All is well: How to promote wellness in the workplace

Happy and healthy employees mean a happy and healthy business. ‍Companies must actively support staff wellbeing at every level to benefit from a healthy workforce. This guide offers practical advice to help you shape a supportive, balanced work environment that prioritises wellness.

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Wellness in the workplace: Why it matters

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Companies must consider employee wellbeing as central to their HR policy. Employee health has been linked to higher productivity and better performance. Think about it: if you feel happy and healthy, you can focus more, produce better results, and bring your whole self to work.‍

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Unfortunately, however, in such a tumultuous time, the workforce has been suffering from poor wellbeing overall. 53% of employees have done their job in the last three months despite not feeling well. Meanwhile, over 25% responded that work has had a negative impact on their mental health.‍

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It’s not enough to simply want your employees to be healthy, no matter how good your intentions are! To make a real impact and improve the wellbeing of your staff, you need to draw up a robust plan to proactively seek feedback, support your employees in stressful situations, and provide the basis for improvement.‍

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How to build a wellbeing strategy that works

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To support wellness effectively, your strategy should address all aspects of employee health — mental, physical, and financial. Taking a full-picture view helps reduce absenteeism and presenteeism, and more effectively tackles workplace stress.

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Mental wellbeing‍

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Modern life can be stressful. The last thing your employees need is an engaging workplace that adds pressure [isnt it good if its engaging? Its sounding like a bad thing here?]. Supporting mental health helps create an environment where people feel safe, valued, and able to perform at their best.

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Start by identifying what might be causing stress at work. Look at workload, manager relationships, and if people feel they can disconnect at the end of the day. Think about external challenges too, such as long commutes or family responsibilities.

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Depending on your workplace’s particulars, some actions you can take to improve your employees’ mental wellbeing include:‍

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• Flexible and hybrid work
• Mental health days
• Volunteering days
• Bereavement leave
• Therapy or meditation sessions
• A subscription to a meditation app‍

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Physical wellbeing‍

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Physical wellbeing is central to an employee’s ability to perform, inside and outside work. Physically healthy employees take fewer sick days, can fully participate in the professional and social activities associated with work, and feel better prepared.‍

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There are many temptations that lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, such as junk food on every corner, expensive gym memberships, and long sedentary office hours. These factors can all contribute to poor physical health among your staff.

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Assume that all employees want to be physically healthier but lack the motivation or tools to improve. To address this, implement steps that support their health and well-being. For example:

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• Supply healthy snacks/lunches at the office
• Provide fitness classes or resources
• Host healthy cooking classes
• Start a step-counting challenge
• Offer discounted or subsidised gym memberships
• Purchase additional health insurance
• Encourage employees to cycle to work
• Introduce standing desks and walking meetings
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Financial wellbeing‍

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Financial wellness means feeling secure and in control of your money. People with good financial health can pay their bills, save regularly, and handle emergencies without stress.

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As an employer, you play a significant role in your team’s financial wellbeing since you’re their primary source of income. With 34% of UK adults feeling anxious, 29% stressed, and 10% hopeless about money, your support matters more than ever.

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The first step is paying fair, competitive salaries that keep up with inflation. However, financial wellness also depends on how people manage their money, not just how much they earn.

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Here are some ideas for supporting your workers’ financial wellbeing without raising their salaries:‍

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• Provide financial education courses
• Offer discounts and perks, especially when it comes to everyday purchases (for example, work clothes, coffee, or groceries)
• Supply free breakfast or lunch
• Give employees cashback schemes‍

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Further reading: How to improve financial wellbeing

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Steps to improve employee wellbeing

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In order to create an effective employee wellbeing strategy, you must consider the following steps:

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‍Evaluate your current situation

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Before setting goals, get a clear view of your starting point. Benchmark against similar organisations or review internal data. You could:

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• Compare your salary structure and perks with industry norms
• Run employee wellbeing surveys
• Add wellbeing questions to 1-to-1s

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This will give you honest insight into your team’s needs and pain points.

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Create goals and objectives for the wellbeing strategy

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Once you understand your position, set clear, specific goals. Vague ideas like “improve wellbeing” don’t help anyone. Use SMART goals, such as “raise employee wellbeing survey scores by 5% within 12 months.”

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After that, build your action plan. This could involve reviewing pay structures, introducing wellbeing days, or running new programmes that support mental and physical health.

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Look for feedback‍

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Wellbeing isn’t static. Priorities change, and your strategy should adapt too. Keep checking in using data and feedback to make sure your efforts are landing.

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One practical option is anonymous quarterly surveys. These give your team space to speak openly. At the same time, they help you track trends and progress over time.

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You can also collect feedback through informal check-ins or manager reviews. This helps make wellbeing a regular part of workplace conversations.

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How Thrive supports wellness in the workplace

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At Thrive, we support businesses looking to improve wellbeing with data-led tools that simplify the process. Our employee performance and development platform includes regular wellbeing surveys to help you understand and act on your team's needs.

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We also offer a full suite of hiring assessments to help you build inclusive teams, reduce bias, and spot high performers. Explore our platform to see how we can help you build a workplace that supports your people and grows your business.

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Start where it matters most—your people. Book a demo today to see Thrive in action.

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