Driving innovation through a culture of care

If you haven’t addressed mental health, it makes achieving physical health, financial health, or social health almost impossible. But if you start with mental health, it opens up the door for everything else.

Kate Fisher

Sr. Director, Total Rewards and Wellness

Cummins

Driving innovation through a culture of care. The Cummins team knew they needed a robust mental health strategy, and simply “ticking a box” wasn’t enough. As Kate shared, “We were looking to be innovative in that space. Lyra is one of only a couple of disruptors in the industry. It changed the model. It wasn’t a traditional EAP.” Cummins partnered with Lyra to bring an enhanced and effective mental health benefit to their employees, aligning their benefits strategy with their mission to care for their people.

Consistency is key to reaching every employee. Destigmatizing and normalizing conversations around mental health is a core goal at Cummins. Which is why they created their internal program, “It’s OK,” that powerfully reinforces the message “wherever you are in your wellness journey, it’s OK.” The team consistently promotes the program through monthly email campaigns, an active public website, and a host of educational tools and resources. This strategy has been the secret to their success. “In the 5 years of the program,  we’ve never taken our foot off the pedal,” shared Kate.

In addition, Lyra strengthens Cummins’ commitment to consistent, high-quality care with deep clinical expertise. For example, when an employee resource group requested a safe space forum on neurodiversity, Cummins turned to Lyra. Kate shared, “That’s where the Lyra partnership has been really important, because there are clinicians who can help us substantiate what we’re saying.” By leaning on Lyra’s clinical expertise, Cummins can build upon their already strong offerings.

Driving engagement during mental health awareness month. Getting the word out about benefits is a challenge for any company, especially with a distributed workforce and employees who are on their feet at the plants all day. To boost engagement and connect with hard-to-reach populations, especially at the plant level, Cummins partnered with Lyra for Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM). Together, they built an engagement guide to secure commitments from plant leaders and managers who would actively promote the benefit on the floor. Cummins produced postcards and magnets, and also sent a Lyra home mailer and email account activation series to reach employees wherever they were.

“We had just wonderful success,” shared Michelle Marks, program manager. Since launching Lyra, Cummins has more than doubled the number of employees engaged with the benefit. The focused MHAM campaign helped secure that increase in engagement, and, as Michelle noted, “the Lyra activation email alone was responsible for almost 66% of new registrations.”

Start with mental health. For Cummins, mental health is not just another benefit; it’s foundational to overall well-being.
As Kate shared, “If you haven’t addressed mental health, it makes achieving physical health, financial health, or social health almost impossible. But if you start with mental health, it opens up the door for everything else.”

What Cummins employees are saying about Lyra: “My provider showed up as a caring and compassionate person who cared about helping get me to a better place. I feel confident that the coaching and tools will be very valuable to me as I improve my mental health.”