Mental Health Leader Spotlight: Felicia Cheng, Director, Global Well-being Design & Strategy at Salesforce

August 18, 2025

At Lyra, we’re proud to partner with benefits leaders who think boldly and prioritize the mental health of their employees by visibly and meaningfully integrating mental health into their broader company strategy. Salesforce has demonstrated a willingness to push limits and think boldly about the future of workforce mental health, and is the winner of Lyra’s 2025 Workforce Mental Health Award for Innovative Company of the Year. Earlier this year, we had the privilege of speaking with Felicia Cheng, director of global well-being design and strategy at Salesforce, to discuss Salesforce’s partnership with Lyra and how mental health support is an essential component of business success. 

What is your philosophy around caring for a workforce?
I see my role in the organization as creating the environment and the conditions for employees to thrive in their wellbeing and to feel safe to seek care whenever they need it. It's also important that when they do choose to seek care, we offer them the highest quality of resources and care with quick access.

What do you or your members love most about the Lyra benefit?
What I love most about the Lyra benefit is the guarantee of evidence-based care and outcomes. That gives me peace of mind every night when I go to bed, knowing that I'm putting our employees in the right hands and the right care. What I hear from our employees about what they love most is the match they make with their Lyra therapist. They’ve said to me that “It feels like a match made in heaven.” It's incredibly important to them that they find someone they can trust and connect with and they find it in Lyra.

What’s the next big thing you’re working on? 
As a leader in AI CRM, we know that technology is only half the equation. The other half is the human talent that wields it. With the incredible pace of change in AI, it’s also natural for our employees to experience levels of uncertainty at times. We’re focused on turning that uncertainty or anxiety around AI into a growth mindset, accelerating innovation and further bridging that Human + AI Connection.

If another benefits leader asks you how or why they should make the case for a mental health benefit, what would you tell them?
I would tell them that mental health is a business imperative – not just a Benefits one. We are seeing the cost of poor mental health, with higher health care claims and mental health leaves as short- and long-term disability claims continue to rise, especially in North America. There's also a huge cost in employee productivity and presenteeism. 

I think of mental health as a foundation, like a building. It’s often unseen, but it's really important. So you can have the best strategies and tools, but if the foundation is shaken (i.e., your employees are suffering from anxiety, depression, or burnout), it could collapse. Strengthening the foundation of mental health through a mental health benefit is critical to achieving business outcomes and your business goals.