How leaders can build a workplace that truly centers mental health

When Selena Gomez conceived of Rare Beauty, she was hoping to build a beauty brand that would bring visibility to mental health issues. Gomez had already been open about her own diagnosis and experience with bipolar disorder. The brand launched in 2020 with a social impact initiative called the Rare Impact Fund—which sought to raise $100 million to expand access to mental health services—and pledged to donate 1% of all Rare Beauty sales to the cause. “We reach more than 10 million young people each day through our social media channels,” Elyse Cohen, the EVP of social impact and inclusion at Rare Beauty, said at a panel during the Fast Company Innovation Festival last week. “Selena’s the most followed female on Instagram. So when you think about the influence of talent and using an authentic voice for change, that’s where it happens.” Building a ‘stigma-free’ brand Rare Beauty’s mission has clearly resonated with young audiences. Since its launch, the company has crossed $300 million in annual sales and is now valued at over $2 billion—and destigmatizing mental health issues has remained a core part of its DNA. Rare Beauty shares “evidence-based content” developed in partnership with mental health experts, Cohen said, and last year, the company hosted a mental health summit for fans. That emphasis on mental health is also embodied in the company culture at Rare Beauty. The company trains all of its employees in Mental Health First Aid, which means they are equipped to detect the “signs and symptoms” when someone is facing mental health challenges, Cohen said. (The program is run by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.) “When you think about the connection between mental health and productivity and absenteeism, the data for leaders to invest in this issue is there,” Cohen said. “Our HR department has heard from new hires that it is something that has attracted them to the company.” Beyond the Mental Health First Aid program, the company also offers mental health days and has partnered with the National Alliance for Mental Illness to be a “stigma-free brand,” which for Rare Beauty means listening to its employees to learn how best to create an office culture that prioritizes mental health. The power of rest The other panelists speaking alongside Cohen—Ikea’s chief creative officer Linus Karlsson and Andy Dunn, who previously founded Bonobos and is now running an events startup called Pie—echoed the importance of leaders modeling this kind of culture. Karlsson talked about the importance of sleep and its role in our wellbeing. “Not to sound too harsh, but I think we [have gotten] sleep all wrong,” he said. “This is a societal issue. We’re thinking about sleep as something that we can do later.” He added that at Ikea, leaders were expected to embrace healthy behaviors, whether that means getting enough sleep or maintaining a semblance of work-life balance. “When you’re a leader at Ikea, you have extra responsibility to be a good example,” he said. “We have policies that are very clear and strong, but I think more importantly we have very clear values.” Dunn, who wrote a memoir in 2022 detailing his experience with bipolar disorder, said it was “table stakes” for managers and leaders to get about seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Beyond that, however, he noted it could be difficult to maintain true work life balance while building a company from the ground up—and that he tries to be honest about that with his employees. (Dunn’s startup just closed a $11.5 million Series A round of funding and currently has only 10 employees.) Benefits that support mental health “I tell my team: This is a lot of work,” he said. “This is a 50- to 60-hour a week job because startups don’t work without that kind of effort. And I don’t think it’s for everyone. So the question is: Are you in a life moment, in a life season, where you want to lean into that kind of passion project and grow personally? Because you don’t have to do this.” Dunn said he does his best to create boundaries and encourage healthy habits, from offering subsidies for gym memberships and a stipend for therapy expenses. (When it comes to his own schedule, Dunn said it’s a “non-negotiable” for him to spend enough time with his three-year-old son.) But he also believes that the work his staff puts in now will help build a sustainable business that can eventually support stronger work-life balance—and a 40-hour work week—for hundreds of employees. “Sometimes we’ve got to walk and chew gum,” he said. “We have to acknowledge that we are trying to live in a world where people have more balance—and also recognize that building great things and building the future can bring imbalance into our lives as well.”