Workday Podcast: Shining a Light on Mental Health in the Workplace

Now more than ever, we understand how critical mental health is to our overall wellbeing. Two Workday leaders—Carin Taylor, chief diversity officer, and Ben Carter, vice president of total rewards—discuss the importance of destigmatizing conversations about mental health, what organizations can do to support their employees’ wellbeing, and the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, Mental Health in an Unequal World.

Audio also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The global pandemic has changed the way we live and work in ways we never could’ve imagined. And with that, mental health has moved to the forefront, as everyone's state of mind has been impacted in some way over the past 18-plus months. We’ve all had a crash course in how critical mental health is to our overall wellbeing.

At Workday, we believe mental health must be taken seriously, and we are committed to supporting mental health in our global communities. In this podcast, two Workday leaders—Carin Taylor, chief diversity officer, and Ben Carter, vice president of total rewards—discuss this topic and many others, including the importance of destigmatizing conversations about mental health, specific actions organizations can take to support their employees’ wellbeing, and the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, Mental Health in an Unequal World.

Below are a few highlights from the conversation, edited for clarity. You can find our other podcast episodes here. Be sure to follow us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts so you don’t miss an episode.

  • “When I think about mental health and wellness, I think about overall health. To me, there are four pillars of that: your physical health, your mental health, your financial health, and the concept of social wellbeing and social connections. All four of those are intertwined. And if one of them is off, the others are potentially going to suffer.” —Ben Carter

  • “Wellbeing, mental health, diversity, equity, and inclusion go hand in hand. When you think about whether an employee feels as if they belong, one of the things that's necessary is that they are whole and they feel complete as a person. When everything is in sync, they actually feel like they belong more. That sense of belonging is a direct connection to how we're actually thinking about wellbeing.” —Carin Taylor

  • “There are positives in this. And the No. 1 thing is, we've broken through the stigma. It's OK now to say you're not OK.” —Ben Carter

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