Wellbeing

at Work, a Practical
Guide

Gemma Dale; Tim Scott

 

GEMMA DALE, TIM SCOTT

WELLBEING AT WORK,
A PRACTICAL GUIDE

2
Wellbeing at Work, a Practical Guide
1st edition
© 2019 Gemma Dale, Tim Scott & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-3059-5

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Contents

CONTENTS
1 What is wellbeing? 6

2 Wellbeing at Work 8

3 Wellbeing Interventions 10

4 Stress and Mental Health at Work 12

5 Wellbeing in your workplace – where are you now? 15

5.1 Existing Data 16
5.2 Seeking New Perspectives 17

6 Senior Leaders – buy in and business case 18

7 Developing Strategy 20

8 Introducing Wellbeing 21
8.1 Operational Plan 21
8.2 5 Ways to Wellbeing 23

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Contents

8.3 Work Life Balance 24

8.4 Managers 26
8.5 The Working Environment 27
8.6 Promoting Wellbeing 28
8.7 Champions 30

9 Ten Tips for Wellbeing at Work 32

10 Barriers to Wellbeing at Work 34

11 Measurement 36

Conclusions 38

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE What is wellbeing?

1 WHAT IS WELLBEING?
What exactly do we mean when we talk about ‘wellbeing’? It is a term that has many
definitions. As far back as the ancient Greek philosophers, there have been attempts to
define human wellbeing and how it can be achieved.

Historically, two approaches to wellbeing emerged. The first was the ‘hedonic’ tradition
focusing on happiness and overall satisfaction with life. The second approach is the
‘eudaimonic’ tradition which in contrast focuses upon positive psychological functioning
and human development.

Other ideas about wellbeing encompass a person’s quality of life, ‘flourishing’– a term
strongly associated with the positive psychology movement – and other concepts such as
work-life balance, thriving, living your best life or, simply, happiness. For others, wellbeing
is about the absence of ill-health or disease. We can also think of wellbeing through various
lenses; physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, social wellbeing, nutritional wellbeing – even
financial wellbeing.

Professor Sir Cary Cooper, a leading expert in workplace health and wellbeing, suggests
one potential definition of wellbeing as “life satisfaction based on an individual’s perception
of their health, happiness and sense of purpose”. Another is proposed by the World Health
Organisation, who define wellbeing as “where each individual realises their own potential,
can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to
make a contribution to their community”. On close inspection these two definitions are quite
different. Professor Cooper’s definition is quite personal – and will inevitably be subjective.
The WHO definition is broader and includes other concepts that are also hard to define
such as ‘normal stressors’ and ‘potential’.

The term ‘wellbeing’ becomes even more complicated when it is conflated with other
terminology. One such example is how the terms ‘wellbeing’ and ‘mental health’ are often
(unhelpfully) used interchangeably and in the workplace, we also associate wellbeing with
stress. Stress at work is defined by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive as “the adverse
reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed upon them
at work”. They identify several factors that have an impact upon work-related stress levels
including demands, control, managerial support, change and the role being undertaken.
But stress and wellbeing are different – although they can of course be linked.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE What is wellbeing?

As we can already see, when we talk about wellbeing, we can mean different things: one
person’s idea of wellbeing will not necessarily be the same as another’s. Despite the many
different ideas about what wellbeing is, a settled definition of the term still eludes us - and
so does an agreed way of measuring it. What we can see is that wellbeing is not one single
thing, it is a mix of subjective and contextual factors which are different for each individual.
These different aspects of wellbeing are also interconnected.

From an organisational perspective, this lack of agreed definition and the subjectivity of
the term means that the organisation must agree a shared definition and understanding of
what it means for them at the outset of any wellbeing activity.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Wellbeing at Work

2 WELLBEING AT WORK
The importance of employee health and well-being has become more widely recognised in
the UK over the past decade. The country’s largest people management body, the Chartered
Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), published a Health and Wellbeing at Work
2019 Survey which identified three main benefits of employers increasing their focus on
employee wellbeing:

• better employee morale and engagement

• a healthier and more inclusive culture
• lower sickness absence

Work can have a positive effect on our wellbeing – and a negative one too. Equally, the
absence of work (e.g. unemployment) can be harmful for our wellbeing too. This is known
as the ‘harm / benefit paradox’. In ancient Greece, Galen wrote that employment is “nature’s
physician, essential to human happiness”. But the modern workplace is also full of potential
hazards when it comes to health, safety and wellbeing. This varies from the physical dangers
of some types of work through to its organisation and the culture of individual workplaces.

According to the CIPD, wellbeing at work is defined as a “healthy workplace that helps people
to flourish and reach their potential.”

Many organisations are launching wellbeing initiatives and activities for their staff. Over the
last few years the idea of wellbeing has continued to climb up the organisational agenda.
In practice, wellbeing at work covers a wide range of activities from fitness classes and
mindfulness, education, training and mental health interventions. Some of these practices
will be strategic, others less so.

It isn’t surprising to see organisations taking an interest in the wellbeing of their employees;
there are studies that suggest improving employee wellbeing is associated with more sustained
levels of engagement and performance, specifically in relation to improving cognitive
abilities, improving attitudes to work (including the propensity to be collaborative) and
improving general health. It is however generally accepted that whilst we have a very robust
understanding, based on extensive research, of the causes of stress in the workplace, more
research is required into wellbeing in the workplace, particularly in relation to the long-term
efficacy of workplace wellbeing programmes.

Organisations that invest in wellbeing programmes do report a range of benefits including

reduced sickness absence, enhanced engagement and morale, reduced levels of work-related
stress, enhanced employer brand, improved retention and improved productivity. There are

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Wellbeing at Work

multiple factors that can influence workplace wellbeing, either positively or negatively. These
can be divided into situational factors (those relating to the job or organisation), or factors
that relate to the individual themselves (such as their overall health or personal attitude).
The situational factors include the content of the job itself, workload, working hours, work
life balance, control, available support and resources and the organisational culture. Also
influential to wellbeing at work is the idea of ‘emotional labour’. This is the extent to which
employees are required to manage their own emotion in the workplace, perhaps in response
to or in the face of the emotions of others. Think of a customer service representative who
deals with complaints, or a nurse who has to support distressed patients: these jobs have an
emotional impact on the individuals who undertake them, and thus they will also impact
their overall wellbeing and levels of work-related stress.

We do have an understanding of some wellbeing interventions that have positive impacts

in the workplace. Several analyses have shown that there is good evidence to suggest that
activities including cognitive behavioural therapies, relaxation techniques and general health
promotion are effective in reducing stress and promoting wellbeing – success, however, is
influenced by employee participation as well as the process of implementation. In later
chapters we will consider how to influence participation and implement wellbeing effectively.

An effective workplace wellbeing strategy will be holistic and will consider the various
aspects of wellbeing, with supporting activities and events supporting overall goals and
aims. Effective wellbeing strategies will also align with other people-focused activities such
as diversity and inclusion, employee experience, internal communication and employee
engagement. Where appropriate, they will also align to broader organisation goals such as
sustainability, productivity and customer experience.

It is also essential for organisations to tailor wellbeing initiatives to the specific workplace,
industry and role types, as well as their own unique needs and challenges, as opposed to
the slavish adoption of so-called ‘best practices’.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Wellbeing Interventions

3 WELLBEING INTERVENTIONS
According to Arnold and Randall, who wrote about organisational psychology, there are
three types of wellbeing intervention undertaken by organisations:

• primary interventions which aim to tackle organisation-wide issues including

culture and organisational design
• secondary interventions that operate at the individual level helping employees
to cope work related stressors
• tertiary interventions such as occupational health or counselling that help to
support employees who are already suffering from stress-related conditions

Primary interventions aim to prevent work-related stress or wellbeing issues from arising;
they address problems at source and place the responsibility for wellbeing on the organisation
and its leaders. Primary interventions can be strategic, systemic, structural and involve a
business making decisions with wellbeing in mind. They are also the most complex and
require longer term commitment.

Both secondary and tertiary initiatives principally address the symptoms of wellbeing and
focus on and place the responsibility for wellbeing on the individual employee. Research
suggests that primary interventions are more effective than secondary and secondary are
more effective than tertiary.

Many organisational wellbeing programmes, opportunities and interventions operate in

the secondary and tertiary space. It has become increasingly common to see criticisms of
organisations for such an approach, particularly when they co-exist with organisational culture,
leadership behaviour or working practices that are detrimental to employee wellbeing. For
example, resilience training has become popular in recent years. Resilience training helps
employees to build their personal resilience rather than change systemic or structural issues
that would support better health. Some argue that this is unfairly requiring the individual
to cope better with poor organisational cultures.

Despite these criticisms, there are benefits to secondary and tertiary wellbeing interventions.
Activity in these areas can support culture change, give permission to employees to engage
and create conversations. They can provide people with valuable skills and information, and
nudge them to work with wellbeing in mind.

It is suggested that organisations need to undertake an integrated approach to wellbeing,

with wellbeing centred at the heart of any people strategy. Wellbeing experts Robertson
Cooper highlight that whilst wellbeing initiatives have seen an increase in investment in
recent years, initiatives are too often isolated from other organisational strategies.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Wellbeing Interventions

However, to be truly effective, a wellbeing strategy needs to include all three types of
interventions. This is where real change will be felt because together, they address  both
the source of any negative impact on wellbeing as well as the consequences. They have a
complimentary effect – all three interventions working together is the optimal position for
an organisation to seek. 

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Stress and Mental Health at Work

4 STRESS AND MENTAL

HEALTH AT WORK
Stress and mental health is a significant cause of absence from work. In the UK, it is the
primary reason that employees take sickness absence. 15.4m working days were lost to
work related stress, depression and anxiety in 2017/18 – this is 57% of all working days
lost due to ill-health.

Even though mental health-related absence is high, it is likely that in reality there is even
more absence than is typically recorded, as some employees, concerned about stigma, will
misreport the reasons for their absence.

Some mental health absence will be related to the workplace, and some will not. Depending
on the nature of the condition, some mental health difficulties may be short term and others
may be life-long. Some conditions will legally be considered to be a disability, whilst others
will not be. This is an area for specialist advice.

When it comes to the main causes of stress at work, workload and managers come in
at numbers one and two respectively. Impacts on work-related wellbeing can broadly be
caused by the specific profession itself (each job having its own unique stress footprint), the
organisation (and its specific culture), individual managers and the amount of work. The
UK Health and Safety Executive have published standards that cover the primary sources
of stress at work. These are:

• work demands - workloads and work patterns

• control - how much say someone has over the way that they work
• support - from line managers and colleagues
• relationships - including dealing with inappropriate behaviour and addressing
conflict
• role - whether people understand their role and the nature of the work itself
• change - how organisational change is managed and communicated

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Stress and Mental Health at Work

Mental health is a complex subject and will require an organisation to make multiple
interventions to improve the health of employees. Some industries and roles will have job
specific issues that need to be addressed in any intervention strategy. Here are some generic
areas that should be considered by all employers:

• Training people managers. As we will see elsewhere in this book, this is a

recommendation of general wellbeing programmes. However, specific information
and awareness for managers about mental health, its symptoms and causes,
will be beneficial – but according to the CIPD, less than half of organisations
provide this. Managers do not need to become experts, but they should be able
to spot the signs of potential mental ill-health, be comfortable with approaching
someone to begin a conversation or signposting sources of support and engage
with specialised services when necessary.
• Break down stigma. By talking about mental health in the workplace,
organisations can help to normalise the conversation and create permission for
employees to ask for help when they need it. This can be done by including
information about mental health through your wellbeing activities, supporting
national and international mental health awareness days and providing specific
training. In the UK, one popular awareness day is ‘Time to Talk’ which aims to
encourage people to have conversations about mental health.
• Provide sources of specialist support wherever possible, ideally through the
provision of counselling or an Employee Assistance Programme. Ensure that
these are well-communicated, allow self-referral and ideally provide the option of
face-to-face or telephone-based support.
• Early intervention and support. Some organisations don’t begin support or
occupational health services until an employee become defined as ‘long-term
sick’. With mental health ill-health or mental health-related absence, early
intervention is key. Early referrals to support services can help an employee stay
at work or, when they are away from work, support an effective and early return.
Ensure that internal HR policies and processes reflect this, and managers are
aware of the benefits of such early action.
• Promote flexible working opportunities. These can help employees to reduce the
stress of commuting, support improved work-life balance and enable people to
more easily control their working life and day.
• Mental Health Champions. Later in this book we will look at the potential
role of a Wellbeing Champion. Training mental health champions, who have
undertaken specialised training in mental health, is another option that will
support employees and help to break down stigma. The role of the mental health
champion is not to provide advice but to signpost, listen and support.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Stress and Mental Health at Work

Of course, all of these interventions, whilst potentially helpful, are secondary and tertiary.
In order to take a more strategic approach, it is necessary to understand the specific causes
of work-related stress or mental health-related absence in each particular organisation and
for each particular role type within it.

This can allow the organisation to take more strategic steps to tackle the causes of mental
ill-health, where they relate to work or the working environment.

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 WELLBEING IN YOUR WORKPLACE –
WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

5 WELLBEING IN YOUR
WORKPLACE – WHERE
ARE YOU NOW?
Before beginning to formulate a strategy or commencing any programme of wellbeing
activities, it is a good idea to understand where you are now: what sources of data you
have, people’s perceptions of wellbeing within your organisation and the current health and
wellbeing of your employees. Think of it as taking a temperature check.

Some of this data that you need may already be in existence. Depending on your resources,
you may also wish to seek out new information: this should in due course support your
business case and help to gain the necessary buy-in from stakeholders. Once you understand
your current situation and in turn formulate where you want to be in the future, the gap
between the two will support the development of your operational plan.

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 WELLBEING IN YOUR WORKPLACE –
WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

5.1 EXISTING DATA

Absence data does not tell you definitively how well your workforce is, but it is a useful
indicator. Wellbeing interventions can also be aligned to specific workplace issues that can
be identified from absence data. For example, if you have a high degree of musculoskeletal
absence, you can support the workforce by training them in proactive back care, rather than
tackling the issue on an individual (and reactive) basis when a problem arises.

So your absence data is a good place to start, and will help to underpin the business case
for wellbeing. Consider:

• What are your overall absence rates in terms of percentages and working days lost?
• What are the most common reasons for absence in your organisation?
• What is the balance between long term and short term absence?
• What is the overall picture in relation to mental health absence?
• What are the trends around absence that can show you where to place most
attention?
• Are there any particular areas for concern, for example specific teams or
departments, where mental health-related absence is higher than others? Why
might this be the case?
• How many of your staff have been referred to occupational health?
• What is the actual cost of absence within your organisation, both direct and
indirect?

Other potential sources of useful data that can complement the picture provided by absence
data include:

• Employee survey feedback. Check if the survey includes any questions about
workload, stress or health. Check too any open form questions included in the
survey. Often these ask people to comment on what they would like to change
about an organisation: this may provide useful information and insight.
• Employee turnover (the number of people leaving your organisation). Why are
people leaving the organisation? Are any of these related to wellbeing issues?
• Exit interviews. In addition to the top line stated reasons for leaving, exit
interview information, especially verbatim comments, can provide insight into
issues related to wellbeing at work.

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 WELLBEING IN YOUR WORKPLACE –
WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

5.2 SEEKING NEW PERSPECTIVES

The above data will help you to begin to build a picture of wellbeing within your organisation,
but for completeness you may also wish to include seeking out new perspectives.

Options include:

• A wellbeing survey or audit. There are many organisations that will help you to
build a detailed wellbeing audit. These can be expensive but will typically give
you deep insight including organisational ‘hot spots’ or areas of concern, and can
also help you to tailor your interventions to the specific findings.
• Conduct your own survey. There are various free or inexpensive survey tools
available online that will enable you to ask a small number of focused questions
to your employees about their wellbeing. Questions could include asking
employees to rate their overall wellbeing on a scale of 1-10, asking people to
comment on whether they ever feel stressed at work, if they are able to get their
work done in their normal working hours, if they ever come to work when
they are unwell, if they regularly work (or feel that they have to) outside of
working hours, do they check emails on holiday or at the weekend, or whether
they can talk to their manager about their health and wellbeing. You can
further choose to include an open form question about what would help people
to improve their wellbeing.
• Run focus groups. Seek volunteers from a range of role types and teams and
get them together to discuss wellbeing. Ensure that participants are aware that
the output will be shared but comments will not be attributed to any single
individual. Ask them some of the questions described above. Get the group
thinking about how to improve wellbeing in the workplace, and for ideas for
events and activities.
• Talk to people managers. Managers will have unique insight that may not be
available to HR professionals or more senior leaders. Consider asking them if
they have noticed changes to the wellbeing of their team or peers. Have they
noticed signs of presenteeism (people attending work whilst unwell)? Have they
noticed employees working whilst on holiday? What are their experiences of
wellbeing at your organisation?

Consider these various sources of feedback together. What are they telling you about the
current health and wellbeing of the people that work for you?

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Senior Leaders – buy in and business case

6 SENIOR LEADERS – BUY IN

AND BUSINESS CASE
Leaders have a number of critical functions when it comes to the development of organisation
wellbeing. Senior leaders cast a ‘shadow’ over their organisation whether they intend to or not.
Employees will be influenced by the behaviour of their leaders, whether this is consciously
or unconsciously. Who is appointed a leader and how that leader behaves every day, sends
a signal about what amounts to success in any particular organisation. There is real power
therefore in engaging senior leaders with wellbeing. If they are seen to embrace wellbeing
this will encourage employees and other managers throughout the organisational hierarchy.

Wherever possible leaders should:

• Role model good behaviour

• Attend wellbeing events to show support
• Talk to their own teams about their wellbeing

Inevitably, this will be easier to achieve in some organisations (and with some leaders)
than others. We recommend making a personal request of senior leaders to get involved.
Depending on your organisation, this could include attending an event, launching the
programme, writing a blog post or sending an ‘all staff’ email encouraging people to take
part. To make real lasting impact, this message needs to be repeated often and in a variety of
ways – but some early and express senior support will go a long way to providing employees
with permission to engage.

The other fundamental role of senior leadership is to approve the overall wellbeing approach.
Here, senior leaders need to:

• Approve the overall aims and strategy for wellbeing

• Give budget approval, where relevant
• Allocate resources to the project

These areas should be agreed in advance of beginning any wellbeing programme. Every
organisation will differ in terms of how these things are managed and approved. Some will
require presentations or papers submitted to committees. However your own particular
workplace approaches strategic decision making, it is likely you will have to put together

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Senior Leaders – buy in and business case

some sort of written document for discussion. In terms of the overall business case, consider
including the following:

• A top line problem statement. Outline the issue you are seeking to solve. For
example – increasing employee engagement, reducing absence, etc. This should
clearly articulate to the senior team why they should take an interest.
• Include your analysis of where you are now in terms of wellbeing in your
particular organisation, as discussed in our earlier chapter.
• Relevant statistics. The UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
found in 2018 that employers with a wellbeing programme had 44% better
employee morale and engagement and 31% lower sickness absence rate. As
discussed in the earlier chapter, you will also be able to produce your own
organisational data.
• A summary of your proposed overall aims and objectives (we will talk about
developing these in a later chapter) including timescales for delivery and process
for reviewing the proposed activity.
• Recommendations as to an overall organisation approach for wellbeing, across all
three intervention types.
• Set out aims and objectives and identify potential return on investment, as well
as any other benefits you envisage the programme will deliver.
• A detailed analysis of necessary resources, including a request for budget
approval if necessary.
• Where required, include detail of the supporting operational / activity plan.

Before presenting your business case, take time to reflect on the potential perspectives of
your senior leaders. What might they be concerned about in respect of launching a wellbeing
programme? Perhaps they will be worried about costs or the impact of people taking time
out to engage with activities. What are their potential objections to focusing on wellbeing?
Are they likely to see it as a current priority for the organisation? What questions might
they have? Work these through in advance and have an answer prepared, with relevant facts
and statistics where available.

And if they agree…. don’t forget to ask them to get involved!

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Developing Strategy

7 DEVELOPING STRATEGY
This is a key part to any approach to wellbeing. Far too often, organisations begin wellbeing
programmes by putting together a plan of activities and events. This sort of planning should
take place much further into the process and should form part of an operational delivery
plan. The strategy and aims and objectives must come first – as well as the definition of
what wellbeing means to the specific organisation.

Good strategies start with why. What are you trying to achieve and why are you trying to
achieve it? Wellbeing strategies must also be aligned to the organisation’s overall broader
vision, missions and strategy. Once defined, the strategy should lead to the development of
an operational plan that details activities, responsibilities and measurement. Measurement
should also form part of the wellbeing strategy.

These are the steps required to develop a wellbeing strategy:

1. Define what the organisation means by wellbeing, with reference to its own
specific context and challenges. This may take some time but it is a key part of
the process – consider a range of views.
2. Decide who will have ultimate ownership for wellbeing within the organisation.
A wellbeing strategy may stand alone, or it may be part of a wider people or
business strategy. There is no best practice here – this should be about what fits
the organisations specific purpose and structure.
3. Determine the organisation’s vision for wellbeing. Why are you doing this and
what do you want to achieve?
4. Understand where you are now through accessing existing data or undertaking a
health and wellbeing tailored audit or survey.
5. Set some key aims and objectives for your wellbeing programme, and how
success can be measured. Around four to five objectives should suffice initially.
6. Put together an operational plan of interventions and activities that will support
the vision, aims and objectives, and set out clear responsibilities for delivery of
the elements of this plan.
7. Identify the resources and budget required to deliver the plan.
8. Get approval from senior leadership for the strategy, plan and necessary
resources.
9. Develop a communications strategy for the wellbeing programme.
10. Set a review point to track the success of the programme.

And then – launch!

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

8 INTRODUCING WELLBEING
This section will focus on how wellbeing at work can be introduced or enhanced, from
developing strategy to operational activities that will support implementation and awareness.

8.1 OPERATIONAL PLAN

Once a strategy and overall approach is agreed, the next step is to put together the activities
that will support the strategy, along with assigning responsibility for those tasks.

What should an organisation include in its operational plan to enhance wellbeing? The
answer to this is entirely based on the context of the organisation, the specific challenges
the wellbeing programme is aiming to address, the role types within the organisation and
employee feedback. It’s important to recognise that an operational plan cannot, and should
not, attempt to address every single aspect of wellness or offer every available intervention or
activity. Taking three to five key areas and focusing on doing them well is a good starting point.

Here are a few ideas to get you started (and align with the 5 Ways to Wellbeing which we
will be discussing in a forthcoming section):

1. Physical activity. Encourage your employees to get active. Options include

on-site exercise classes, walking meetings, steps challenge or a running group.
To support employees undertaking exercise, make sure that they have suitable
facilities for washing and changing, provide a range of low and high impact
options (the latter can help to include people who aren’t confident exercisers)
and ensure there is suitable, secure bike storage to encourage cycling to work.
2. Nutrition. Lots of organisations offer their employees free fruit. Sometimes
this is criticised as a ‘quick fix’ cliché. However, there is nothing wrong with
supporting your employees in building good habits around food and nutrition.
If you offer food on your premises make sure that there are a range of healthy
options. If your meetings often include biscuits or cakes, consider providing a
healthy alternative too. And if you have the budget – offer some free fruit!
3. Mediation, mindfulness and relaxation. Offer your employees the opportunity
to take time to relax, be mindful or meditate. These sessions can be run at
lunchtimes or even in the morning before work.
4. Workshops on wellbeing. Offering training on wellbeing issues can help
employees to tackle a range of issues from building their resilience, learning
about specific aspects of wellbeing or improving their work life balance. Consider
inviting in speakers, holding seminars or short training sessions on any of the
topics discussed here.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

5. Social activity. Consider how you can bring together your employees on an
informal basis. This could include team lunches, a coffee morning or social
activity. Social activities should always be voluntary. Remember to consider
that some employees may have limitations about attending events outside
of working hours (perhaps due to caring responsibilities) or where alcohol is
served. Make sure to offer a range of options to support staff in connecting
and building relationships.
6. Mental health awareness (including work-related stress). As we have already
discussed, mental health is a significant cause of absence for almost all
employers. It also brings with it concerns about stigma. Ensure that employees
are aware of the signs of mental ill-health, know how to access support, and, if
you can, arrange training or workshops to help raise awareness and normalise
the conversation around mental health. Such training will also break down the
barriers, reduce stigma and help employees to support their colleagues.
7. Health checks. Providing health checks to your employees can be a great way to
engage them in their own health and wellbeing. Many wellbeing providers can
undertake a range of health checks that vary from a full health screening to a
check for just one condition, such as a healthy heart or diabetes check.
8. Charity or community. Could your organisation support a local charity or
community group? Could you provide employees with the opportunity to
undertake volunteer activity during working time? Wherever possible encourage
teams to undertake activity together rather than supporting staff to pursue
individual interests as that will bring the benefit of building social connections
and relationships in the workplace.
9. Create an employee wellbeing budget. If your budget permits, consider allocating
an amount of it that employees can ask for in order to run their own wellbeing
event during the year. You can set some rules around this in terms of how often
people can ask and how much for. This will empower staff and support your
operational champions. Make sure that this budget isn’t too complex to access,
or it will put people off engaging.
10. Create a mixture of opportunities so that there is something for everyone –
whatever their level of interest, fitness or knowledge.

There are plenty of other options. We know of organisations that have wellbeing choirs,
run book clubs, have craft and hobby groups, dog walking meet-ups, offer flexible working
options, provide enhanced holiday or personal leave, put on financial wellbeing workshops
and products, offer counselling, write wellbeing blogs, have ‘no meeting’ days and have
rules around email use.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

Check the take up of any events you do run – and don’t be afraid to stop running something
if the interest isn’t there.

Whatever activities you decide to introduce, in order to increase buy-in and reduce
cynicism, consider sharing your operational plan for feedback with your organisation’s
relevant stakeholders such as managers, trade unions, employee networks and groups or
occupational health staff.

8.2 5 WAYS TO WELLBEING

In 2008, the New Economics Foundation published their research into wellbeing. They
identified wellbeing as having two primary elements: feeling good and functioning well.
They broadly concluded that there are a wide range of factors that determine an individual’s
level of personal wellbeing but that the things that we do and the way that we think can
have a significant impact on us. They determined that there are five ways to wellbeing – five
separate areas of focus that can support an individual’s sense of personal wellbeing. They
are not specific to workplace wellbeing but focus on individuals. These are connecting with
others, being active, taking notice, keep learning and giving. This is what they found:

Connecting
Human beings are social creatures. Feeling close to and valued by other people is a fundamental
human need and one that contributes to functioning well in the world. Connecting with
family, friends, colleagues and the local community brings wellbeing benefits. Taking time
to build and nurture these connections can boost wellbeing.

Being active
It is understood by most people that activity is good for both physical and mental health.
Activity also has the benefit of connecting people with others. Physical activity does not
necessarily need to be particularly intense to deliver wellbeing benefits – walking, for example,
has many health benefits. Building in activity on a regular basis is key for overall wellbeing.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

Taking notice
Taking notice is about being aware of the world and connecting with feelings. It’s also
about the purpose of reflecting on experiences, savouring the moment, being mindful and
heightening awareness.

Keep learning
The activity of learning has been correlated with positive effects on wellbeing, reports of life
satisfaction, optimism and efficacy. Studies indicate that participation in lifelong learning can
have a positive impact on an individual’s wellbeing and resilience levels. The continuation of
learning through life can enhance self-esteem, encouraging social interaction and undertaking
a more active life. The satisfaction of achieving a goal can also boost individual wellbeing.

Giving
Giving doesn’t necessarily mean giving gifts or money. It’s also about doing something nice
for another person or expressing gratitude and thanks. It can also mean contributing to a
community. Evidence suggests that notions of reciprocity and ‘giving back’ to others promote
wellbeing for people of all ages. Feelings of happiness and life satisfaction have also been
strongly associated with active participation in social and community life.

Many organisations have used the 5 ways to wellbeing as a structure for their wellbeing
activities and programmes. The ‘ways’ can be a useful mechanism for communicating the
benefits of wellbeing to employees and activities can be aligned to each of the different
elements. The structure can also be used in training, especially line manager training and
communication. Each of the ways can also be simply brought into the working environment.

8.3 WORK LIFE BALANCE

Work-life balance (or Life-Work Balance as some prefer to refer to it) is another poorly
defined term. It is generally taken to mean the balance found by an individual between their
work responsibilities and non-work aspects of life such as family, home and hobbies. Some
criticise the term for suggesting that work and life are two separate elements as opposed to
part of a holistic self. For many people, work and life are fundamentally interconnected.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

However work-life balance is expressed, it is, just like wellbeing itself, a highly individual
concept, different for everyone.

In relation to wellbeing in the workplace, some people find it difficult to find an appropriate
balance. This has to some extent been worsened in recent years with the blurring of home /
life boundaries resulting from technology use. Whereas work once only took place in the
workplace, emails and other communication methods are now on our portable devices.
Many people now also work some of their time from their home.

For these reasons, supporting staff in achieving work-life balance should be a key part of
any wellbeing programme – and spotting the signs of an unhealthy balance is one part of
recommended line manager training.

Staff experiencing work-life balance issues may benefit from training or even one-to-one
coaching to support them in maintaining their wellbeing and reducing work-life conflict.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

8.4 MANAGERS
The role of the manager in enabling wellbeing cannot be overstated. Much of the day-to-day
responsibility for managing employees’ health and wellbeing falls to line managers. As we
have already seen, the manager can be a significant cause of stress and is the second most
attributed reason for staff taking time off work due to mental ill-health. Wellbeing expert
Professor Sir Cary Cooper has been known to say that organisations should have a sign
over the door that says, ‘Warning, your manager could be bad for your health’!

Managers have two distinct roles in relation to wellbeing in the workplace. The first is
managing ill-health and supporting employees who are unwell. The process for this will
vary from organisation to organisation but will typically include areas such as return-to-
work interviews, discussions about absence from work, supporting a return to work, making
reasonable adjustments and liaising with occupational health or medical professionals. In
many respects this is the more straightforward part of their responsibility as it is usually
governed by internal policies and procedures and supported by HR staff.

The second part of the management role is more varied and involves enabling wellbeing
in the workplace. This will again vary from organisation to organisation, but may include
encouraging employees to engage in wellbeing activity, tackling observed issues such as a
long hours culture or late-night emailing, acting as a role model and ensuring that their
own team work with wellbeing in mind.

In order to deliver both parts of their role successfully, managers will need to be trained.
Such training needs to include:

• awareness of internal processes and procedures and how to implement them

• a broad awareness of wellbeing and what supports and enhances it
• an awareness of the causes of work-related stress and specifically how the
manager can have an impact on this
• an awareness of the organisation’s approach to wellbeing, plus activities available
to them and their teams
• how to identify potential signs of ill-health and what to do about them
• work-related behaviour and team culture that might negatively impact on
wellbeing and what to do about it
• what good role modelling looks like
• what is expected of them in respect of wellbeing
• how to have wellbeing conversations

The wellbeing conversation is important – but does not have to be complicated. Managers
can ask a few straightforward questions to ‘check in’ with employees. These can be as simple
as “how are you?” and “Do you need any support?”. Such conversations can take place

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

during one-to-one meetings or indeed any conversation with their team. This shouldn’t be
something that is limited to an annual performance review but a regular event. Make this
part of your manager training.

Don’t forget that managers are employees too. They may have their own wellbeing challenges
and their job will also have its own pressures related to their specific responsibilities. Ideally,
manager training should include discussion about how they can enhance their own wellbeing too.

There is real power in the manager who discusses wellbeing and takes active steps to engage
and encourage their teams to take part. This alone can provide implicit permission and start
to shift culture. Employee engagement will be enhanced by a manager who is seen to care
genuinely about the health and wellbeing of their employees.

8.5 THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

The physical environment in which people undertake their work is an often overlooked
aspect of wellbeing, but is also very relevant. Neil Usher, a leading expert in workplace
design, has written extensively about the role of the physical workplace and its impact on
the wellbeing of employees. He argues that no workplace is neutral: it will be making a
contribution either for or against the wellbeing of employees working within it. It is capable
of boosting energy or sapping it. Environmental wellbeing is divided, according to Usher,
into two aspects: the physicality of the building (including architecture and design) and
amenities such as facilities and services. If we want employees to be well at work – or
indeed to flourish – a key element of supporting them is providing an environment that
supports and enables wellbeing.

Unfortunately, even the physical working environment isn’t immune to wellbeing fads. For
example, there has been a great deal written in recent years about the sedentary lifestyle that
many of us live, especially when we spend much of the day sitting at desks. This led to the
popularity in standing desks, but there is limited evidence for their efficacy – they would
also firmly fall into the secondary intervention space as (aiming to) address a symptom of
our working lives and not the root cause.

When workplaces are designed, are they expressly designed for wellbeing? In most cases,
probably not.

Consider workplaces you have personally experienced. Were they light (with daylight, not
artificial strip lighting)? Was there fresh air? Was the decoration inspirational, or was the
room filled with grey filing cabinets? Did the space include plants? Were there facilities

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

for decent food and a good cup of coffee? Was there easy access to fresh drinking water?
Could people wash and change somewhere clean and private if they needed to? Could they
open the windows or control the temperature? Was the furniture comfortable and of high
quality – or were the chairs old and broken? Could people choose where they sat? Did they
have adequate space? Was there somewhere people could take a break and / or a kitchen
in which to prepare food?

These are the factors that, according to Usher, influence everyday wellbeing.

On a practical level, some of these aspects of wellbeing may be difficult to change in many
organisations and buildings, certainly in the short term. This is not to say that changes
cannot be made for the better, especially when routine maintenance is being undertaken.

Review your physical workspaces and consider them from a wellbeing perspective. Engage with
your facilities or estates teams if possible. Ask people how they feel about their workspaces.
What simple changes could you make to improve environmental wellbeing – or reduce any
potential negative impacts on wellbeing of the current environment?

8.6 PROMOTING WELLBEING

Promoting your wellbeing offering effectively and regularly is key to its success. In the next
section we will talk about the valuable role that engaging your employees can play, especially
through developing a network of internal champions.

One option is to create an internal brand for your wellbeing programme. Some people
use the 5 Ways to Wellbeing for this, whereas others choose to develop their own based
on their agreed areas of focus. An internal brand will provide consistency of message and
visuals and join all the various strands of your wellbeing activity together.

Here are further ideas about promotion:

1. Share your why – and your plans. Tell your employees why you are focusing
on wellbeing. If something particular (such as employee survey results) has
prompted your work, then be express about that too (“you said x, so we are
doing y”). Share your plans for the year ahead so people know what to expect.
2. Be clear about when and how people can engage. For example, before attending
an event in working time, does someone need to check with their manager? Are
there a given number of hours a month or a year that you can give to staff to
focus on their wellbeing?

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

3. Use a variety of communication methods to share your messages. Many

organisations have multiple channels. These might include email, an intranet,
posters, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, face-to-face briefings or magazines. Make
sure that every possible channel is used.
4. Consider whether, in addition to the usual channels, you want to create a
wellbeing-specific communication channel. This could include a wellbeing blog,
newsletter, calendar, a dedicated online space or podcast.
5. If your wellbeing programme is new or being refreshed, consider a formal
internal launch. This could include an event where the people can find out
more about the strategy and plans. This is an opportunity to socialise the
internal brand and get people to sign up to activity. Get senior leaders there and
involved if you can to show their support.
6. Target people managers at an early stage. We have already discussed the
critical role of the people manager, so send some targeted communication
to them about why wellbeing matters, what they can expect and how they
can support their team. Cover off anything that has been decided in relation
to point 2 above.
7. Identify any ‘hard to reach’ groups within your organisation. For example,
do you have any remote workers or employees who won’t often be using a
PC or other digital communication? Do you have any employees who work
away from main office locations? Have a plan to ensure that communications
reach them too.
8. Don’t just rely on digital. Visual imagery such as posters, toilet door information
and postcard desk drops will help to spread the message and target those people
who don’t read intranet updates or all staff emails.
9. Communicate, communicate, communicate! It doesn’t matter how often you
think you have communicated your wellbeing programme, there will be people
who miss what you share. Aim to communicate on a regular basis.
10. Share successes. Every few months, have a look back at what you have been
doing. Share any employee feedback you have received and ask employees
for their stories about any changes they have made or activities they have
undertaken and share those too.

When communicating individual events and activities, always ensure to explain clearly the
link to your overall strategy and aims. This will help employees to understand why particular
elements of wellbeing are included in your programme design.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

8.7 CHAMPIONS
Wellbeing Champions are internal advocates who work with an organisation to help to embed
wellbeing and spread wellbeing messages. Usually a volunteer role, many organisations now
recognise the value of mobilising their own workforce to support and enable workplace wellbeing.

Each Champion programme will vary, but responsibilities can include:

• sharing wellbeing messages and awareness campaigns

• encouraging colleagues to get involved
• organising their own local activities
• supporting organisation-wide activities or events.

The role of a Champion can be ongoing or for a specific time period, such as one year.

Wellbeing Champions can help overcome barriers to engagement with wellbeing activities
and can also reduce any cynicism that may exist within other employees as the activities
will be employee rather than organisation-led.

Consider the following in order to successfully introduce a Wellbeing Champion programme:

• Provision of training – Champions should understand broad concepts around

wellbeing and in particular what influences it in the workplace.
• Provision of ongoing support – make sure that you engage regularly with the
Champion network and see what support they need.
• Further learning – Champions may also benefit from other learning
opportunities such as influencing skills (how to get wellbeing on the agenda
where they work), train the trainer-type courses (for Champions who want
to get more actively involved in sharing messages) or event organisation and
delivery. Mental Health awareness training can also be especially useful.
• Provide regular opportunities for the Champions to meet, share and learn from
each other in order to build the relationships and knowledge within the network.
• A clear role description is essential. Your Wellbeing Champions aren’t there to be
medical professionals or provide active support to people who are unwell. They
should, however, know how to signpost people to relevant services.
• Have a formal launch of your Wellbeing Champion programme. Explain the
purpose of the role and raise the profile of the individuals involved.
• Share the names of the Champions in an easy to access place (such as an
intranet) so people can contact them directly rather than going through a
manager or HR.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Introducing Wellbeing

• Provide them with a small budget wherever possible so that they can access to
run their own events and activities.
• Create useful resources for the Champions around all aspects of employee and
individual wellbeing.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Ten Tips for Wellbeing at Work

9 TEN TIPS FOR WELLBEING

AT WORK
Here are a few tips to support the introducing or improvement of wellbeing at work.

1. Ask people what they want – involve your employees in deciding the activities.
As each organisational context will vary, it will be helpful to understand what
employees would find beneficial to their wellbeing. Consider running a simple
survey or suggestion scheme for ideas, or running a series of short focus groups.
2. Offer a range of activities – don’t just offer one thing.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, wellbeing is a multi-dimensional construct.
There is no single ‘solution’ to wellbeing at work and therefore there is no single
intervention that will make a significant difference to employees. A wellbeing
programme should consider physical, psychological, nutritional and social wellbeing.
3. Include competitions and challenges.
These are simple and low cost ways to engage both teams and individuals. Examples
include steps challenges or hydration challenges. Check online for free templates
and information. Always ensure that participation is voluntary and no one feels
compelled to take part.
4. Align activity to national campaigns and events.
Many health organisations and charities have annual awareness days and weeks.
Examples include Diabetes UK, breast cancer, prostate cancer, mental health, carers
week or healthy heart month. Check online as many sites will have free calendars
showing a variety of these days and events. Many organisations will offer free materials
such as downloadable posters and information leaflets to support your efforts.
5. Talk about wellbeing in the workplace specifically.
Some wellbeing frameworks are generic and are not specific to the workplace – the
5 Ways to Wellbeing is one such example. However, it is also important to consider
not just general and individual wellbeing but workplace wellbeing specifically. How
healthy is your organisational culture? How healthy are individual teams?
6. Address teams, not just individuals.
Wellbeing activities often target individuals, but wellbeing can also be influenced
by the behaviours and habits within teams. For example, a team could develop
the habit of emailing each other late at night or it can become routine to have
meetings late into the evening. Consider introducing initiatives that can support
team wellbeing, such as training that can be delivered to teams on request, or team
challenges and activities.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Ten Tips for Wellbeing at Work

7. Share your aims and objectives with your employees.

Rather than simply beginning wellbeing activity, take the time to have a launch of
your plans. Explain to your employees why you are introducing or improving your
wellbeing activities, what they can expect to see in the future and how you will
engage with them to ensure that you are offering what they will find most beneficial.
If you choose to use a framework for wellbeing such as the 5 Ways, share this too.
8. Be Inclusive.
Always remember that some staff may find some wellbeing programmes difficult to
engage with. Wellbeing programmes that place emphasis on physical exercise may
exclude those with disabilities. For religious reasons some employees may fast at
certain times of the year. This can be overcome by careful consideration of when
events are taking place, taking feedback from employees and ensuring that there
are a variety of ways that people can engage with wellbeing rather than just one.
9. Tailor your activities to role types.
When it comes to wellbeing, one size does not fit all. For the knowledge worker,
support around achieving effective work-life balance might be welcomed. An
employee in a physically demanding role may benefit from a back care class. Work
to understand the needs not just of your employee group as a whole, but each
particular role type.
10. Include wellbeing ‘on demand’.
Some employees won’t feel comfortable attending wellbeing events or activities.
Others may only want to engage at the point they feel that they have a specific (and
possibly immediate) need. Make sure your wellbeing offering includes information
that can be accessed anywhere or any when. Consider whether you can create
on online space (perhaps on an internal intranet) so that you can provide useful
resources and signpost the available support or information.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Barriers to Wellbeing at Work

10 BARRIERS TO WELLBEING
AT WORK
Not everyone will want to get involved with wellbeing in the workplace, and participation
in any activity must always be voluntary. Employers should also take care to ensure that
there is no implied pressure to take part. However, there will be occasions where barriers
to participation exist and employers may wish to reflect on how these can be mitigated.

Time
Not having enough time is a common reason for not engaging in wellbeing activities.
Sometimes this will be entirely true, and at others there might be other reasons – including
some detailed below. In order to get over this barrier, management will need to expressly state
that it is acceptable for employees to take time out of their working day to attend activities.

Stigma
Many employees are concerned about the potential stigma of openly stating that they have
a mental health condition. According to Mind Charity, about a third of employees wouldn’t
want to tell their manager if they were suffering from a mental health issue. This can apply
to wellbeing activities too, especially those that relate to topics such as resilience. Some
employees may be concerned that engaging with wellbeing activities at work might indicate
that they can’t cope or the potential negative reputational impact of being seen to requiring
support. This barrier can be overcome with effective role modelling by senior leaders, either
through attending activities or talking about their own wellbeing.

Cynicism
Some employees will be cynical about wellbeing initiatives, especially if they believe the
organisation has an ulterior motive such as getting them be more productive! This can be a
particular outcome of wellbeing focused primarily on secondary and tertiary interventions
as this may lead employees to conclude their organisations are not serious about tackling
the causes of ill-health at work and are instead choosing to place the responsibility of
coping onto individual employees. This barrier can be (partially) overcome through primary
wellbeing interventions, but it is inevitable that some employees may always have a degree
or cynicism about the organisation’s efforts.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Barriers to Wellbeing at Work

Lack of awareness
All organisations have communication challenges. Some employees will argue that they have
too little information, others that they have too much. Wellbeing is no different to any
other organisation activity or programme; it needs regular and consistent communication
across a range of available channels in order to support awareness.

Lack of management support

As we have discussed previously, there is a key role for people managers throughout the
hierarchy in effective wellbeing implementation. Where this does not exist, barriers may occur.
Firstly, a lack of role models (especially at a senior level) talking about wellbeing, being seen
to (really) care about it, or even attending some of those activities for themselves will present
a barrier in engaging with services. A second barrier may arise in relation to the immediate
manager who has a specific role in encouraging their team to get involved, creating the
permission and providing the time. Where managers and leaders are aware of wellbeing and
their role in enabling it, this can make all the difference. Where it doesn’t happen, this will
have a negative impact on engagement levels.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Measurement

11 MEASUREMENT
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, only one in seven
companies that invest in employee wellbeing formally evaluate its impact.

Evaluating impact can help you to understand the return on your investment, gain valuable
employee perceptions and continually develop your wellbeing offering, and therefore is a
must-do for your wellbeing programme.

Build in a review point to reflect on both the strategy and operational plan. Ideally this
should be done at six months from launch for initial perspectives and then again after one
year. This is also a good point to check in with your employees and take some feedback
through a few short but focused questions.

Ideally, effectiveness of your wellbeing programme should be assessed on both an individual

and organisation level, and include a mix of both quantitative and qualitative factors. What
difference has the programme made to individual employees and what difference has it made
to the organisation or its outcomes?

Here are some areas that you may want to measure:

Individuals:

• Are your employees aware of the wellbeing programme?

• Have they engaged with it or attended any activities? If so, how valuable did
they find them?
• In relation to those individuals who have not participated in wellbeing activities,
what (if anything) has prevented them from doing so?
• Employee’s perceptions of their own wellbeing and in particular their levels of
perceived stress in the workplace.
• Ask for comments and direct feedback on the activities experienced.

Organisational:

• What overall percentage of employees have engaged with wellbeing activity? How
is this split across job types and departments?
• What has your total spend been on your wellbeing programme during the period
under review?

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Measurement

• How many managers have you trained? How has their (self-assessed) level of
confidence or competence changed as a result? (Note – you could ask managers
at the start of your programme how confident they feel on a scale of 1-10 in
dealing with wellbeing issues with their staff and then ask this question again
following interventions)
• Sickness absence data. Has absence reduced – or has any specific type of absence
reduced? Have there been any notable shifts in absence data, including trends
and patterns as well as reported reasons for absence?
• Referrals to occupational health, EAPs or counselling services.
• Has there been a change in employee engagement scores or other relevant
business metrics, such as staff turnover?

If you already run a regular employee survey, check what wellbeing-related questions you are
already including – and consider whether more would be useful. Possible questions (most
of which can be graded on a scale) include:

• To what extent do you feel that your manager cares about your wellbeing?
• Do you have wellbeing conversations with your manager?
• To what extent do you feel you could talk to your manager if you had a
wellbeing issue?
• To what extent do you feel stressed at work?
• Are you able to take breaks most days?
• To what extent do you feel you are able to achieve an effective work-life balance?
• To what extent do you feel that you are able to cope with your workload?

Your measurement period is also an opportunity to ask your employees what more might
they want to support their wellbeing at work. Remember, feedback should be a continuous
process, and not a one-off event.

When you have concluded your analysis be sure to share this with senior leaders and other
stakeholders, as well as provide a thank you to staff who have provided feedback with an
indication of what will happen next on the wider programme.

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WELLBEING AT WORK, A PRACTICAL GUIDE Conclusions

CONCLUSIONS
When it comes to addressing wellbeing at work, there is no silver bullet. There is no single
solution to supporting and engaging people or even tackling the more complex strategic
aspects of workplace wellbeing. Wellbeing is personal and contextual. What it means to
live and work well is different for each of us. There will be some employees who will never
choose to get involved with wellbeing in the workplace and that’s just fine.

An investment in workplace wellbeing may also take some time to deliver any positive
outcomes or lead to sustained and visible change within an organisation. It is also possible
that those managing workplace wellbeing programmes may identify cynicism or criticism.

Despite these challenges, improving workplace wellbeing is a laudable aim as well as the
right thing to do. We know that work can have a negative impact upon people’s wellbeing:
it is the role of all responsible employers to ensure that this is minimised and mitigated as
much as possible for the good of everyone that works for them.

Good luck!

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