A systemic approach: 6 steps to building a mentally healthy workplace
In lifting the lid through research and conversations, we find that many leaders lack the confidence to focus on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace because they are concerned about reputational risk or uncovering issues at an organisational or individual level that they don’t know how to fix. Many leaders are facing burnout themselves and feeling like they will take on a role as therapist, or shoulder the systemic burden of mental health often feels too much (and rightly so!).
The good news is that there is lots of powerful research into workplace mental health and wellbeing that provides clear and simple levers organisations can use to transform the workplace into a healthy, sustainable and productive environment where people can thrive and give of their best..
1. Building Confidence and the Business Case
Before we take the steps to create change, we have to establish the commitment to tackle mental health systemically. Organisations must treat mental health safety as seriously as physical safety.
We would not let a construction worker operate at height without a harness, so why let them work under constant emotional strain without support or a social safety net to fall back on?
Start by gaining commitment, and budget, from senior leadership by helping them to see the productivity benefits that can be realised by investing in a systemic approach to mental wellbeing. Start by securing the budget for Step 2 below, whilst providing a roadmap for the future steps and benefits downstream.
2. Risk Assessment and Hope
From moral injury and professional purpose in healthcare, to being caught in the trap of ‘doing more with less’ whilst striving to create a safer society in policing, to quarter-by-quarter stretch targets and value creation in business, each sector and organisation has specific wellbeing risk factors, as well as key drivers that can help to accelerate mental wellbeing.
To identify the strengths, risks, and opportunities in your organisation:
- Start with a mental health risk assessment. Understand, and build a shared language of the specific stressors, structural issues, and cultural dynamics that contribute to harm, or promote wellbeing, within the specific teams and contexts your people work in
- The HSE’s Management Standards provide a useful framework, focusing on demands, control, support, relationships, role clarity, and change. But many organisations stop at basic compliance and miss out on the real benefits of investing in mental wellbeing
- Go further by understand how your systems, leadership, culture, and ways of working impact real people. Don’t just look at pain points, study the teams where people are thriving in your organisation
Uncovering these factors can lead to the keys to unlock productivity gains within your unique context, unlocking your talent as a true competitive differentiator. Reporting and sharing these results transparently also acts as a relief to your workforce, who feel heard about the challenges they face, and more confident and hopeful about the path to improvement.
3. Job Design and Work Systems
Reassess how jobs are structured:
- Are workloads realistic?
- Are goals clear and achievable?
- Do people have both accountability (often) and autonomy (rarely)?
- Are expectations manageable?
- Do common ways of working lead to overwhelm or powerful collaboration?
Intentionally design work systems that enable human performance, rather than extract it.
4. Leadership that Acts Systemically
Move away from performance management that targets individuals in isolation. Instead, focus on building environments where people can thrive together:
- Prioritise the psychosocial conditions and lead to thriving, prosperous teams
- Encourage learning, feedback, and collaboration
- Acknowledge that systems—not individuals—are the root of many performance issues and empower leaders and teams to change them
Systemic leadership sees wellbeing not as a benefit, but as a requirement for sustainable results.
5. Comprehensive Support Services
If you’re serious about mental health, invest in Employee Assistance Programmes that go beyond a helpline, app, or web portal:
- Provide access to high quality therapy
- Include financial, legal, family, and caregiving advice
- Offer proactive outreach, not just crisis response
Ensure people know how to use these services. Uptake is often low because services are poorly communicated or stigmatised (or have a reputation for not being very good).
6. Build Conditions for Thriving
Mental health is more than the absence of illness. People thrive when they experience:
- Trust and a safety net to fall back on when things go wrong
- Autonomy and a sense of control
- Belonging and inclusive relationships
- Purpose and connection to meaningful work
- Growth and opportunities to develop
These are the same conditions that drive performance. Investing in them is not a trade-off—it’s a multiplier.
Business as a Force for Mental Health in Society
Finally, it is time to reframe the role that organisations and institutions have to play beyond the workplace. Your business does not exist in a vacuum. It operates in a national context in which mental healthcare is at breaking point; where we can no longer rely on the NHS to pick up the slack in mental health and wellbeing, nor individuals or their families to shoulder the responsibility or financial costs caused by poor work.
You can:
- Advocate for mental health parity in government-backed research, policy and funding to help build a healthy workforce from apprenticeship to retirement
- Support local initiatives that reduce social isolation or poverty in the communities within which your business is based to build your employee value proposition, and the wellbeing of the community from which your workforce if drawn
- Build ethical supply chains that reduce exploitation and promote good work, increasing productivity and retention
- Design inclusive products and services that support wellbeing and deliberately contribute to a healthy society with a workforce fit for the demands of changing economic and global dynamics
This is not about benevolance. It’s about vision. A society that protects mental health is one where talent flourishes, trust grows, and business thrives.
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