Sarah Noll Wilson

expert panel

Mental health at work cannot be addressed through benefits alone. Members of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank explain how leaders can design workloads, management practices, autonomy, psychological safety and workplace systems to support sustainable performance.Workplace mental health is increasingly recognized as a business and organizational design issue—not simply an employee benefit. SHRM's 2026 research found that stress and anxiety remain significant concerns among U.S. workers, while companies continue to wrestle with employee burnout and the underuse of mental health benefits.That raises a more fundamental question: What if organizations stopped asking employees to cope better with unhealthy conditions and instead examined the conditions themselves? Members of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank bring expertise in psychology, HR, organizational design, leadership, culture and workforce strategy to that question.Their answers point toward a common idea: A mentally healthy workplace is not created by adding another program to the benefits portfolio. It is created by deliberately designing work so people can perform without continually sacrificing their psychological well-being.