From exploration to co-design: Understanding and redesigning workplace mental-support services

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Behavioral Science
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Workplace mental-health support services (MSS) are widely available but underutilized, with uptake rates often below 5%.
• Existing research identifies attitudinal and stigma-related barriers but lacks insight into behavioral mechanisms of non-use in daily work.
• This study addresses the persistent gap between MSS availability and employee engagement in a high-tech organization in Türkiye.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the behavioral mechanisms underlying the underutilization of workplace mental-health support services.
• To identify barriers and facilitators to service engagement using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) model.
• To generate employee-informed redesign suggestions for enhancing MSS uptake.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 13 employees who had never accessed MSS.
• Application of the COM-B model to analyze barriers and facilitators across capability, opportunity, and motivation domains.
• A participatory co-design component to capture employee-generated redesign recommendations.

Main Results:

• Persistent non-use resulted from combined cognitive uncertainty, structural work constraints, and motivational tensions (identity, fatigue).
• These factors collectively reduced the likelihood of employees initiating support-seeking behaviors.
• Co-design activities yielded practical redesign directions, including simplified access and workflow integration.

Conclusions:

• Underutilization is a complex behavioral issue, not attributable to a single barrier.
• Organizational approaches must shift from mere awareness to behaviorally aligned system design for effective MSS engagement.
• Integrating support into daily workflows and simplifying entry points are crucial for meaningful employee uptake.