Supporting Our People’s Mental Health

In conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month, we sat down with Jacqueline Arthur, global head of Human Capital Management and Corporate & Workplace Solutions who also oversees the development and implementation of the firm's global mental health strategy, to discuss how the firm promotes positive mental health practices at work and beyond.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. How is the firm observing the month? 

Mental health has been and continues to be a global priority at the firm. Every year, we offer programming and initiatives specifically designed to strengthen the resilience of our people – and this year is no exception.

On May 6, Goldman Sachs hosted a conversation on the power of recharging with author and Calm CEO David Ko to discuss self-care strategies to sustain high performance in the workplace.

In 2024, we also launched a new manager training to equip managers with the skills needed to effectively support team members facing mental health challenges. This year, we will once again roll out this training to newly promoted managers as part of our strategy to ensure all leaders have the tools to help support their people’s mental health.

We are offering additional resilience programs globally throughout May.

You mentioned the firm recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month globally. Can you tell us how the firm supports our people’s mental health around the world? 

Absolutely. As the firm has developed its growing suite of resilience resources, we have been intentional about ensuring global access wherever possible. Many of our resilience resources are available in every region, including two digital resilience and mindfulness platforms designed to promote mental well-being and our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), with firm-sponsored and on-site counseling available in all regions.

Mental Health First Aid, an internationally recognized certification program, is another global offering — and I am proud that we have officially trained more than 1,400 MHFAiders globally as of April 2025, an accomplishment we achieved after exceeding the annual goal we set as a firm in 2024 to train 1,000 MHFAiders by year-end.

While we recognize that there are many commonalities with mental health, we are also careful to consider regional differences and nuances when it comes to programming and local launches. For example, in India we recently launched a mental health platform designed with a focus on local demographics that enables us to provide a tech-strong mental health platform to employees and family members. Both the therapy and psychiatry services available on this platform are delivered by specialists in India, and sessions are available in multiple Indian languages to further expand accessibility.

Can you tell us more about how Goldman Sachs people have been involved in creating or driving the development of mental health initiatives? 

Ultimately, our resilience offerings are for our people — so it only behooves us to listen to and involve our community as we develop initiatives.

In addition to our broad-based resilience programming, we offer additional ad-hoc resilience trainings to address different needs across the firm. These requests come to us from various teams and, when possible, are personally delivered to support our people. This has included requests for change management trainings during times of uncertainty and transition, for example.

We provide post-program surveys to collect direct feedback from our people, which we look to incorporate into future programming.

Can you give us some examples of how Goldman Sachs promotes mental health to our people throughout the career life cycle? 

That’s an important callout. Just as we are mindful to consider the cultural nuances of mental health, we are also conscious about meeting our people where they are throughout their careers. I can think of a range of touchpoints throughout an employee’s Goldman Sachs career where we tailor mental health programs specifically to different levels.

Last year, we offered targeted resilience sessions to our intern and campus hire populations to ensure our people were beginning the mental health conversation early in their career and were aware of the firm’s resilience resources from the very beginning.

As employees progress into management roles, they are exposed to the manager training, helping them connect their people with the firm’s mental health resources. This creates a ripple effect; as more managers are trained, they can further guide new hires through our available mental health resources.

For more experienced professionals at the firm, we weave resilience programming into events targeted to different levels. For example, we recently did a resilience session with our vice presidents focused on leadership to emphasize the importance of cultivating positive mental health practices at the top. This content was also created collaboratively with the firm’s Learning and Development team who provided feedback from senior leadership to ensure it would resonate.

This May and beyond, what advice do you have for others to ensure they continue to take care of their mental health? 

It’s important to remember that being successful and taking care of yourself are not mutually exclusive. In order to be our best selves at work, we have to put in the effort to maintain our own resilience. Remember to take a breath and check in on yourself. Check in on your colleagues. And of course, I recommend that our people take advantage of the firm’s mental health and resilience resources. Whether it’s attending a program or signing up for an individual EAP session, these touchpoints help promote long-term resilience both personally and professionally.