee experience and organizational performance. In response, leading organizations are moving beyond reactive models and building more connected, data-informed approaches to workforce well-being.
 

Evolving EAPs into a front door for care

Employee assistance programs (EAP) have shifted from crisis-based services to a more integrated access point for well-being. “Employee assistance programs have really transformed from a narrow, crisis-driven, phone-based service into more broad-based proactive services that are tech-enabled and really deliver well-being services across the population,” Ford said. Today’s EAP serves as a central hub that helps employees access support earlier and more easily.
 

Positioning behavioral health as workforce infrastructure

Employers are increasingly recognizing behavioral health as a driver of performance and retention. “Employers no longer see behavioral health as a side benefit. They really see it as part of a core workforce infrastructure, something that directly affects the performance and the retention and the safety and culture of their workforce,” Ford said. As workforce stress and high-acuity needs persist, organizations are prioritizing more integrated and scalable approaches to care.
 

Driving engagement through leadership and design

Sustained engagement depends on how well-being is embedded into the organization. “They build a culture of well-being from the top down,” Ford said, noting that leading organizations treat well-being as “a leadership behavior and a business priority.” Managers also play a central role – because they “control roughly 70% of engagement in a workforce and are the first line for well-being concerns.” Leadership engagement is critical to program success.
 

Aligning well-being with measurable outcomes

To gain executive alignment, well-being strategies must connect to business metrics. “When leaders see well-being as a lever for performance, the conversation can change, and the financial outcome can change, and the business performance can change,” Ford said. Employers are increasingly tying behavioral health strategies to outcomes such as retention, productivity, and access to care.
 

Building a culture of early intervention

Organizations that normalize engagement focus on prevention and behavior change. “They focus on prevention. They focus on early intervention as a cultural norm of their business,” Ford said. By embedding support into leadership behaviors and daily workflows, employers can reduce stigma and encourage earlier use of well-being resources.
 

Starting with data to guide strategy

For organizations looking to evolve their approach, clarity is the first step. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so let the data guide you,” Ford said. By understanding workforce needs and focusing on areas such as manager enablement and simplified access, employers can design more targeted strategies that improve engagement and long-term outcomes.

Listen to Kristen Ford’s full interview with Becker’s Healthcare below to learn more about how Carelon Behavioral Health is driving change.