Winning strategies to promote mental health in the workplace
The 鈥淲olves of Comm Strat鈥 student team took first place at the Final Challenge Competition in their Communication Strategy class May 3. Out of 80 competing teams, these six freshman came up with a winning strategy, and each walked away with a $300 prize.
The Leeds Communications Strategy case competition attracted media coverage earlier in the semester. Fox 31 news interviewed instructor Cory Cunningham on April 5.听 filmed footage in instructor Jennifer Bone鈥檚 classroom for a piece about underserved high school students from听Denver听KidsTek experiencing a college campus on April 18.
Making a case for prioritizing mental health
Johns Manville (JM) sponsored this year鈥檚 live case. In light of the current US opioid epidemic, students were challenged to come up with strategies to increase employee awareness about JM鈥檚 Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The EAP provides resources and support to JM employees on a wide range of personal and professional issues.
The National Mental Health Innovation Center, which is part of the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, facilitated the partnership between Leeds and JM and helped guide the case. This is the fourth time that faculty and NMHIC have partnered on the final challenge competition.
Devising a comprehensive support strategy
The 鈥淲olves of Comm Strat鈥 team presented a short-term, mid-term, and long-term plan. Their short term 鈥淗ere It鈥檚 Different鈥 campaign promoted awareness of the EAP offerings that would appeal to the demographics of the JM workforce. Their mid-term solution focused on fostering community through team-building. Their long-term plan involved promoting customized EAP resources per employee through AI-based recommendation engine technology.
Students were surprised by how much they learned about the impact of mental health on employee performance.. 鈥淲e talk about mental health as kids in high school, but no one really talks about mental health and how it impacts adults, 鈥渟aid Maria Nenova from the winning team.
The winning student team was comprised of Diego Daboub, Jack Davern, Jacob Dell鈥橝cqua, Delina Gebrekidan, Matthew Graham, and Maria Nenova.
Bradley Ludwig is a Leeds instructor for Communications Strategy, with an MA and BA in Organizational Communication from Purdue University.