Why True Organisational Resilience Starts with Psychosocial Safety, Not Yoga Classes

We need to stop asking employees to be individually resilient in a system that is fundamentally burning them out. True organisational resilience isn't about yoga classes; it's about redesigning the work environment to be psychosocially safe.

For sustainable performance, well-being must move from an HR silo into a core component of your risk management and health & safety framework.

I know this integration is possible because I've built it. At Bupa, we developed the first global well-being policy that was directly integrated with the health and safety policies. This ensured that well-being was viewed and managed as a risk alongside health and safety.

This strategic move required me to represent the well-being agenda at global health and safety boards, actively shaping the agenda on designing psychosocially safe working practices in partnership with health, safety, and risk teams.

3 Actions to Embed Psychosocial Safety into Your Culture:

1. Stop Delegating Stress: The biggest driver of burnout is poor work design. Leaders must be held accountable for high job demands, lack of control, and lack of support within their teams.

   
   

2. Use the H&S Governance: Leverage your existing Health & Safety governance structures—your committees, your reporting lines, and your board updates—to provide integrated reporting on well-being and psychosocial risks. This forces accountability.

   
   

3. Equip Managers as Risk Managers: Deliver comprehensive resilience training that goes beyond personal coping and equips managers with the essential skills to integrate well-being into core business practices.

   
   

Is your organisation treating stress as an operational failure or a personal failure? What is the biggest barrier you face in integrating well-being with your safety agenda? Let me know below!

If you’re ready to move from conversation to action and want to explore how to embed psychosocial safety into your culture, get in touch — I’d love to help you design a wellbeing strategy that truly supports sustainable performance.