Who Should Own Mental Health at Work? Hint: It’s Not Just an HR Initiative
- Mind Share Partners
- Sep 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 17
For too long, workplace mental health has been treated as an “HR issue,” often confined to benefits or programs that don’t fully address the scope of the challenge. This year alone, half of U.S. workers reported experiencing moderate to severe levels of burnout, depression, or anxiety.
Employers are realizing that employee well-being has organization-wide implications: it’s a business issue that affects culture, retention, performance, and overall organizational success. And while HR and its leaders play a critical role in shaping and implementing workplace well-being strategies, leaving ownership solely to HR limits both impact and ROI.
In our work, we’ve seen organizations achieve the greatest success when mental health is owned collectively. Ownership starts with leadership accountability, is driven by HR, and thrives when it's embedded across functions. Let’s explore this further.
Mental Health Outcomes Start with Leadership
The most successful companies don’t treat mental health as just an HR program—they integrate it into their broader organizational strategy and values. For this to happen, executive leadership must set the direction, take ownership, and remain accountable for mental health outcomes across the business.
In practice, this means more than simply approving initiatives. It looks like visible executive participation and alignment with company values. Leadership’s consistent actions and communications around mental health contribute to an environment where work is more sustainable, more productive, and more impactful.
For example, executives at OLLY—a well-known San Francisco–based wellness company—highlighted in their social impact report how they partnered with Mind Share Partners to participate in training and develop an actionable plan to shift how mental health is viewed and supported internally. Together, we created a framework for accountability that integrates mental health into every aspect of OLLY’s workplace culture.
If you are missing leadership buy-in right now, you can still build the case. Here are some tips to get started.
Which Function Should Own Mental Health Initiatives?
In most organizations, HR is the most common and practical owner of administering mental health initiatives. Much of the implementation naturally runs through people-related functions and systems, including talent, training, performance, engagement, and benefits.
Ownership should sit at the highest level of HR. This ensures that resources and activities are coordinated effectively. When responsibility is placed within a single function—such as total rewards, benefits, or learning and development—coordination becomes more difficult. Each of these functions touches on important components of mental health, but none alone captures the full scope.
That said, other functions may also lead mental health initiatives depending on the company’s structure and priorities. We’ve seen ownership fall under diversity and inclusion, social impact, or even product departments.
A Shift From “HR’s Job” to Everyone’s Responsibility
At Mind Share Partners, we often advise organizations to create a cross-functional steering committee (also referred to as a “wellness committee”). These committees ensure that mental health efforts are aligned with existing organizational priorities, efforts, and activities, bringing them together into a cohesive whole. They are especially valuable for global organizations that need to scale and adapt efforts across regions and cultural contexts.
For example, one global law firm we partnered with launched an internal mental health steering committee composed of senior leaders from around the world. This group led the firm’s mental health awareness and training initiatives, ensuring both global representation and leadership accountability.
Mental health at work isn’t just an HR initiative—it’s an organizational one. Beyond the functions we mentioned above, every employee plays a role in workplace well-being. Managers need the knowledge and tools to proactively support their teams, while employees benefit from awareness of available resources and opportunities to contribute to an employee-informed mental health strategy.
So, who owns mental health at work? The answer: it’s a shared responsibility—leadership drives strategy and outcomes, HR leads implementation, and cross-functional teams contribute input and support.
About the authors
Jen Porter, Managing Director
Jen Porter is the Managing Director & COO at Mind Share Partners. She advises and trains companies around the world to create mentally healthy workplaces. Her clients include leaders in the tech, professional services, and finance industries, such as PGIM (asset management arm of Prudential Financial), Loomis Sayles, Pinterest, and RetailMeNot. Her work on mental health strategy, especially grass-roots initiatives like ERGs, has been published in Harvard Business Review and Forbes and featured at events such as Culturati and the National Human Resources Association.
