Building a Healthier Workplace: What Can Each of Us Do?

In Restorative Yoga, small adjustments can make a difference. 

Moving a bolster or adding a folded blanket might help someone’s shoulders soften and allow them to settle more comfortably.

Health and wellness at work also calls for practical attention: what would help, and who can make it happen?

We often say that everyone has a part to play in workplace wellbeing. 

But it’s easier to take action when we know what we can do ourselves and where we need someone else’s help.

Perhaps you’re organising a wellbeing session but still waiting for budget approval. Or you’re a manager who can see that the team is stretched, but you can’t change the deadlines on your own.

You want to help. Being clear about who can approve the budget, adjust the workload or make time for a break helps turn that care into something people can feel in their working day.

Shared care, different responsibilities

An employee can raise a concern. A manager may be able to adjust priorities. A senior leader might need to approve additional resources. These contributions matter, but they are not interchangeable.

According to the World Health Organization, supporting mental health at work includes addressing working conditions, alongside manager training and individual support.

I take that as an invitation to hold two questions together: what would help this person, and what needs to change around them?

It is a distinction I return to in Self-Regulation vs Co-Regulation. A personal practice need not become a promise to manage every source of stress alone.

Corporate wellness management: a simple division of roles

For health and wellness at work, I would begin with a small responsibility map, rather than a long calendar of activities.

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive distinguishes senior sponsorship from day-to-day coordination in its approach to managing workplace stress. That distinction is useful: approving support and arranging it are different jobs.

Here is a suggested starting map to adapt with your organisers.

Role	Takes the lead on	Important boundary
Leader or sponsor	Approves budget, staff time and resources; decides on changes beyond managers’ authority.	Delegating coordination does not remove responsibility for resource decisions.
HR or named coordinator	Gathers employee input; arranges bookings, venue and accessibility; liaises with the provider and coordinates feedback.	Brings workload and staffing decisions to the person authorised to make them.
Line managers	Agree priorities and staffing cover; explain team arrangements and workable boundaries.	Escalate unresolved workload conflicts without taking on a therapist’s role.
External wellbeing facilitator	Agrees the session’s purpose, explains adaptations and facilitates the experience.	Does not make employment decisions or assess participants for management.
Employees and representatives	Share preferences, practical barriers, suggestions and feedback.	Contribute without being asked to disclose personal histories or counsel colleagues.

Put a name beside each role, then check that person has the time and authority to carry it out.

For communications, the coordinator can prepare the invitation, the facilitator check its description, and managers explain how arrangements will work within their teams. Agree one day-to-day contact for the provider, too, so the facilitator is not trying to reconcile several different briefs.

Who can change the part that is not working?

Imagine two departments asking the same team for almost identical reports, both due on Friday. Employees mention the duplication while discussing a proposed stress-management session.

Their manager can clarify the problem. The coordinator can bring the department heads together. A senior sponsor with the necessary authority can help agree whether one report will do.

Singapore’s Tripartite Advisory on Mental Health and Well-being at Workplaces recommends that supervisors review and prioritise workloads where necessary.

A facilitator might still offer useful learning. The reporting decision, however, belongs with the organisation.

The person who notices a problem does not have to be the person who can authorise its solution.

Agree how future clashes will be resolved, too. Otherwise, the employee is still left choosing which manager to disappoint. These ordinary arrangements are where I would look when considering the culture around a wellbeing programme.

Give the facilitator a clear brief

I see education as part of wellbeing facilitation: helping people understand what they are experiencing, with space to explore a practice rather than perform it.

Before booking, agree what the session is intended to offer. Is the aim to understand stress, explore a practice or make space for rest? Include timing, group size, accessibility needs and alternatives in the brief. Clarify who will respond to concerns outside the facilitator’s remit.

Even an activity’s name deserves a conversation. As I explore in What Is the Yoga of Sound, Exactly?, sound practice can include voice, mantra and breath, not only listening.

OASIS’s Workplace Wellbeing Seminars combine stress education, reflection and practical exercises. Yoga for the Workplace offers approaches involving movement, breath awareness and supported rest, adapted to the group.

The choice should follow what the team needs and what the organisation can thoughtfully accommodate.

Give feedback somewhere to go

I would separate feedback about the session from concerns about working arrangements.

Timing or accessibility feedback can go to the coordinator and facilitator. Conflicting priorities need the manager or leader able to resolve them. Personal disclosures need an appropriately confidential route, separate from general programme feedback.

For each agreed action, record three things: what needs deciding, who will decide, and when people will hear back.

There is a wider conversation about what happens after a corporate wellness day. Here, the useful first step is making sure a concern does not lose its way between departments.

Frequently asked questions

Who should coordinate wellbeing in a small business without HR?

Choose a named coordinator with time for the role and access to the person approving resources. This could be an operations manager or the owner. The HSE notes that smaller organisations may not need a formal steering group. Keep the arrangements proportionate.

What should HR do when it cannot approve the change employees need?

Bring a specific decision to the relevant leader: what is happening, what adjustment is proposed, and whose approval is needed. Agree an update date. Where a change cannot be made, explain why and explore alternatives rather than leaving the request unanswered.

How can employees contribute without sharing private health information?

Ask about useful topics, access needs and working arrangements, rather than diagnoses. Explain who will see feedback and how it will be used. Singapore’s tripartite advisory recommends clear confidentiality policies for reporting channels. Avoid promising anonymity that a small team cannot realistically protect.

Clarity can be a form of care

I return to that idea of support having a place. In a restorative practice, it helps the body release some effort. In health and wellness at work, it might mean knowing who can listen, who can decide, and what happens next.

Before your next planning meeting, try putting those names on one page. Notice the gaps together.

Everyone can have a part to play without anyone being asked to hold everything.

Considering support for your team? Tell OASIS what you hope a session will offer and the practical needs to plan around.

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