Mental health and well-being in the workplace is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a business imperative. And the data from the 2025 Avtar & Seramount Best Companies for Women in India Study backs that up.
Here’s the thing: when we talk about workplace mental health best practices, we often stay at the surface level; an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) hotline here, a wellness webinar there. But the organizations leading the charge are doing something fundamentally different. They’re building structural support into the DNA of how they operate.
The Benchmark That Stands Out
According to the study, 89% of Best Companies have a formal mental health and well-being policy in place. That’s not just an awareness campaign. That’s a documented, enforceable commitment that signals to employees: your mental health matters here, and we’ve put it in writing.
What does that look like in practice? For 46% of these companies, it includes paid days off specifically designated for mental health and well-being. We’re moving beyond the era of telling employees to “use their PTO” and into an era of explicit permission, one that removes the stigma and the guesswork.
Well-Being Lives Inside a Larger Ecosystem
One of the most important mental health best practices isn’t a mental health program at all, it’s the surrounding support structure. The study shows that 97% of Best Companies train managers on building an inclusive workplace culture. Manager behaviour is one of the single biggest predictors of employee mental health outcomes, and these organizations know it.
Add to that the fact that 74% support employees through learning and development reimbursement, and 86% provide executive coaching, and you start to see a picture of companies investing in developing their employee’s mindsets, education and overall growth across the board, not just in moments of crisis.
Supporting Women’s Mental Health Through Life Transitions
The data reveals a particularly thoughtful approach to supporting women through high-stress transitions. Seventy percent of companies engage in career development conversations with women on maternity leave, and 70% have formal phase-back programs to ease the return. These aren’t just retention plays, they can almost be considered as mental health interventions. Career uncertainty is a major driver of anxiety, and proactive communication is one of the most effective tools we have.
The Takeaway for Employers
If you’re benchmarking your own workplace mental wellness strategy, start here: Do you have a written policy? Are managers trained? Do employees have explicit, stigma-free access to mental health days? The gap between the best companies and the rest isn’t always resources; it’s intention, formalized.
The organizations setting the standard aren’t waiting for burnout to become a crisis. They’re building the conditions for people to actually thrive.
