Workplace wellbeing has become a prominent part of the employee experience, with organisations increasingly offering mental health resources, Employee Assistance Programmes, wellbeing days and other initiatives designed to support their workforce. However, simply having these measures in place does not necessarily mean employees believe they are making a meaningful difference.
Recent research reported by health and life insurance provider Vitality found that 52% of employees believe the health and wellbeing support provided by their employer is little more than a “tick-box exercise”. The findings raise an important question for employers and HR professionals: are workplace wellbeing programmes actually addressing the causes of poor wellbeing, or are organisations simply demonstrating that support exists?
For employers, the distinction matters. An effective wellbeing strategy can help reduce sickness absence, improve retention and create a healthier and more productive workforce. A programme that employees perceive as superficial, however, risks wasting resources while failing to address the workplace issues contributing to poor employee wellbeing.
What Does the Latest Workplace Wellbeing Research Tell Employers?
The research from Vitality suggests a significant disconnect between the support employers believe they provide and how that support is experienced by employees.
The headline finding that 52% of employees regard workplace health and wellbeing support as a tick-box exercise should concern HR teams. It suggests that providing wellbeing benefits alone is not necessarily enough to convince employees that their organisation genuinely prioritises their health.
This is particularly relevant at a time when employers are dealing with significant levels of sickness absence and mental health-related workplace pressures. Health Assured reports that work-related stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 22.1 million lost working days during 2024/25.
For employers, workplace wellbeing therefore needs to extend beyond offering occasional initiatives. Employees are likely to judge an organisation’s commitment based on their everyday working experience, including workload, management behaviour, flexibility and whether they feel comfortable raising concerns.
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Why is Employee and Workplace Wellbeing Important?
There is a strong business case for taking employee wellbeing seriously.
Poor staff health and wellbeing can contribute to higher sickness absence, reduced productivity, presenteeism and increased employee turnover. Where employees experience prolonged stress or burnout, organisations may also face greater pressure on colleagues who are required to cover absences.
Effective wellbeing strategies can help employers intervene before problems reach that stage. NatWest Mentor highlights potential benefits including improved productivity, reduced turnover and a more resilient workforce, while also emphasising that wellbeing should be treated as an ongoing strategic commitment rather than a one-off campaign.
There are legal considerations too. Although UK employers are not generally required to provide a particular wellbeing programme for employees, they do have duties concerning employee health and safety. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to protect employees’ health, safety and welfare so far as is reasonably practicable. Additionally, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require appropriate risk assessments. Mental health conditions may also amount to disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, potentially triggering a duty to make reasonable adjustments.
Workplace wellbeing should therefore be considered alongside an employer’s wider approach to health and safety, absence management, equality and workforce planning.
Move Beyond One-Off Workplace Wellbeing Initiatives
One of the most important changes employers can make is moving away from isolated wellbeing activities and towards a coherent, long-term strategy.
Wellbeing days, awareness campaigns and workplace events can all have value. However, they are unlikely to solve problems where employees simultaneously face excessive workloads, poor management or an organisational culture in which taking breaks is discouraged.
READ: How to Measure and Benchmark Employee Wellbeing – Employment Law Review
This disconnect can contribute to what is sometimes described as “wellbeing washing”, where an organisation publicly promotes wellbeing without addressing the workplace conditions that affect employees day to day. NatWest Mentor warns that employees can become cynical or disengaged where previous initiatives have appeared performative or short-lived.
An effective wellbeing programme for employees should therefore be embedded within the organisation’s wider people strategy. Wellbeing considerations should influence management practices, job design, workload allocation, absence management and flexible working rather than operating as a separate HR initiative.
Start by Listening to Employees
Employers cannot create an effective workplace wellbeing strategy without first understanding what their employees actually need.
Anonymous surveys can provide useful insight into stress, workload, morale and awareness of existing support. Focus groups and listening sessions can provide more detailed information about the pressures employees experience and where current initiatives may be falling short.
HR teams should also examine existing workforce data. Sickness absence, staff turnover, exit interviews, grievances and engagement surveys may reveal patterns that are not immediately visible through wellbeing programme participation figures alone. NatWest Mentor recommends combining employee dialogue with workforce data and stress risk assessments to understand the organisation’s current wellbeing position.
Crucially, employers need to act on the feedback they receive. Repeatedly asking employees about wellbeing without addressing identified concerns can undermine trust and reinforce the perception that the process is simply another tick-box exercise.
Address the Causes of Poor Wellbeing
One of the limitations of traditional wellbeing initiatives is that they can focus heavily on helping employees cope with stress without examining why that stress exists.
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Providing meditation sessions or resilience training may have benefits, but these measures are unlikely to resolve an environment characterised by unrealistic deadlines, chronic understaffing or excessive workloads.
Employers should therefore examine organisational factors affecting an employee’s health and wellbeing. This could include workload expectations, staffing levels, working hours, management practices, role clarity and access to flexible working.
Prevention should be a central part of the strategy. Health Assured recommends a prevention-led approach that considers factors including role requirements, leadership capability, mental health and access to appropriate professional support.
This does not mean employers can remove every source of workplace pressure. Some roles are inherently demanding. However, organisations should be able to demonstrate that risks are recognised, monitored and managed appropriately.
Give Line Managers the Right Training
Line managers are often the difference between a wellbeing policy that works on paper and one that works in practice.
Managers are typically the first people to notice changes in attendance, behaviour or performance. They may also be the first person an employee approaches when experiencing difficulties.
Employers should therefore ensure managers are comfortable having sensitive conversations and understand how to respond when employees disclose physical or mental health concerns.
Training should include recognising potential signs of poor wellbeing, discussing workload appropriately, understanding reasonable adjustments and knowing when an employee should be signposted towards HR, occupational health or professional support.
Regular one-to-one meetings can also provide an opportunity to identify problems before they become more serious. These conversations should not focus exclusively on targets and performance. Providing space to discuss workload, working relationships and wellbeing can help managers identify concerns earlier.
However, managers should not be expected to act as therapists or medical professionals. Their role is to listen, respond appropriately and ensure employees can access suitable support.
Make Support Easy to Access
A workplace wellbeing programme is of limited value if employees do not know what support exists or feel uncomfortable using it.
Employee Assistance Programmes can provide confidential access to counselling and other forms of support, while occupational health services can assist employers in understanding how health conditions affect an individual’s ability to work. Health Assured also highlights the potential role of rapid-access professional support and structured return-to-work processes in effective workplace wellbeing strategies.
Employers should communicate available services regularly rather than mentioning them only during induction or awareness campaigns.
Confidentiality is particularly important. Employees may be reluctant to use mental health support if they believe doing so will become known to their manager or negatively affect their career. Employers should clearly explain how confidential services operate and what information, if any, is provided back to the organisation.
Accessibility should also be considered. Support should work for employees across different locations, working patterns and roles rather than being designed exclusively around office-based staff.
Consider Flexibility and Work-Life Balance
Flexible working can form an important part of an effective wellbeing strategy.
Where operationally possible, giving employees greater autonomy over when or where they work can help them balance professional and personal responsibilities and reduce unnecessary sources of stress. NatWest Mentor identifies flexibility and employee input into scheduling and workload priorities as potential components of a broader wellbeing approach.
However, employers should avoid assuming that remote working automatically improves wellbeing. Some employees may experience isolation, blurred boundaries between work and home or difficulty disconnecting outside working hours.
The most effective approach is therefore likely to involve understanding individual and organisational needs rather than imposing a universal solution.
Employers should also consider the expectations they create around availability. A flexible working policy will have limited impact if employees feel expected to respond to emails late at night or remain permanently contactable.
Make Senior Leaders Accountable
Employees are unlikely to believe an organisation genuinely prioritises workplace wellbeing if senior leaders behave in ways that contradict its policies.
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Leadership therefore needs to extend beyond approving a wellbeing budget. Senior employees should model healthy working practices, encourage appropriate use of annual leave and demonstrate that seeking support will not harm an employee’s career prospects.
Leaders should also be accountable for workplace conditions within their areas of responsibility. Where employee surveys repeatedly identify excessive workloads or poor management within a particular department, organisations should investigate and respond rather than treating the results solely as HR data.
Workplace wellbeing becomes more credible when responsibility is shared across leadership rather than being treated exclusively as an HR function.
Measure Whether the Strategy Is Actually Working
Employers should be able to determine whether their wellbeing initiatives are achieving meaningful outcomes.
Simply measuring attendance at workshops or the number of employees who have downloaded a wellbeing app provides only part of the picture. More useful measures may include sickness absence, staff turnover, employee engagement, stress-related absence and employee feedback.
EAP utilisation can also provide useful information, although confidentiality must always be respected.
NatWest Mentor recommends regularly measuring and reviewing wellbeing strategies using indicators including absence, turnover, satisfaction, engagement and EAP usage. Health Assured similarly recommends using measurable indicators to assess whether initiatives are reducing absence and improving workforce outcomes.
If an initiative has low engagement or produces no measurable benefit, employers should be prepared to change it. Continuing with ineffective programmes simply because they have always been offered is precisely the type of approach that can cause employees to perceive workplace wellbeing as a tick-box exercise.
Creating a Workplace Where Wellbeing is Part of Everyday Practice
The most effective workplace wellbeing strategies are unlikely to be those with the greatest number of benefits or initiatives. Instead, they will be those where staff health and wellbeing are reflected in everyday organisational decisions.
Employees should feel able to discuss concerns without fearing negative consequences. Managers should have the skills to respond appropriately. Workloads should be monitored, professional support should be accessible, and leaders should be prepared to address workplace practices that contribute to poor wellbeing.
Employers should also recognise that wellbeing needs change. What works for one workforce, department or employee may not work for another, meaning regular feedback and review are essential.
By embedding wellbeing into management and business practices, organisations can move away from isolated interventions and towards a workplace culture where employee wellbeing is treated as a genuine priority.
Conclusion
The finding that 52% of employees regard employer health and wellbeing support as a tick-box exercise should prompt organisations to examine whether their existing strategies are delivering meaningful results.
Providing an EAP, running an annual wellbeing day or offering occasional workshops may be useful, but these measures cannot compensate for excessive workloads, poor management or a culture where employees do not feel comfortable asking for help.
Effective workplace wellbeing requires employers to listen to their workforce, address underlying causes of poor health, train managers, provide accessible support and measure whether interventions are genuinely improving outcomes.
For employers and HR professionals, the objective should not simply be to demonstrate that a wellbeing programme for employees exists. It should be to create working conditions in which employees can see and experience the organisation’s commitment to their health and wellbeing every day.
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