90% of mental health challenges are invisible in the workplace. That's a real stat. Yet leaders keep relying on the same broken approach:

• Waiting for visible signs of crisis
• Pushing people toward underutilised EAPs (5% engagement is not a typo)
• Asking superficial questions that invite superficial answers

Here are the three questions leaders should actually be asking:

1. "What systems do we have in place for the invisible 90%?" Most mental fitness issues never become visible. If your only support kicks in during a crisis, you're failing your team.
2. "Are we providing tools people actually use?" Your EAP might look good on paper, but 95% non-engagement tells the real story. Stop ticking boxes and start measuring real impact.
3. "What are the barriers to accessing support?" If your mental fitness programme requires someone to raise their hand and say they're struggling, you've already failed.

Most workplace mental health initiatives are designed to make companies feel better, not help employees get better.

A quick "How are you?" and an EAP phone number are not enough.