Allie Schwartz, Vice President of People at Mantra Health - Mental Health OKRs

On a recent episode of Reimagining Company Culture, the conversation turned to treating mental health as a measurable business priority. The guest, Allie Schwartz, brought direct experience to the topic from their day-to-day work, and the conversation moved past the talking points most People teams have heard a hundred times. This recap pulls the practical thread of the discussion together and translates it into the workflows HR leaders are running today.

Allie's background sets the context for how Allie thinks about this work. Allie Schwartz is the VP People at Mantra Health. Before accepting the role at Mantra, Allie worked as VP People at Tempest and Director of People Operations at Healthify. In both positions, she was the first People Ops hire and grew the department and systems from 0 to 1. Prior to that, Allie worked for 7 years at Fog Creek Software, starting as the receptionist and working he. That experience shapes the perspective the episode brings to treating mental health as a measurable business priority, and the recap below stays grounded in the workflows leaders are running, not abstractions.

The conversation touches on the basics any People team is already managing, including workplace wellness programs and work-life balance practices. The recap below assumes that grounding and focuses on the operating moves leaders make on top of it.

Most of the framework below holds up across industries and company stages. The specifics vary; the underlying mechanics rarely do.

What it means to put mental health in your OKRs

Most companies put mental health in their benefits package and call it strategy. Allie's argument is sharper. If something is a priority, it shows up in the company's quarterly objectives, with measurable outcomes attached. Otherwise it is decoration.

Mental health OKRs force three uncomfortable conversations. Which mental health outcomes can we actually measure. Which leaders are accountable for moving them. What we will stop doing if the metrics do not improve. Companies that work through those three questions end up with very different programs than companies that buy an EAP and check the box.

How leaders work through treating mental health as a measurable business priority

What mental health metrics are worth tracking?

Utilization of mental health benefits, time-to-first-appointment, employee-reported well-being scores, and short-term disability claims tied to mental health diagnoses. Two of those, utilization and time-to-appointment, are operational. The other two are outcomes.

McKinsey workplace mental health research estimates a 4.25x return on every dollar invested in workplace mental health. The ROI math only works if the program drives utilization. A benefit nobody uses returns nothing.

How do leaders make mental health discussion safe?

By being specific. 'We care about mental health' means nothing. 'Here is the EAP, here is the average wait time, here is the manager script for responding to a disclosure, here is how leave works' is something a person can act on. McKinsey thriving workplaces analysis found that better workplace mental health support correlates with higher return-to-work rates after disability leave.

The other piece is manager training. Most managers want to help and are afraid of saying the wrong thing. Five hours of training, refreshed annually, is the difference between a manager who freezes and one who responds.

What actually works in practice

The pattern across companies that handle treating mental health as a measurable business priority well comes down to three operational habits.

• Measure utilization, not enrollment. Plan enrollment is a number. Plan utilization is a behavior. Only one tells you whether the benefit is working.
• Train managers on disclosure response. The first conversation a struggling employee has is almost always with their direct manager. Untrained managers send people back into silence.
• Connect the benefit to the workflow. Leave policies, performance review timing, and PIP standards all touch mental health. They should be reviewed together, not separately.

None of these are aspirational. They are checklists the strongest People teams run on a cadence, and the consistency is what makes the difference.

What looks like a culture decision from the outside is usually the cumulative effect of those three habits, applied without theatrics.

This pattern shows up alongside familiar tools like employee engagement fundamentals. The combination is what makes the operating model durable.

Where Employee Relations fits

AllVoices employee relations solution teams sit at the intersection of policy and individual cases. The AllVoices HR case management platform workflow tracks accommodation conversations, leave requests, and performance discussions in one place. The AllVoices performance improvement plan workflow workflow keeps performance documentation aligned with mental health accommodations so a disclosure does not unwind a legitimate performance conversation.

The companies pulling this off rarely run it on memory. They run it on infrastructure. AllVoices HR case management platform centralizes the case data; AllVoices data and insights dashboard surfaces the patterns nobody catches manually; AllVoices Vera AI co-pilot for ER teams accelerates the response time so the work is finishable. Together they cover the operating layer that this episode keeps pointing at.

How does Employee Relations protect mental health disclosures?

By keeping the documentation tight and the access narrow. AllVoices compliance solution programs require that medical information be handled separately from general HR records, and AllVoices HR case management platform enforces that separation by default. The reporter sees the case status without exposing the disclosure to the rest of the organization.

The supporting research is consistent. Independent analysis from McKinsey thriving workplaces analysis points the same direction the episode does. The combination of operating discipline and outside data is what gets People leaders past the slogan stage.

The takeaway holds across companies of different sizes and industries. The teams that turn this episode's lesson into operating practice are the ones that name a target metric, run it on a cadence, and refuse to let activity stand in for outcomes. The metric does not have to be elaborate. It has to be visible to the people who can move it, and reviewed often enough that nothing falls off the radar for a quarter.

The other consistent pattern is that the work compounds. Year one of any of these practices feels like overhead. Year three is when the retention, engagement, and case-data signals start telling a clearly different story. People leaders who hold the line through the early part of the curve tend to be the ones who have the receipts when leadership asks for evidence later.

Frequently Asked Questions About Treating Mental Health As A Measurable Business Priority

What's the ROI on workplace mental health programs?

McKinsey research puts it at roughly 4 to 1, every dollar invested returns about $4 in productivity gains, lower absenteeism, and reduced disability costs. The ROI is real but only when utilization is measured and managed.

Should HR mandate mental health training for managers?

Yes. Untrained managers are the leading reason employees do not disclose mental health concerns. Five hours of foundational training plus an annual refresh is the practical floor.

How do mental health OKRs differ from wellness programs?

Wellness programs focus on activities, yoga, meditation apps, step counts. OKRs focus on outcomes, time-to-appointment, utilization, employee-reported well-being. The activities can support the OKRs, but they cannot replace them.

Are mental health disclosures protected under the ADA?

Yes, when the condition meets the ADA's definition of a disability. That includes major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and bipolar disorder. Employers have to engage in the interactive accommodation process the same way they would for a physical condition.

What's the most underused mental health benefit?

Employee Assistance Programs. Most companies see utilization in the 3 to 7 percent range, even though SHRM data shows usage above 30 percent is achievable when the program is promoted properly and managers know how to refer.

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

Allie's framework is uncomfortable because it forces specificity. You can either say mental health matters or you can put it in your OKRs. You cannot do both half-heartedly.

The People teams getting real results are the ones that picked two metrics, owned them quarterly, and let everything else fall away.

See how AllVoices supports the kind of culture work this episode is about.