“Our job, our expertise, is to democratize mental health in the workplace,” explains Nicolas Merlaud. “We help employees understand their mental health, take care of themselves preventively, before they encounter any issues. And we assist HR teams in identifying risks, their causes, and working on them.”
Mental health remains largely misunderstood, both in the workplace and beyond. While we have learned to take care of our physical health with well-established preventive habits, such as brushing our teeth to avoid cavities, we still often overlook how to manage our mental health.
The first step is to recognize it, to know that it exists, and to take it into account. The official definition of good mental health by the WHO is a state of well-being.
So, Teale proposes to start with the individual, the employee, who will have access to a personal and confidential space with a companion, who will ask questions, allow them to take stock, so they can better take care of themselves with, based on their answers, concrete, individualized, and scientific tools to help them create a mental health prevention routine. Videos, exercises, and also free appointments with a psychologist or Teale coach are offered.
Next, the solution will focus on the collective. "This is equally important because sometimes mental health can be compromised by organizational factors. So we will anonymize employees' personal data, aggregate it, and set up a dashboard to identify which teams are suffering more, why they are, and we can take concrete action with HR services,” explains Nicolas Merlaud.
The actions implemented improve employee well-being, but also the functioning of the company. "Because when you don't feel well, it also impacts the company and performance. Employees who take care of themselves on Teale take fewer sick leaves, are less likely to be absent, and feel more productive. And that is key,” concludes Nicolas Merlaud.
