CLIENT CASE STUDY:
Supporting Teams Through Crisis and change
Client snapshot
Client: Ulteig
Industry: Civil Engineering
Duration: 2020-2021 (18 months)
Company Size: 1,700
Audience: full company (leaders & employees)
Program Type: Ongoing multi-session virtual learning series (company-wide events, fireside chats, and interactive workshops)
Engagement Type: Multi-session virtual learning series with internal stakeholder participation
Topics: workplace mental health, navigating uncertainty, stress management
Results: Employee behaviors shifted and wellbeing scores noticeably improved
Lessons ON WORKPLACE Mental Health FROM THE Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic didn't create workplace mental health challenges. It made existing challenges impossible to ignore. It forced organizations to choose: acknowledge what their teams were carrying or pretend business could continue as usual.
Ulteig chose to acknowledge it - and the results speak for themselves.
What happened at Ulteig isn't just a pandemic story. It's a clear example of what strategic crisis response looks like when employee mental health during times of uncertainty is treated as a real business priority, not a checkbox or one-time event.
Here's how they achieved success by facing uncertainty, head-on.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL - THE IMPACT
the challenge
By mid 2020, Ulteig's leadership could see that their employees were struggling. The pandemic had brought months of uncertainty, isolation, and stress — and it wasn't letting up. People were still showing up to work, but what they were carrying outside of work was starting to affect everything inside of it.
Leadership knew their team needed more than an encouraging message. They needed someone who truly understood workplace mental health — a credible expert who could give employees real language for what they were feeling and practical tools for managing it. They weren't looking for a generic wellness talk. They were looking for a skilled workplace mental health speaker who could have an honest, grounded conversation with their team without minimizing what people were actually going through.
What they didn’t know?
This program would change how the business approached mental health at work, long term. Let’s look at how.
The Search For Help
Ulteig had a clear set of objectives:
Acknowledge the challenges the pandemic created for their team
Help employees and leaders identify the types of struggles they were experiencing
Provide practical coping strategies their workforce could apply right away
They didn’t want a one-size-fits-all wellness session.
They wanted something their team would:
actually engage with long-term
equip them with the skills they need
The Approach
STAKEHOLDER BUY-IN
Melissa didn't come in as an outside expert speaking ‘at’ employees. She partnered with Ulteig's internal leaders to run the sessions together. That meant employees heard from someone they already trusted alongside a workplace mental health expert who could give the conversation real depth. The result was a level of trust and buy-in that an outside speaker delivering a solo presentation rarely achieves.
SCALABILITY THROUGH Virtual Delivery
The sessions were held virtually — meeting employees exactly where they were during one of the most disruptive periods of their careers. This wasn't just a logistical decision. It was a deliberate choice to reduce barriers and make mental health support as accessible as possible.
Skill-Based Mental Health Training
Each session was built around three clear goals: naming the challenge, giving employees language to understand what they were experiencing, and teaching concrete coping strategies they could use right away. This is what separates effective workplace mental health training from a one-time awareness event — employees leave with skills, not just a sense that someone cared.
flexibility
Throughout the engagement, Melissa adapted to Ulteig's culture, employee, and leadership needs. That flexibility meant the sessions stayed educationally sound while also feeling relevant and specific to the organization — not like an off-the-shelf program.
POSITIONED AS professional DEVELOPMENT, not just wellbeing
The sessions were framed around professional development — not just self-care. Employees learned how stress and emotional health affect the way they communicate, make decisions, and work with their teams. That framing matters. When mental health at work is positioned as a professional skill rather than a personal struggle, more people engage with it. It becomes relevant to everyone in the room — not just those who feel like they need it
What Ulteig Teaches Us About Supporting Teams Through Uncertainty
MANAGING team MENTAL HEALTH is a leadership skill
When Ulteig brought in a workplace mental health speaker to address what employees were experiencing, they were doing more than offering support. They were sending a clear message: what you're going through is real, it matters, and we're paying attention.
That message lands harder than most leaders expect. Teams don't need their organization to have all the answers during a crisis. But they do need to know that leadership sees them. Saying something directly — without sugarcoating it — is one of the most underused tools a people manager has.
Who's in the room matters as much as what's being said.
One of the most important decisions in this engagement was the structure. Melissa didn't just show up alone to deliver a workplace mental health training. She partnered with Ulteig's internal leaders to co-facilitate the sessions alongside them.
That structure works for a clear reason. An outside expert brings objective credibility and a safe distance from internal dynamics. Internal leaders bring familiarity and the signal that leadership is willing to be part of the conversation — not just send their team to one.
When leaders show up and participate, the dynamic shifts. It becomes a shared conversation, not a presentation. That's the difference between employees hearing something and actually taking it with them.
Awareness is the starting line. Skills are what carry people through.
The sessions at Ulteig weren't built around reassurance. They were built around giving employees real tools — language to name what they were experiencing and concrete strategies for managing stress at work.
That distinction matters because a single mental health event, no matter how well delivered, doesn't change much on its own. What changes things is giving people skills they can actually use when the next hard moment comes.
Organizations that invest in practical, skills-based mental health programming during a crisis build something that doesn't disappear when the crisis ends. The ability to navigate uncertainty, communicate honestly under pressure, and manage stress at work — these are professional skills with long-term value.
Employee wellbeing scores are a business metric.
The improvement in employee feedback scores following this engagement wasn't a coincidence. It was the direct result of employees feeling seen, supported, and equipped — which is what happens when an organization takes action that's visible, credible, and relevant to what people are actually going through.
How employees feel about whether their organization cares about them is one of the strongest predictors of engagement and retention. When those scores move, something real shifted. That's not just a wellbeing win. That's a business result.
A crisis showS IF your WORKPLACE mental health strategy is real or just a talking point
A lot of organizations say employee mental health is a priority. Fewer have a clear plan for what that looks like when a crisis hits.
The pandemic made that gap very visible, very fast.
What made Ulteig's response effective wasn't that it was complicated. It was that it was genuine — a real investment in meeting employees where they were, with the right mental health speaker, the right format, and the right internal support structure. That kind of response doesn't require a crisis to justify. But a crisis makes a strong case for building it before one arrives.
The Results
Employees showed up — and kept coming back. The sessions drew strong attendance across the organization. That matters, because participation in workplace mental health programming is never guaranteed. When employees choose to engage, it means they felt safe enough to show up and trusted that what was being offered was worth their time. Strong turnout for mental health training at work is one of the clearest signs of psychological safety in action — and it's a result worth paying attention to.
Employee wellbeing scores went up. Following the engagement, Ulteig saw a noticeable increase in employee feedback scores tied to how much the organization cared about its people. That kind of result doesn't happen from a well-meaning email or a one-time awareness campaign. It happens when a company invests in real workplace mental health support — the right mental health speaker, the right structure, and genuine leadership involvement from start to finish.
Consistent engagement built something that lasted. This wasn't a one-time workplace mental health event. Ulteig committed to an ongoing engagement with Melissa spanning a year and a half — and that sustained investment is a big part of why the results were real. Over time, employees built on what they learned in earlier sessions. Internal leaders grew more comfortable facilitating mental health conversations at work. And mental health stopped being a topic that only came up during a crisis and started becoming part of how the organization operated. That's the difference between a workplace mental health program that checks a box and one that actually changes the culture. Consistency is what makes the change stick.
key takeaways
■ Acknowledge what your team is carrying.
Employees don't need leaders to have all the answers. They need to know leadership sees them and is willing to say so directly.
■ The right structure makes mental health training stick.
Co-facilitating with internal leaders builds trust and relevance that outside programming alone can't create.
■ Invest in skills, not just awareness.
The goal is to give employees tools that work when the next hard thing comes — not just a meaningful hour in a session.
■ Employee well-being scores are tied directly to business outcomes.
Perceived organizational care drives engagement, retention, and performance.
■ Build your workplace mental health strategy before you need it.
Organizations that do the work proactively are far better positioned when uncertainty hits.
