10 Activities to Improve Mental Health in the Workplace

As organisations navigate modern workplace demands, HR professionals and leaders face a growing challenge: exhaustion and workplace stress are steadily rising, while traditional support mechanisms are falling short.

Recent benchmark data highlights a troubling trend in organisational sentiment across UK workplaces:

• "Most days I feel exhausted when I finish work" remains the overall lowest-scoring statement at 46.57 (a decline of 0.43%)¹.
• "I'm spending too much time working" ranks as the 6th lowest-scoring statement out of 85, dropping to 56.95 (declining by 0.13%).
• "I am under too much pressure at work to perform well" stands at 63.61 (a 0.45% decline).
• Perceptions surrounding organisational support are also worsening: key indicators like "Help is available to support my mental wellbeing" (-1.06%), "In times of personal crisis, this organisation would help me get back on my feet" (-0.91%), and "This organisation does not care about my mental wellbeing" (-0.74%) have all seen measurable drops.

When employees feel overextended and unsupported, productivity, retention and overall company culture suffer. Implementing actionable initiatives alongside continuous measurement is key to reversing these trends.

Why Workplace Mental Health Matters to the Bottom Line

When leaders prioritise mental health in the workplace, they treat employee wellbeing as an operational metric rather than a passive initiative. High workloads, persistent pressure and chronic exhaustion directly correlate with increased absenteeism, presenteeism and costly employee turnover.

Conversely, organisations that proactively support mental health foster psychological safety, higher engagement and stronger productivity. However, running a few wellness initiatives without addressing root workload dynamics is ineffective. Real progress requires combining engaging workplace activities with systematic sentiment tracking.

10 Activities to Improve Mental Health in the Workplace

Here are ten practical, scalable activities HR teams and leaders can implement to build a supportive, mentally healthy work culture.

1. Introduce "Walk & Talk" Meetings

Break the habit of back-to-back screen time by converting one-on-one check-ins into walking meetings. Physical movement combined with fresh air helps lower cortisol levels, reduces fatigue and encourages open, honest conversation.

2. Establish Dedicated Quiet and Reset Zones

Create a designated low-stimulation space in the office or set up blocked calendar quiet hours for remote teams. Giving employees explicit permission to step away and recharge during demanding days directly targets post-work exhaustion.

3. Launch Peer-Led Wellbeing Workshops

Empower staff to run informal sessions sharing practical strategies on workload management, sleep hygiene or emotional resilience. Peer support networks destigmatise mental health conversations and make support feel accessible.

4. Implement Structured "Workload Audits"

Given that the statement "I'm spending too much time working” was the sixth lowest scoring of all Best Companies survey statements, managers should conduct quarterly capacity reviews. Workload audits help teams streamline redundant processes, reassign unbalanced task loads and set realistic deadlines.

5. Train Managers as First-Line Mental Health Advocates

Frontline leaders are often the first to notice signs of exhaustion or distress. Providing managers with mental health first-aid training equips them to hold compassionate check-ins and direct struggling employees to support resources.

6. Host Monthly Micro-Breaks

Combat daily pressure by scheduling time every month where no internal emails, notifications or meetings are permitted for half a day. Encouraging staff to catch up or disconnect helps prevent chronic exhaustion.

7. Organise Team Gratitude and Recognition Sessions

A lack of recognition often leads employees to feel their organisation doesn't care about their wellbeing. Incorporate dedicated recognition moments into team meetings to highlight individual contributions, effort and support for peers.

8. Run Financial and Physical Wellbeing Clinics

Mental health is deeply linked to external stressors like personal finances and physical health. Host expert-led workshops on budget planning, stress management and physical health to provide holistic support.

9. Create Anonymous Feedback and Suggestion Loops

Employees under pressure often feel unsafe voicing concerns directly. Setting up secure, anonymous suggestion channels allows staff to highlight emerging bottlenecks or wellbeing concerns before they lead to burnout.

10. Partner with Local Charities for Community Impact

Organise team volunteering or fundraising activities for mental health causes. Working together toward a shared purpose outside daily operational tasks strengthens social bonds and boosts overall team morale.

Why You Must Measure Employee Wellbeing Sentiment

Implementing wellbeing activities is only half the equation. To build a sustainable workplace mental health strategy, HR leaders must measure employee sentiment over time.

Without objective data, organisations risk executing initiatives that miss the mark, such as introducing social perks when employees are struggling with unsustainable workloads.

Regularly measuring sentiment allows leaders to:

• Identify Exhaustion Signals Early: Detect declining scores in pressure, workload and energy levels before they lead to turnover.
• Validate ROI on HR Initiatives: Track whether support programs are positively impacting employee trust and mental wellbeing.
• Uncover Blind Spots: Recognise mismatches between leadership perceptions and actual employee experiences across different departments.

Client Stories: Turning Data into Actionable People Strategies

Data only creates value when it drives meaningful action. Below are examples of how leading organisations have used survey data and sentiment insights to address key wellbeing challenges, such as compassion fatigue, workload pressure and trust:

High Speed Training: Wellbeing Built into the Working Week

After reviewing employee feedback around work-life balance, High Speed Training introduced Summer Fridays and Festive Fridays, offering shorter working days during peak times of the year. Combined with Mental Health Champions, dedicated wellbeing conversations in monthly 1:1s and an Employee Assistance Programme, they now score 11% above their sector average for wellbeing. Read more.

Registry Trust: Employee-Led Wellbeing & Trust-Based Flexibility

To combat workplace fatigue and foster an environment of trust, Registry Trust empowered employees through its Employee Engagement Committee to design their own wellbeing initiatives. Actions included introducing flexible time-off policies built on trust, in-office massages, social events and meaningful manager check-ins focused on the whole person rather than performance alone. Read more.

Educ8 Training Group: Dedicated Wellbeing Conversations

Recognising that staff in high-empathy sectors often experience compassion fatigue, Educ8 decoupled wellbeing conversations from traditional performance management. They launched dedicated "coffee catch-ups" focused solely on health and life outside work, supplemented by targeted support campaigns for menopause and charity partnerships with Mind. Read more.

Express Solicitors: Resilience & Targeted Investment

Facing rapid expansion, Express Solicitors tracked sentiment metrics to identify stress hotspots. They embedded tailored resilience training into their graduate academy and used staff feedback to direct capital investments into dedicated break-out reset rooms, enhanced mental health support and empathetic leadership development. Read more.

How Best Companies Helps Organisations Drive Real Change

Measuring employee sentiment effectively requires a trusted benchmark. Best Companies enables HR leaders to gain actionable, data-driven insights into workforce wellbeing.

Through tailored survey tools and robust analytics, Best Companies helps organisations:

• Track Key Wellbeing Indicators: Measure real employee perceptions across core metrics, including pressure, support availability and work-life balance.
• Benchmark Against Industry Peers: See how your mental health and engagement performance compares against top-performing organisations.
• Turn Insights into Action: Receive targeted data that highlights exactly where interventions, such as workload adjustments or manager training, will have the highest impact.

By combining structured activities to improve mental health in the workplace with the analytical power of Best Companies, leaders can move from reactive measures to a proactive, world-class employee care strategy.