What is Workplace Wellbeing?

Whether you call it workplace wellbeing, employee wellness, or something else entirely, we can all agree that the health and wellbeing of your employees (and your workplace as a whole) is important. But you’re here, reading this article, so you must have some questions – and that’s good.

We’ve been in the workplace wellbeing business here at New Leaf Health for over 30 years now, and we’re still learning new things and facing emerging challenges every week. And that’s what’s so great about employee wellbeing – every new challenge brings an exciting opportunity to help improve the wellbeing of your workplace.

So, in this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into the subject of workplace wellbeing. From what that means at a very basic level, to the intricacies of a successful workplace wellness programme, as well as the legal requirements of UK businesses, and much more.

This will be a long one, so grab a coffee and get comfy! Or just use the table of contents below to jump to the bit you actually want to read – whatever floats your boat!

Defining Workplace Wellbeing

Workplace wellbeing is going to mean different things to different people, and that’s sort of the point. Having a successful wellbeing strategy means that you’re catering for the individuals, not just plonking a bowl of fruit in the break room and calling it a win.

This means that it’s inherently difficult to define what workplace wellbeing actually is, but we’re going to do it anyway – more fool us.

The Official Definition (and What it Means in Practice)

The Oxford English dictionary defines wellbeing… – just kidding. But actually, in researching this article, it was harder than you might think to find a concrete definition. Diving into Google Scholar, we found a paper from 2020 titled A Literature Review of Workplace Well-Being that contains a suitably wordy definition as a starting point:

“Workplace well-being is a sense of prosperity obtained from work that is related to the feelings of workers in general (core affect) and the intrinsic and extrinsic value of the work (work values).”

Your guess is as good as ours, and that’s essentially the problem – everyone will approach wellbeing from different angles and perspectives. But for our purposes, we propose a different definition that focuses on the end result instead:

“Workplace wellbeing is the health, happiness, and value that an employer brings to the lives of their employees by proactively supporting their needs.”

Still, this definition, as great as it is (thank you very much), doesn’t really tell you what you need to do to achieve wellbeing in your workplace, so let’s dive deeper to see what it actually means in practice.

Workplace Wellbeing vs Employee Wellbeing – Is There a Difference?

The only real difference between workplace wellbeing and employee wellbeing is semantics. “Workplace” sounds more holistic, like you’re taking a whole-business approach. Whereas “Employee” sounds more personal and individualised.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what you call your wellbeing programme, as long as the outcomes are right.

Why the Definition has Evolved Beyond “Perks and Ping-Pong”

As much as we’d all love it for about 10 minutes, then get bored, table tennis isn’t going to make you happy at work every day. It’s like trying to hold up a crumbling house with masking tape – small perks are completely meaningless if the entire business around you isn’t built with a solid foundation to support your wellbeing.

In other words, workplace wellbeing can’t be something you just add to a workplace – it needs to be embedded within the culture and foundations of the business itself, in order to be truly successful.

The Four Pillars of Workplace Wellbeing

A while back, we covered the four pillars of wellbeing at work in an article. Confusingly, we suggested that there could be up to nine pillars of wellbeing, but in truth, you could make up as many as you like. Fundamentally, though, there are four key pillars of wellbeing that, if you’re just starting out on your wellbeing journey, will help build a solid foundation.

Physical Wellbeing

This pillar concerns the physical wellbeing of your employees. Not just ‘are they a healthy weight?‘ or ‘is their blood pressure in a normal range?‘ but looks at the broader picture, asking questions like:

• How does this person feel when they wake up?
• How would they rate their daily energy levels?
• How would they rate their own physical wellbeing?

Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

Mental and emotional wellbeing doesn’t just consider whether someone has a mental health condition or not. It recognises that mental health is a spectrum – some days we may have positive mental health, other days, we may not. Generally speaking, it encompasses questions like:

• Does a person have a mental illness?
• Is stress a big part of someone’s job?
• Are some employees experiencing difficulty in their personal lives?
• Are people happy with their working environment?
• Are physical, social, or financial problems causing worry?

Considering that it’s estimated that poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion per year, mental health often plays an important role in any organisation’s workplace wellbeing strategy.

Social Wellbeing

Social wellbeing considers how socially satisfied your employees are in their whole life, both at home and at work.

This doesn’t mean they need to be chatting with the whole office at lunch and attending multiple birthday parties every weekend – it should be whatever is normal and comfortable for that employee.

It’s also important to look at changes. If someone who is normally quite chatty suddenly becomes quiet, it could be a warning sign of something going on with them personally.

Financial Wellbeing

This is probably the trickiest pillar of wellbeing, as when most people think of finance in the context of work, it usually sounds something like “pay me more money!”

And whilst this does factor in to financial wellbeing in a sense, this pillar also considers the wider context of personal finance, such as:

• Financial knowledge
• Debt and credit
• Budgeting and planning

Additionally, there are other workplace considerations that impact finance, too:

• Pensions and benefits
• Employer-provided insurances
• Funded education and training
• Childcare costs
• Commuting costs

Finance is a very tricky topic in the context of workplace wellbeing, but it’s not impossible to tackle. In our blog on 52 Workplace Wellbeing Ideas, we’ve got a whole section on financial health ideas to give you a good starting point.

Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters for UK Businesses

You’re here, so you probably understand the importance of wellbeing in at least a very basic sense. What’s less commonplace, though, is the understanding that employee wellbeing is absolutely integral to the operation of any business.

Even if you don’t have a wellbeing strategy in place, your business is still operating at a level of wellbeing regardless. Your employees are turning up to work every day and engaging with the systems your business has in place – are these systems too heavy and taking a toll on the mental health of your employees? Do your colleagues have great social relationships and boost each other’s morale?

Wellbeing is happening in your workplace whether you like it or not – but are you taking proactive actions to influence it?

The Cost of Getting it Wrong – Absence, Presenteeism, and Turnover

If you’re unsure of the differences between absenteeism and presenteeism, we’ve got a fantastic table that highlights the key differences in our recent blog on 5 Effective Strategies to Tackle Absenteeism and Presenteeism at Work.

Essentially, though, absentees aren’t at work – they are off ill, and don’t produce value for your company. Presentees are in the workplace but not well enough to work productively, costing your business money.

These definitions sound a little harsh, but our blog gives a much more nuanced explanation – promise!

Ultimately, though, the costs associated with presenteeism are around 5 to 10 times higher than those of absenteeism. So, whilst you may think it’s great that your employees are willing to soldier on through a particularly nasty cold or period of intense stress, you’re actually doing harm to your business if you encourage this at a cultural level.

This means that, if you aren’t looking after the wellbeing of your employees, they’ll eventually want to look for greener pastures, and with more employers prioritising wellbeing than ever, by not having an effective employee wellbeing strategy, you risk not being able to attract and retain top talent.

What the Latest Wellbeing Statistics Tell Us

For many workplace wellbeing professionals (ourselves included), the CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Report is almost like an annual tradition. It’s not the only wellbeing report out there, but it presents clear and meaningful stats.

Key findings from the 2025 report indicate that:

• Minor illnesses make up the majority of short-term absences.
• Mental ill-health is prevalent for both short and long-term absences.
• Stress is reported as a top concern by 1 in 4 workplaces.
• 24% of respondents note that acute conditions like heart attacks and strokes are a top cause of long-term sickness.
• Only 29% or workplaces train line managers in mental health.
• 15% of workplaces report not having a budget for health and wellbeing.

There are a lot more stats in the report, and we encourage you to take a look for yourself, but these results tell us that wellbeing across the UK is becoming more valued by employers, and there is still plenty of room for improving the lives of employees.

Looking at personal statistics for your employees might give a different perspective, however. Just taking a look at physical health, there are some alarming stats in the mix:

• 30% of adults have high blood pressure, including 15% who are untreated.
• The cost of obesity and being overweight to the UK economy is estimated to be roughly £30 billion annually in lost productivity.
• Only 6 in 10 adults in England reach the recommended physical activity levels, with 1 in 4 being completely inactive.
• 59% of UK adults have raised cholesterol, with 45 – 64 being the most at-risk age range.
• It’s estimated that around 1.3 million people in the UK have type-2 diabetes but don’t know it.

If you consider that in a workplace of 20 people, 3 of you are likely to have high blood pressure and not know it, the stats suddenly start to hit home a little harder. What if you could help those people with a workplace health check, before it escalates into an acute condition?

If you’d like to understand the potential risks for your workplace, we have a free Employee Health Risk Calculator that lets you find out the prevalence of various physical and mental health conditions in your workplace. Click below to access it for free.

The Legal Duty of Care for UK Employers

All employers in the UK have a legal duty of care for their employees. As ACAS outlines, employers have the following legal responsibilities:

• A ‘duty of care’ for workers, customers and anyone else who visits the workplace, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
• A duty to carry out ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessments, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Essentially, this means that employers are expected to prevent or minimise any risks to an employee’s health whilst they are at work. But what does this mean from an employee wellbeing perspective?

Mental health problems and conditions are considered disabilities under the following circumstances:

• It has a ‘substantial adverse effect’ on their life – for example, they regularly cannot focus on a task, or it takes them longer to complete tasks.
• It lasts, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.
• It affects their ability to do their normal day-to-day activities – for example, interacting with people, following instructions or keeping to set working times.

As such, employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments around aspects such as deadlines, workload, working environment, communication styles, and more, in order to support an employee with a mental health condition.

But if these reasonable adjustments benefit an employee with a mental health condition (that can be evidenced as above), why not explore the benefits to other employees, too?

A classic example of this (at least, as classic as post-COVID can be) is allowing employees to work from home a few days a week, or to have flexible start times (between 7am and 10am, for example). There’s no legal requirement for this (unless supporting an employee with a disability), but this approach could meaningfully improve the lives of your employees by:

• Reducing commuting stress.
• Reducing the cost of commuting.
• Promoting work-life balance.
• Allowing staff to flex around school runs.
• Better accommodating night owls and early birds.

This exact scenario won’t be possible for every workplace (sorry to all the posties out there!), but it’s an indication of reasonable changes to ways of working (not the job itself), allowing a better quality of life for your staff. Same workload + more flexibility = better wellbeing!

The Business Case for Investing in Employee Wellbeing

We’ve outlined some of the needs and benefits of workplace wellbeing, but let’s face it, when it comes to getting senior leadership invested (if they aren’t already), this can be tough.

It may not seem like it, but investing in employee wellbeing actually returns a net-positive ROI. For example, Deloitte found that for every £1 spent on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their employees, businesses get (on average) around £4.70 back through increased productivity. As we pointed out above, that 5 to 10 times cost for presenteeism over absenteeism is starting to make a bit more sense now, isn’t it?

Productivity and Performance Gains

If that Deloitte stat doesn’t do it for you, consider what Reward Gateway discovered with their workplace wellbeing report – 81% of employees say that wellbeing impacts their productivity at work, with 44% saying it has a significant impact.

Even if that’s not an accurate number in practice, imagine the impact it would have if your business rolled out a wellbeing programme (that genuinely supported your employees), and nearly half of them felt like it had a significant effect on their performance. Even if it didn’t, it would certainly lead nicely into our next point…

Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

84% of employees would consider staying at a job longer if they had more mental and physical wellbeing support from their employer (again, via Reward Gateway). In other words, that’s less of your top talent switching over to your competitors, all because you invested in a workplace wellbeing programme (which, as we’ve pointed out, is a net financial benefit).

It’s win-win!

Reducing Sickness Absence and Presenteeism

As mentioned, we’ve got a whole blog on this subject, but the benefits of reducing absenteeism and presenteeism from a workplace wellbeing perspective bear repeating:

• Increased productivity and performance
• Improved employee wellbeing and morale
• Reduced operational costs from covering absent staff
• Lower staff turnover
• Healthier company culture

Which, in essence, benefits your business in three key ways:

• Staff are happier, healthier, and more productive, so your business will perform better.
• Existing employees will be less likely to leave.
• You will be able to attract top-quality talent, as you’ll be favoured over your competitors.

There are no downsides to keeping your employees healthy and happy, and it’s one of the best outcomes you can expect from implementing a thoughtful and proactive workplace wellbeing programme.

Build a Positive Workplace Culture

Workplace culture is a shared set of beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes across your organisation that influences how your employees act – both with each other, as well as with clients and customers.

As an example, here at New Leaf Health, we have a very open and supportive culture. We’re very open and transparent, we own our mistakes and celebrate our successes, and we embody our goal of building happier and healthier workplaces. As a result, we have a very low turnover rate – most of us have been here since before COVID (and then some!)

If you look at an example of a negative workplace culture, though, Amazon often tops the list, where, by putting customers first, they often treat employees as disposable.

Out of those two examples, which company would you say has a better understanding of workplace wellbeing and has embedded it in the culture of the business? Not to brag, but yes, we’re better than Amazon in that regard. We’re also pretty good at delivering workplace wellbeing events. Ba-dum-tss.

But seriously, ensuring that wellbeing is embedded in your organisation’s culture from the get-go will make a huge difference to attracting and retaining top employees. And frankly, it just makes your workplace a nicer environment to be in.

What Does a Workplace Wellbeing Programme Look Like?

Not every workplace wellbeing programme will look the same. It can vary wildly based on many different factors, but here we’re going to look at some of the fundamental aspects of looking after the health of your employees.

Not everything in this list will be suitable for every organisation. And that’s okay – we’re not saying you have to do absolutely everything in this section or else. But one thing that every organisation should have is a solid workplace wellbeing strategy.

Workplace Wellbeing Policies and Strategy

We’ve been training workplace wellbeing leaders for a very long time now, and one thing is abundantly clear: when an organisation has a dedicated person in charge of wellbeing, they get better outcomes for their employees (and as a knock-on effect, their business).

Creating a wellbeing strategy doesn’t have to be a Herculean task, and even a simple document is better than nothing. We actually have a guide on quickly crafting your employee wellbeing strategy that talks you through the key components of a strategy, but essentially, you need:

• Carry out a needs assessment, so you know what your employees actually want from your strategy.
• Set goals, and make them SMART (apologies if that gives you high school flashbacks).
• Determine how you’ll implement your strategy, utilising Wellbeing Champions, for example.
• Outline how you’ll monitor your strategy and how you’ll review it.
• Establish clear KPIs that help you determine if you’ve reached those SMART goals.

This is a very basic overview of a wellbeing strategy. We do offer Workplace Wellbeing Leadership Training for those who are looking to develop a strategy for their business, so feel free to reach out if you think that course would be of benefit to you.

Occupational Health and Physiotherapy Services

Occupational health falls into a slightly different category from workplace wellbeing in general, but it still occupies roughly the same area. Whether your business needs a formal occupational health programme will depend on the specific risks and hazards that could affect your employees. Examples of workplaces or roles that will need occupational health can include:

• High-risk environments: workplaces with heavy machinery, extreme noise, vibrations, and exposure to hazardous substances.
• Safety-critical roles: Jobs that involve driving heavy goods vehicles, working at heights, or operating complex rail equipment often require specific medical fitness certificates.
• Managing long-term or serious sickness: If there are ongoing problems with sickness amongst the workforce, or you have staff returning to work after long-term sickness absences, occupational health can help manage the process.

Occupational health teams are often based in-house for larger organisations, but there are also occupational health services that offer ad hoc support, too.

Physiotherapy sits in a similar place to occupational health, in that it’s not going to be a part of every workplace wellbeing programme, but some organisations will definitely benefit from it. Roles that involve a lot of physical activity and exertion will likely need access to some form of physiotherapy services, given the risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries and issues (think pulling back muscles from carrying something heavy, for example).

That being said, workers who spend a lot of time sitting down at desks can also develop MSK issues (65% of desk workers, to be precise). Preventative measures, such as active workstations and height-adjustable desks, are great, but not always possible – which is where a physiotherapy service could be of benefit.

Mental Health Support – EAPs, Counselling, and MHFAiders

Mental health support is crucial for any workplace, given that poor mental health costs employers £51 billion per year in the UK. Fortunately, many mental health services and solutions are affordable and easy to access and implement, so there are lots of options available, including:

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) service: a third-party service that provides mental health and general wellbeing advice and resources that’s usually available 24/7 via helplines or live chat. This service can often provide advice around financial and legal issues, as well as mediation for workplace issues.
• Dedicated counselling: Some employers choose to offer one-to-one counselling for their employees as part of their wellbeing programme. This is particularly useful for workplaces that involve high-stress situations or deal with difficult topics. Some businesses also offer a workplace counselling service when there has been a distressing event at work, such as the death of a colleague.
• Mental Health First Aiders: Mental Health First Aid is a framework developed by MHFA International and governed by national organisations in different countries, such as MHFA England, in, well, England. MHFAiders provide immediate support and signposting for someone experiencing a mental health issue in the workplace – just like a physical first aider would for a physical injury. Some providers offer similar services to MHFA England, but they aren’t licensed, so it’s important to choose a provider that specifically offers the official workplace Mental Health First Aid course.
• Manager Mental Health Training: Line managers, supervisors, and team leaders are often one of your best assets in promoting positive wellbeing in the workplace, yet most businesses don’t give their managers the necessary skills to support the mental health of their team members. Much like Mental Health First Aid, you aren’t training them as therapists, but giving them the tools to support and signpost when they spot the signs of poor mental health.
• Stress support and workshops: One of the easiest ways to offer mental health support at work is through raising awareness and educating employees. This can be done through quick, easy-to-deploy online webinars and workshops designed to promote employee mental health or give the tools to combat stress and build resilience.

Health Checks and Health Screening

Employee Health Checks and Workplace Health Screening may seem like offshoots of the occupational health services we discussed above, but they actually sit in a different place for one key reason – these types of checks focus on awareness, education, and prevention.

A typical workplace health check will involve blood pressure testing, along with a variety of other tests, including body composition, blood glucose, cholesterol, vitamin D, and more (depending on which health check is right for your business). The goal of these checks isn’t to diagnose a health issue (although they do provide a very good indication) – it’s to help employees be more aware of their health and wellbeing, how their diet and lifestyle can affect their key health stats, and what they can do to maintain or improve their results.

One of the key stats in an employee health check is blood pressure. High blood pressure is often symptomless, and the only way to know if you have it is to get it checked. Unfortunately, not many people get it checked as often as they should. And this shows – on average, we recommend around 15% of attendees at our workplace health checks visit their GP to get their blood pressure checked. Though for some workplaces, this can rise to nearly 50% of attendees.

Workplace Wellbeing in Different Settings

Here at New Leaf Health, we’ve been supporting the health and wellbeing of UK employees for over 30 years. Whilst businesses have become more familiar with wellbeing over the years (it was barely even a concept in the 90s), the biggest change by far came in 2020 with the COVID pandemic. This sudden shift meant that our business, which had primarily been face-to-face in a client’s workplace, suddenly shifted to online workshops and webinars. While we’re very happy to be back on site these days, there are some clients we worked with prior to 2020 who have never gone back to the office, and promoting workplace wellbeing has been a real challenge for them.

With this in mind, let’s look at how different settings can affect the implementation of wellbeing in your workplace (or lack of workplace, in some cases!)

Office-Based Employees

When you think of a workplace, you’re likely to think of the generic office space. It’s the quintessential workplace – in fact, offices seem so ubiquitous that there’s a whole category of office-based movies on Wikipedia, and I’m not convinced this list is complete.

Fortunately for businesses based in the traditional office, wellbeing is often easier to manage, as everyone is typically in one place, eight hours a day, five days a week (yes, your workplace is unique, but we’ll get to that).

If your business is lucky enough to fit into this category, the wellbeing world is your oyster, as most wellbeing interventions will be easy to implement and to get employees engaged with.

The downside to this environment is that you’ll likely have a lot of MSK issues from sitting for long periods – this can also lead to high blood pressure and other health conditions. Additionally, staff who spend a lot of time inside will also be at risk of vitamin D deficiency, especially if they don’t supplement during the winter months.

Remote and Hybrid Employees

Remote and hybrid approaches to working seem to be the typical setup for the 2020s. While this can present challenges (workplace health checks aren’t really an option for fully remote teams), you still have plenty of options for directly supporting the mental health of your employees; trained line managers and MHFAiders, for example, can support mental health remotely, and EAP services can be accessed from anywhere.

Wellbeing interventions are also a great opportunity to get people together, if that’s something that your business does or wants to do. Conferences and away-days are ideal for running those in-person interventions, workshops, and health checks that can’t be done through a screen.

Manual and Field-Based Workers

Staff who aren’t sat at a desk all day typically present a big challenge when it comes to supporting employee wellbeing – how do you check in with them regularly if they’re field-based? And if their work involves being active or doing something manual, how can you pull them away from their station to get involved in a wellbeing intervention?

Every workplace will be different in this respect, and there’s no one-size-fits-all. Fortunately, we have several case studies from clients who faced challenges just like this (and overcame them, of course). Click below to check out our collection of workplace wellbeing case studies.

How to Measure the Success of Your Wellbeing Programme

Measuring the success of your wellbeing programme is essential. Not only does it give you something to feel good about (assuming all of the numbers and feedback are heading in the right direction), but it also gives senior leaders evidence of the programme’s efficacy, to help with buy-in. Additionally, if your measurements show areas for improvement, this is perfect, as an employee wellbeing programme should never just be ‘set it and forget it’ – it gives you actionable data that you can use to make evidence-based improvements.

Key Metrics to Track (Absence, Engagement, Utilisation)

There are a range of metrics you can track to evaluate the success of your wellbeing programme. Ultimately, though, you’ll need to decide what stats are useful to you and your stakeholders. Some of the key metrics you’ll likely want to track will include:

• Participation rates: The percentage of the workforce signing up for wellbeing initiatives.
• Satisfaction scores: Qualitative and quantitative feedback from participation surveys, as well as overall employee wellbeing surveys.
• Absenteeism rates: Tracking individual and overall absence levels, measured against national averages.
• Presenteeism levels: Tracking employees who show up while unwell and work at reduced capacity.
• Work-life balance index: Monitoring workload, overtime, and staff’s ability to switch off from work.
• Turnover rates: How many staff choose to leave the business.
• Healthcare and insurance costs: Evaluating trends in insurance claims, occupational health referrals, and insurance costs over time.
• Productivity trends: Measuring the output of departments or teams against the wider averages for the business.
• Safety incidents: Tracking accidents and injuries, particularly in roles focused on manual labour.

Ultimately, what you decide to track will be down to what you and your leadership value the most – and what makes your programme look amazing!

Employee Surveys and Feedback

Many of the metrics we covered above can be tracked using an employee wellbeing survey.

There are two ways you’ll want to do this:

• Initiative-specific surveys: Gather feedback from specific events or programmes to determine how successful they were.
• A general survey: Running an overall survey, at least once a year, allows you to get a picture of where your staff are in terms of their own wellbeing journey, what they think of your existing wellbeing programme, and what kind of initiatives they want in the future.

For the general survey, it’s worth considering running an employee wellbeing survey using an external service. A trusted external provider running the survey means that you’ll be getting validated questions that get to the heart of issues, plus you’re showing your dedication to workplace wellbeing as a business by getting outside insight. Additionally, it gives respondents the license to be a bit freer and more open with their answers, so you get honest responses.

And a small tip for surveys – make sure they’re short, multiple choice, and limit any text responses to an absolute minimum. Faced with a 10-page survey full of text boxes, most people will immediately tap out.

Calculating Return on Investment

We’ve touched on return on investment for workplace wellbeing above, as it’s such an important metric for any wellbeing programme. Ultimately, wellbeing is a cost-centre for businesses – you can’t sell the results of a health check or line manager training. But wellbeing affects hidden costs in the business, and absolutely does generate a return on investment.

How you track that will be down to your business, and the key metrics that you’re trying to tackle. If you’re trying to reduce absence rates, start by figuring out how much an absence costs you for a day (i.e. lost productivity, sick pay, cover pay, etc.). Then, determine how absence rates have changed since you introduced your wellbeing programme. This is best done over a longer period of time, if possible, to account for any outliers that might affect the average absence rates (like a sickness bug spreading around the workplace). Finally, once you know how much your wellbeing programme has affected your absence rates, you can put a cost saving against it.

If you’re just starting out or don’t have much data, you could also use our free wellbeing ROI calculator to get an idea of what return on investment wellbeing could bring to your business. This is based on UK averages, and takes a broad look at cost savings, so whilst your mileage may vary, it gives you a good idea of what impact a workplace wellbeing programme can have on your bottom line.

How to Get Started with Workplace Wellbeing

Right, so now we should all have a pretty good understanding of what workplace wellbeing actually is, yes? Now comes the fun part – actually doing it. We have quite a few blogs on the topic of building a wellbeing programme, including specific aspects like Champions Training or creating a strategy, so that’s a great place to start. Here, we’re going to break the topic down into the key building blocks that will help you hit the ground running.

Conducting a Wellbeing Needs Assessment

As we discussed above, you need to know what’s important to your staff. There’s no point in running exercise and activity workshops if all of your employees are super fit and active. They could all be overworked and on the verge of burnout, so perhaps implementing an EAP or training line managers to support them would be a better investment.

Ask your staff what they want, then listen to them. You won’t be able to achieve some things. You will always get responses saying things like “pay me more money” or “let me work from the Bahamas”, but wellbeing doesn’t command briefcases of cash and holiday villas sort of budgets (as much as we wish it did).

But you can also read between the lines with these responses. Would someone who wants more money feel that their wellbeing improves if you build financial education and awareness into your programme? Does the jet-setting worker actually feel overwhelmed and need a break?

We can’t overstate the benefits of running a survey like this. Whilst you can use a business like ours to run it for you, this is also something you can do for free using Google Forms or similar.

Creating a Workplace Wellbeing Strategy

This is a bit chicken and egg, as, arguably, this step should come before conducting a needs assessment. But then, how do you know what your staff will want from a wellbeing programme?

The simple answer is to work on your strategy and conduct a needs assessment at the same time. You’ll need a basic outline of a policy to know what your business objectives are when it comes to workplace wellbeing, but you’ll need your employees’ input to determine what areas of wellbeing you need to invest in.

At this stage, keep things flexible and don’t be afraid to change things around – your wellbeing strategy won’t be the same now as it is in five years.

Building Internal Buy-In and Senior Leadership Support

There are many resources available that will help you build the case for workplace wellbeing in your business, but here are a few to get you off the ground quickly:

• The results of your wellbeing needs assessment.
• Workplace Wellbeing ROI Calculator
• Employee Health Risks Calculator
• Making the Case for Health Screening Template
• Deloitte Workplace Mental Health Costs
• CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work Report

These are just a few resources to help you paint the picture, but if you need more support, please feel free to reach out to us – as part of our consultative process, we help wellbeing leaders make a case for wellbeing programmes in their workplace.

Choosing a Workplace Wellbeing Provider

There are a lot of employee wellbeing initiatives that you can run internally without any expert knowledge or skills. But there are many that you shouldn’t (or can’t), including:

• Employee health checks
• Mental Health First Aid training
• Wellbeing Champions training
• Counselling
• Flu jab clinics
• And much, much more

To deliver these, you need to partner with a workplace wellbeing provider. We’re not going to insist that you partner with New Leaf Health (though you absolutely should!), but we will tell you what you need to look out for in a trusted employee wellbeing provider:

• You should trust them: Be sure that any provider you consider is open and honest about their services.
• Qualified and certified: Look out for key certifications like CPD, MHFA, and City & Guilds, and don’t be afraid to ask what qualifies them and their practitioners to deliver workplace wellbeing initiatives.
• Pricing: Shop around and ask for quotes. A worthwhile provider will be open and honest with their pricing.
• Ethical and equitable: Wellbeing is for everyone, not just for the elite few. A trustworthy provider will want to support all of your staff.
• Supportive: Here at New Leaf Health, we pride ourselves on support. Whether that’s being open and honest during the sales process (we won’t sell you a service just for the sake of it), or handling all of the logistics for you (our operations team ensures your event goes off without a hitch), your chosen employee wellbeing provider should always be working with you to deliver excellent results.

Frequently Asked Questions about Workplace Wellbeing

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about workplace wellbeing – and the answers, of course!

What is workplace wellbeing?

On paper, workplace wellbeing is the health, happiness, and value that an employer brings to the lives of their employees by proactively supporting their needs. In reality, though, as you can see by the length of this article, wellbeing is much more nuanced than a simple definition. Ultimately, having a good workplace wellbeing programme means meeting the physical, mental, social, and financial needs of your employees to keep them happy, healthy, and productive.

What are the main areas of workplace wellbeing?

Many experts in workplace wellbeing think of the topic in terms of pillars. Whilst some people suggest there can be up to nine pillars, we tend to agree with the most fundamental approach – that there are four pillars of wellbeing at work:

• Physical wellbeing
• Mental and emotional wellbeing
• Social wellbeing
• Financial wellbeing

These four areas cover the most basic wellbeing needs of your employees, and are a great starting place if you’re just beginning to formalise a wellbeing strategy for your business. We go into more detail for each area in the article above.

Why is workplace wellbeing important?

Employee wellbeing isn’t just important – it’s absolutely essential. If your employees don’t feel a sense of wellbeing when they’re at work, then your business will likely be subject to many different issues, including:

• High turnover rates
• Absenteeism and presenteeism
• Burnout
• Reduced productivity

This doesn’t mean that you have to start throwing perks and bonuses at your employees – wellbeing is much broader than that. But you do need to listen to staff to determine what they need from you so that they can turn up every day and be the best that they can be.

What is a workplace wellbeing programme?

A workplace wellbeing programme is essentially a formalised approach to wellbeing in the workplace. It encompasses everything that your business does to look after employee wellbeing, and is usually guided by a wellbeing strategy document.

Is workplace wellbeing a legal requirement in the UK?

All businesses in the UK have a legal duty of care for their employees. Whilst this doesn’t mean that you need to have a formal wellbeing strategy by law, many of the actions you’ll take to look after your employees can fall into the category of wellbeing, particularly when it comes to issues such as mental health and stress.

Additionally, reasonable adjustments can often fall into the area of wellbeing – whilst not legally required (unless supporting an employee with a disability), adjustments can drastically improve the wellbeing of your employees.

How much does a workplace wellbeing programme cost?

An employee wellbeing programme can cost as much or as little as your business is willing to invest. Whilst we discourage not investing anything in employee wellbeing, you don’t need to spend thousands upon thousands, either.

That being said, as we’ve discussed above, investing in workplace wellbeing can have a significant return on investment for your business. To see this in action, check out our free Workplace Wellbeing ROI Calculator.

What kind of initiatives should a workplace wellbeing programme include?

Whilst there’s no set list of ‘here’s what you need to do’ for wellbeing programmes, there are some key wellbeing initiatives that form the basis of a great wellbeing programme (and this is based on our experience with our long-term clients):

• Wellbeing Leadership Training – so the person in charge knows what they’re doing.
• Wellbeing Champions Training – so you can develop a team of people to help promote wellbeing at work.
• Employee Wellbeing Surveys – to discover what your staff actually want from your wellbeing programme.
• Employee health checks – to empower your staff to make healthy choices. You’ll need to determine which health check is right for your business.
• Mental Health First Aid and/or Line Manager Training – to help support and signpost employees experiencing mental health issues at work.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a great starting point. Clearly, not every business will have the budget to run all of these initiatives, but if you can only do one thing (and you’re not already formally trained), wellbeing leadership training is a great starting point to help you build out your strategy and programme. Whilst you don’t have to choose our training (though you definitely should), there’s no formal framework or accrediting body for wellbeing leadership training, so make sure you choose a provider that’s experienced and trustworthy – and make sure that the course ticks the boxes for what you’re looking for.

What is the difference between occupational health and workplace wellbeing?

Occupational health usually helps manage specific risks within the workplace, such as high-risk environments, safety-critical roles, and managing long-term or serious sickness absence issues. Wellbeing, on the other hand, takes a more holistic approach, ensuring that your employees are happy, healthy, and productive in their role, regardless of what workplace risks are present.

Some workplaces will be legally required to provide an occupational health service to their employees, whereas there’s no real legislation in the UK stating ‘you must have an employee wellbeing programme’.

How do I know if my employees need a wellbeing programme?

The simple answer is that your employees do need a workplace wellbeing programme – every workplace should have one. Whether that’s a multi-million-pound programme headed up by a dedicated department, or a simple strategy determined by the MD, is entirely up to you. That being said, by running an employee wellbeing survey, you’ll be able to determine exactly which areas your business is weak in supporting, and know exactly what your staff want and need.

Your business is already ‘doing’ workplace wellbeing – and that includes doing nothing. Taking control of wellbeing in your workplace and building a formal strategy and programme, even if it’s on a shoestring budget, isn’t just a nice-to-have for large corporates – it’s essential for every business.