Employers urged to treat mental health as workplace issue

Business leaders are urging employers to treat mental health as a structural workplace issue rather than a peripheral wellbeing perk during Mental Health Awareness Week. Senior executives from Node4, Commvault and WorkJam say burnout is now a material business risk across frontline and technology roles.

The comments come as organisations in the UK and elsewhere face growing pressure over workloads, job design and psychological safety. Mental health charities and professional bodies have reported rising stress and anxiety, particularly in high-intensity sectors such as cyber security and frontline services.

At technology services firm Node4, Chief People Officer Victoria Knight said many employers still treat wellbeing as a branding exercise rather than a day-to-day management discipline.

"The theme of this year's Mental Health Awareness Week is 'take action' and, for me, that means moving from programmes to practice. Many businesses still focus on surface-level initiatives rather than addressing the drivers of stress: unclear priorities, unsustainable workloads and gaps in leadership capability. That is how wellbeing becomes a collection of well-intentioned initiatives that look good externally but do not materially change the employee experience. The real question businesses should ask is whether their people feel the difference day to day. If the answer is no, the approach needs to change. It comes down to outcomes and accountability. That means designing roles properly, equipping managers to lead with confidence, and being honest about what good, sustainable performance looks like. To understand whether it is making a difference, look at engagement, participation in wellbeing programmes and how people experience work more broadly. Ultimately, wellbeing is not something you layer on top of work. It is something you build into it. The businesses that stand out will be those that move beyond awareness and genuinely redesign how work happens so people can perform at their best, sustainably. When you get that right, it is not just better for your people, it is better for your business," said Victoria Knight, Chief People Officer, Node4.

Cyber security executives describe a similar shift, with intensifying threat activity and regulatory scrutiny increasing pressure on Chief Information Security Officers.

Mark Molyneux, Field CTO for Northern Europe at data protection firm Commvault, warned that burnout in security functions is now a direct threat to financial performance and incident response.

"IT and security jobs have always been demanding. Now they are relentless. The threat landscape is more aggressive, while regulatory scrutiny and public accountability are sharper than ever, so when something goes wrong, the spotlight is immediate. It is no surprise that burnout among CISOs is rising, leading to prolonged absenteeism or highly experienced people leaving the industry for good. For these reasons, burnout is not just a wellbeing issue. It is a hard financial risk. The initial costs are the most obvious. Burned-out leaders create burned-out teams, productivity drops, and teams shift into reactive firefighting instead of strategic risk reduction. If a CISO leaves, recruitment and onboarding costs quickly add up. But the less obvious factors often drive the biggest bills. When seasoned security leaders are absent or leave entirely, institutional knowledge and business context go with them. A new CISO, even one with deep technical expertise, faces a lag while absorbing organisation-specific insight and learning to navigate internal politics. During that time, processes slow, project timelines stretch and, in the worst cases, risk exposure increases, leaving the business more vulnerable to breaches. The real price of that knowledge gap is paid at the worst possible moment. In a live incident, you need a CISO who knows the business inside out. Threat actors often spend weeks or months inside an environment learning how it works and could easily outmanoeuvre a CISO without that deep-rooted knowledge. At that point, they hold the business's reputation in their hands, and every delayed decision, misjudged call or unnecessary hour of disruption translates directly into financial loss, whether through operational downtime, regulatory penalties or long-term erosion of customer trust. Despite these risks, many businesses still concentrate accountability on one individual. Cyber resilience does not sit within a single job title, so organisations must elevate it to board level, distribute accountability and support CISOs as strategic leaders rather than isolated technical guardians. Only then can they be confident they are protecting not only their people, but their balance sheet too," said Mark Molyneux, Field CTO - Northern Europe, Commvault.

Pressure on mental health is also acute in frontline operations, where managers sit between corporate demands and staff expectations. WorkJam, which focuses on frontline workforce management, said employers should treat mental health as a core part of operational planning and tooling.

"For frontline managers, there is a constant balancing act between everyday operations and supporting their teams. In high-pressure environments, that responsibility can quickly lead to burnout, affecting both their wellbeing and their ability to lead and support others effectively. With depression and anxiety costing the global economy $1 trillion annually in lost productivity, mental health needs to be treated as a core operational priority. "That is why organisations need to better equip frontline managers to recognise and respond to wellbeing challenges. Creating a culture that removes stigma is an important first step, but it must be backed by action. Frontline operations platforms can help managers and employees access the right information, support and resources in the flow of work. This reduces the administrative burden on managers by giving frontline employees the tools they need to move through their day efficiently, without constant manager intervention. Whether it is signposting support, sharing relevant resources such as stress-management tools that can be accessed anywhere, or creating more consistent lines of communication, these tools help managers support their teams while managing day-to-day pressures. In practice, that means they can show up for their teams, and for themselves. "With the right tools in place, organisations can move from a 'work life balance' to a 'life work balance' perspective. Embedding wellbeing into everyday work leads to resilient managers, happier and better-supported workers, and better outcomes for customers," said Mark Williams, Managing Director EMEA, WorkJam.