The ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt long after states begin lifting stay-at-home orders – not just economically, but physiologically.

“We are going to have to deal with the emotional trauma,” best-selling author Simon Sinek stressed during Workhuman® Livestream. What he meant is, many of us have been heads down, just doing what we can to get ourselves and our families through this crisis day by day. But when we all collectively come up for air, the weight of this strange and unprecedented time will come to bear – and if we’re not careful, our mental health could become collateral damage. Since we’re nearing the end of May, Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s use this time to check in and connect with ourselves, our family members, our friends, and our colleagues.

The state of mental health at work

Workhuman® recently conducted a survey of more than 3,000 full-time U.S. workers across various industries on how they’ve fared during the pandemic. We found 38% of workers have experienced burnout during this time and another 41% have experienced loneliness and isolation at least once a week. The stress of economic uncertainty combined with a loss of physical connection is taking a huge toll on our organizations. When we asked workers what they miss most about working in the office, the top answer was “my colleagues.” People are craving human connection now more than ever.

“Be careful that work doesn’t become your home and your home doesn’t become your work,” comedian and host of “The Daily Show” Trevor Noah told me during Workhuman Livestream. “This is when you should take care of your mind and make sure that you can come out on the other side of coronavirus sane.” And yet, it seems more and more challenging to heed Trevor’s advice. In Bloomberg News, Arianne Cohen writes: “The stigma around mental health remains endemic in America. Employers largely remain quiet about personal challenges, and depression alone costs employers over $100 billion per year, mostly in missed work and productivity.” The same article notes a stark increase in companies offering virtual well-being tools.

What companies can do

Beyond webinars, workout classes, and extra time off, companies should prioritize social connection. Indeed, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University, an expert on organizational behavior, writes in McKinsey Quarterly, “Almost anything that brings people into contact in a pleasant and meaningful context – from holidays to community service to events that celebrate employee tenure or shared successes such as product launches – helps build a sense of common identity and strengthens social bonds.” One of his top suggestions to promote well-being in the workplace is simply to encourage people to care for one another.

Though we may not all share a physical space at an office, it is possible to virtually promote and nurture a culture of caring. But it won’t be through traditional administrative applications that live in human resources and focus on process. It will be through human applications that focus on people and facilitate human moments that matter – such as celebrating the birth of a child, a promotion, a successful project, a marriage, and so much more. These applications work to instill a feeling of inclusion and belonging among diverse individuals, whose common ground is the “village” of their workplace.

Allowing co-workers to publicly express gratitude and celebrate each other can trigger an important mindset shift as well. In her book, “The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-Being in the Digital Era,” Global Happiness Council Member Amy Blankson writes: “By scanning the world for the positive, we can begin to transform our past failures, hurts, and fears into a source of potential growth – a process that paves the way for long-term happiness.”

In addition to focusing on social connection, companies should also consider scraping large-scale annual employee surveys for more frequent pulse surveys. By the time results are compiled and analyzed from annual surveys, the data is usually outdated. Consider the example of a company that just received results from an employee survey administered in February. None of that feedback would include important sentiments about how employees are coping with the pandemic. Companies that ask for feedback on a regular basis and take action based on that feedback show they truly care.

Each of these suggestions for better catering to mental health and well-being comes down to creating more human-centered work cultures that put employees first. A human-centered culture emphasizes the connections among employees and the purpose behind their work, both of which help enable organizations to rebound with an engaged and resilient set of employees.