To mark National Work Life Week, we’ve been looking at the good, the bad, and the unhelpful in workplace wellbeing initiatives. Businesses like to claim they’ve got wellbeing covered. Are they right, or just hoping to convince their people and tempt recruits? Are wellbeing apps and perks effective or just a quick-fix alternative to meaningful long-term strategies?

Poor health costs the UK economy an estimated £138 billion per year, according to research by health insurer Vitality.  In the US, depression alone is estimated to cause 200 million lost workdays each year, at a cost of $17 billion to $44 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Employers invest in a range of workplace wellbeing initiatives, schemes, perks, and apps, with uncertain levels of success. In 2022, large businesses were spending an average of $11 million per year on corporate wellbeing. By 2026, the global workplace wellbeing market is set to reach $94.6 billion – up from $61.2 billion in 2021.

What are the biggest challenges to wellbeing?

The biggest challenges to workplace wellbeing include disengagement, stress, and poor company culture. Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report found that 77% of the international workforce are not engaged at work. In looking at why this might be, we identified four causes in particular that contribute to fatigue and burnout:

1. Doing more with less: The 2007 global financial crisis plunged whole sectors of the economy into difficulty and uncertainty. The impact of this led to longer hours for some and redundancies for others. The mantra of ‘doing more with less’ came to dominate company culture. This way of operating lingers on. KPIs are king.
2. Lack of workplace humanity: An aggressive interpretation of efficiency can fail to get the best from people. By ignoring ‘softer’ human aspects of work – such as personal fulfilment and meaningful collaboration – managers risk alienating people, sidelining satisfaction and provoking disinterest, consequences that are notoriously inefficient.
3. The rise of tech: Smartphones, laptops and similar devices chip away at personal human contact. We are social animals. Speedy, functional interaction compromises the meaningful personal connections we depend on for our mental health. Without them, we are more disconnected from others, we are more isolated.
4. Lack of employee autonomy: Process-heavy, tech-focused workplaces adopt practices that can be alienating such as surveillance spyware that monitors keystrokes, or an excessive number of apps including some that require hourly updates. This approach to work squeezes out breathing space, critical thinking, and a nourishing sense of autonomy.

More detail on these four causes can be found in our Complete guide to wellbeing.

Recognising the impact of stress

A little workplace stress is not necessarily a bad thing, too much however can quickly have an impact on wellbeing. Managing excessive stress doesn’t mean accepting it as a fact of working life and expecting people to cope.

Nor should stress be buried by labelling it as something else. For example, resilience training will be ineffective if the causes of stress persist long after the training is finished.

For working parents, high levels of stress can push them into bringing work home with them, psychologically if not literally, which can lead to a negative impact on family life.

In recent years, demand for flexible hours and hybrid working has been driven in part by factors such as childcare costs. However, the rise in hybrid has had an impact on company culture, leading to a growing expectation on people to return to the office. This in turn has sparked new concerns about work-life balance.

Does workplace wellbeing work?

Protecting work-life balance is the focus of National Work Life Week. Led by Working Families, a charity for working parents and carers, the annual campaign aims to “remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace.”

A survey commissioned by Working Families found that nearly half (46%) of parents say they struggle to maintain clear boundaries between their jobs and home life, and almost a third (31%) have requested flexible working arrangements to manage childcare.

In National Work Life Week, businesses are encouraged to showcase their policies that protect wellbeing and work-life balance. So which wellbeing practices should they be showing off? Not many, says Oxford University researcher Dr William Fleming.

Failures in workplace wellbeing

Fleming analysed survey data from more than 46,000 employees in 233 organisations who had signed up to typical wellbeing initiatives such as resilience training, mindfulness, and wellbeing apps.

While activities such as exercise, mindfulness, and yoga are valuable in their own right, this doesn’t mean they can automatically be regarded as long-term wellbeing solutions. Putting a tree in the office lobby isn’t getting back to nature.

Examining approximately 90 wellbeing initiatives, Fleming noted that “I find little evidence in support of any benefits from these interventions with even some small indication of harm that would confirm fears from critics.”

The only thing that did seem to make a difference was voluntary work. Why should this be so? Our own research throws a little light on this, as we shall see in a moment.

Effective wellbeing isn’t about finding more apps and perks, it begins with less disengagement, stress, and fatigue. This can’t simply be an HR initiative. It must be part of a long-term strategy adopted across the company, from the board to new hires. Such a strategy would demand a rethink in the way things are done, replacing problematic company culture with something more constructive for employees and their employer.

What is effective workplace wellbeing?

A positive workplace culture capable of successfully reducing disengagement and stress is a long-term investment in the health of both the business and its people. What should such a culture look like?

In assessing this question, we found that a range of papers and books advocated a similar set of overlapping values, in particular trust, respect, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging. These papers and books included:

Fleming’s recent research chimed with what we were already beginning to find. Why is voluntary work beneficial? Because a meaningful connection with others is a human trait that taps into our ancient need for belonging. To feel accepted is a rewarding experience, particularly when coupled with an altruistic sense of giving.

A culture of team engagement

Whether you’re giving your time in a voluntary role, or simply giving respect and courtesy to other people, there is value in doing so – benefitting both you and those around you. As a cornerstone of a new approach to wellbeing, this sense of connecting with other people leads to a better way of working.

Rather than dismissing the causes of disengagement and stress, and papering over the cracks, this new approach accepts the universal need to be human at work. A social culture that encourages trust, respect, safety, and belonging brings people together, encourages collaboration, and reduces divisive factors such as threats to personal autonomy.

For us at Working Voices, this way of working is social wellbeing, which leads to stronger team engagement and higher productivity.

Social wellbeing, a strategy that encourages a new approach to culture, can be developed by any organisation struggling with the effects of fatigue and stress. Our team engagement curriculum explains how to get started.

Since 2010, the annual National Work Life Week campaign has aimed to get both employers and employees talking about wellbeing at work. For some, social wellbeing might be a good place to start.