Using Employee Voice to Shape Mental Health at Work
The Challenge
Leeds Mind recognised that creating a mentally healthy workplace requires more than asking people for feedback through an annual staff survey. Different colleaguesexperience work in different ways, and the organisation wanted to ensure that a wide range of voices could be heard and used to shape meaningful change. The challenge was to create opportunities for people to share their experiences throughout the year and to demonstrate that feedback genuinely influences decisions.
Approach in action
Leeds Mind has developed a range of formal and informal ways for colleagues to shape the organisation. Alongside regular one-to-one conversations and quarterly performance and development reviews, colleagues contribute through Employee Resource Groups, protected characteristic networks, ND Voices, Values Spotlights and staff surveys that incorporate equality, diversity and inclusion data.
Rather than treating employee feedback as a standalone exercise, Leeds Mind brings together insight from these different sources to identify barriers, understand where friction exists in the workplace and inform improvements to policies, communication, support and ways of working. This helps ensure decisions are informed by colleagues' lived experiences rather than assumptions.
The organisation also recognises that involvement builds trust. By providing different ways for people to contribute and demonstrating how feedback leads to action, Leeds Mind encourages colleagues to play an active role in shaping an inclusive workplace where people feel listened to, valued and confident that their experiences influence meaningful organisational change. Feedback gathered through staff surveys and open forums has also informed investment in additional capacity across core teams, helping reduce workload pressures while strengthening learning and development, wellbeing, and equality, diversity and inclusion.
Impact and learning
Using a range of employee voice mechanisms has helped Leeds Mind develop a richer understanding of colleagues' experiences and identify opportunities to improve the workplace. Feedback has informed changes to policies, working practices and organisational support, while helping strengthen inclusion and ensuring improvements are shaped by the people they affect.
This commitment to listening to colleagues and acting on feedback has contributed to Leeds Mind being recognised as one of the UK's Best Workplaces™ and UK's Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing 2026, with anonymous colleague feedback showing that 97% of employees believe people care about each other.
Leeds Mind has learned that employee involvement is most effective when people can see that their feedback leads to meaningful action. Creating multiple opportunities for colleagues to contribute, being transparent about how their views influence decisions and demonstrating that feedback results in tangible improvements has helped build trust and embed continuous improvement across the organisation.
Key takeaway for other employers
Employee voice is most valuable when it leads to action. Creating a range of opportunities for people to share their experiences, involving them in developing solutions and demonstrating how feedback influences decisions are all factors that help build trust and create a workplace that better supports everyone's mental health.