Creating a wellness programs for your workplace

What is your organisation doing to safeguard the wellbeing of its workforce? Is senior leadership considering the impact it’s wellness policy and procedures might be having on younger people within the organisation? Mental Health UK’s 2025 Burnout Report found that a third of adults in the UK are experiencing burnout and 90% are experiencing high levels of stress. Of the 90%, those between the ages of 18-24 are most likely to be absent due to declining mental health. As well as this, the proportion of 18–24-year-olds who would feel comfortable reporting their declining mental health or struggles with stress to their line manager has dropped from 75% to 56% in 2025.

With statistics such as these and the worrying trend in younger people experiencing declines in their mental health due to workplace and less confident to speak to leadership about their issues, workplace wellness programs may be more necessary than ever. To keep your organisation on the right track, you need to continually support your workforce. This means implementing wellness programmes and initiatives that give them confidence you care for their wellbeing and development.

What is a wellness program

In short, a workplace wellness programme is a system or initiative to support, maintain and improve the overall wellbeing of your people. This entails supporting their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing in, and often, out of the workplace. Whilst there are various types of wellness programmes, each serves the same aim, improving workforce wellbeing to encourage organisational success.

In terms of the types of wellness programmes that that are commonly seen in the workplace, there are sub-sections to differentiate the areas of wellbeing. Some examples of these include the following:

Physical

On-site gyms

One of the best and easiest ways to encourage physical wellbeing is a free on-site gym, exclusive to your workforce. Having an accessible gym complete with the necessary equipment that you people can use before, after and during the working day will encourage regular physical activity.

Fitness classes

Providing fitness classes that go through different routines and practices such as office yoga can incentivise your workforce to collectively partake in easy and communal activities to boost their physical wellbeing.

Nutritional incentives

Whilst it seems simple, things such as healthy breakfast, snacks, free fruit and hydration stations will help your people with healthier living. Exercise and physical activity are only a part of physical wellbeing, the others being a healthy diet and staying hydrated. When your people have the ability to maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet, they will release energy throughout the day rather than in quick bursts that are typically seen with caffeine. This will benefit their productivity and engagement as they will be better able to manage the later hours of the day o still complete tasks to a high level.

Social

Team socials

Taking your people and teams out to celebrate workplace accomplishments provides your people an opportunity to bond outside of a working environment. This in turn can create a more casual and friendly working environment, where your people support each other to achieve their goals and collaborate effectively.

Discussion clubs

Providing your people with the opportunity to bond over something such as books, films, art or any other topic allows them to bond in a workplace setting and better understand each other. It is simple but gives people a regular social event to anticipate in the week and open up to each other.

Off-site meetings

Team meetings that take place outside of the office, whether that is simply being outside the office building, going for a meal nearby provides a more casual and freeing feeling to a work discussion. Inhibitions are shed and people feel more confident to make themselves heard and feel valued as they being heard in an environment that makes them feel comfortable.

Mental health

Counselling

When it comes to mental health, as best as you try to support your workforce, they may feel uncomfortable confiding with a member of senior leadership, and they may need expert advice. This is why expert, secure and confidential counselling is the best option.

Wellbeing apps

As mental health and wellbeing can be quite personal, people may require a resource to seek the necessary support as well to track their wellbeing. This can be achieved using wellbeing apps such as the Wisdom App. These apps will come loaded with step counters, mindfulness resources such as breathing techniques, articles and more to assist people with their wellbeing.

Accessible resources

Providing your people with access to different guides, podcasts, infographics through an EAP can help them seek expert wellbeing insights to use in their professional and personal lives. If you effectively signpost your workforce to these resources, they will feel valued and understand that you care for and are supporting their wellbeing.

Why is employee wellness important in the workplace?

The Health and Safety Executive found that in 2024, 1.7 million people in the UK workforce suffered with a work-related illness, with 776,000 of those people suffering with workplace stress, anxiety and depression. It is believed that absences could cost UK organisations over £22 billion. With all these factors in mind, why wouldn’t you want to improve the standard of your workforce’s wellbeing? Your organisation relies on its people, as without them it can’t grow. So, when your people are unavailable and have to take sick leave due to poor mental health, it comes at a detriment to your organisation.

Whilst absences are bound to occur, organisations must consider what they can do to reduce them and make life easier for their people. This may involve initiatives to improve the workforce’s overall mental and physical health.

Decreased costs

It is estimated that poor mental health is costing UK organisations up £51 billion a year. That equates to around £1,500 lost per employee. For a small to medium sized business with 15 employees, this can cost up to £22,500. This is not preferable for any organisation. By investing in a wellness programme such as HA | Wisdom Wellbeing’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), your organisation can see a 10:1 return on investment on every £1 spent in productivity and growth.

Decreased turnover rates

In 2024, it was estimated that approximately 928,000 people resigned from their current role. Combine this with the fact that workforce turnover costs per person can range from £11,000 to approximately £75,000 and the cost is significant to any organisation.

When a company encourages a culture of support and people recognise this, they are far less likely to leave their current organisation. In 2024, it was estimated that approximately 928,000 people resigned from their current role., with 1 in 5 people admitting that stress has negatively affected them at work but have not sought out support, likely due to the fact that 45% of the UK do not believe their organisation has adequate plans in place to support them with stress and burnout. Reassuring your people that your organisation is there to support them with wellbeing initiatives and provably doing so can ensure your people are more likely to remain with the organisation.

What components should be included in a workplace wellness program?

Workplace wellness programmes have one overall aim; improve and maintain your workforce’s wellbeing. To achieve this, a successful wellness programme should focus on three specific elements which encapsulates the state of a person’s wellbeing:

Emotional wellbeing

To effectively maintain or even improve an individual’s emotional wellbeing, there are a variety of things to manage which may be tough to quantify. It may depend on the culture of the workplace, if there are opportunities to socialise, an environment where career progression is available, and job satisfaction is high among your workforce.

Physical wellbeing

It can be tough to manage physical wellbeing in the workplace, but it is a vital part of supporting your people’s overall wellbeing. If your people are feeling physically restricted or that they are unable to maintain a physically healthy lifestyle due to a lack of nutritional incentives such as free fruit and healthy breakfasts or even things such as desk exercise sessions for simple physical activity, it will begin to impact their mental wellbeing.

Mental wellbeing

There are multiple facets which make up mental wellbeing, and it is intrinsically tied into emotional and physical wellbeing. For example, if a person’s physical wellbeing begins to wane, it can have a direct impact on their emotional wellbeing, making them feel self-conscious which can lead to anxiety and depression. These are diagnosable mental health conditions which can lead to further mental health issues, a lack of productivity and enthusiasm which can then create a cycle of individuals failing to address their wellbeing. Ensuring there are precautions and safeguarding measures in place such as counselling support, guides, and Mental Health First Aiders established in your organisation, you can support your people’s mental wellbeing which in turn, supports all facets of their wellbeing.

Workplace wellness programs to boost employee wellbeing

There are a variety of initiatives and wellness programmes that you can implement within your organisation to boost employee morale as well as their productivity and your organisational growth. Here are some examples of effective wellness programmes you can establish within your organisation:

1. 24/7 helpline

When your people have access to a 24/7 helpline all year round, they have access to expert advice from qualified counsellors. With this helpline, your people can access the support and guidance they need for issues in their life, whether it be personal or professional when they feel most comfortable. Whether it is relationship guidance, financial or legal advice, or even with a specific mental health problem such as anxiety or depression, enabling them to be more productive and engaged in the workplace.

2. Counselling

Counselling can be conducted either through a telephone call available through the 24/7 helpline, or via a face-to-face meeting. Some individuals feel that a phone call is less personable and are not able to effectively vocalise their issues. With a wellbeing programme that offers face-to-face counselling, your workforce has access to a qualified therapist located in their own area, providing a more personal and in-depth approach.

3. Legal and financial advice

One of the most concerning issues which can affect employee mental wellbeing are financial and legal issues. They can be difficult to navigate and can take up a huge proportion of an individual's attention and cause huge amounts of stress. With access to legal and financial advice through an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), your workforce can receive expert advice on pensions, investments, debt, divorces, and a host of legal matters which can prove invaluable to their mental health.

4. Wellbeing workshops

Through expert-led wellbeing workshops, you can give your people, individuals and senior leadership teams alike the tools and information to address their wellbeing concerns. This can be achieved through online workshops and can help your organisation to establish process to spot declining mental health and increased stress for a proactive approach to prevention.

5. Mental Health First Aid training

Proactive approaches to workplace wellbeing are the most effective methods to maintain high levels of productivity. Mental Health First Aid Training enables your people to effectively reduce the stigma of seeking help with a mental health concern through implementing effective wellbeing action plans and effectively responding to people’s concerns.

6. Occupational Health assessments

To support your organisation and its continued growth, leadership needs to be prepared for the toughest of circumstances. This could include when an individual is returning from an extended absence leave. It can be difficult for a person to return to work after such an extended leave, especially if the period of absence was due to a health issue. Through an occupational health assessment, the correct adjustments can be made to manage and ease the process of a person returning to work after a prolonged period.

7. Management support

Your workforce’s wellbeing depends on the ability of senior leaders within an organisation to effectively address and overcome the issues of a stressful workplace environment and any mental health issues they may be experiencing. Through our EAP, leadership within your organisation will receive training on how to support your people’s mental health awareness, stress and addressing difficult topics.

8. Dedicated wellbeing app

One of the best ways to help your people manage their wellbeing is to provide them with an accessible tool that can be considered as a one stop shop for their wellbeing needs. Through HA | Wisdom Wellbeing’s EAP, your people will have access to the award-winning Wisdom App, which provides individuals access to a 24/7 live chat with our expert counsellors as well as a host of other resources including health trackers, articles, podcasts and much, much more.

How can the Wisdom App support wellbeing at work?

Through the Wisdom App, your people can manage their own wellbeing at home and in the workplace. Organisations and leadership have a duty of care to protect their people’s wellbeing, meaning their physical and often mental wellbeing. Whilst they are required to implement measures and procedures to assist the wellbeing of individuals, providing them with the tools to track and manage it themselves is invaluable. Using features such as the health, physical activity, hydration and mood trackers, individuals can review what areas of their wellbeing they are struggling and begin to address it through other resources available on the app. This might mean speaking to an expert counsellor on the 24/7 live-chat, it could be using the healthy recipe collection in combination with the exercise routines or even accessing one of our articles or podcasts which may provide incredibly useful insights on how to overcome wellbeing issues. Your people will be able to take a more measured approach to their wellbeing through a personalised app which suits their overall wellbeing needs.

Conclusion

Workplaces can be the place where people spend the majority of their week other than their home, so ensuring their wellbeing is catered for and managed is essential to their workplace performance. Having a workplace wellbeing programme in place can help to guarantee this. The aim is to not only manage one element, but manage one to improve another, and sometimes, without the assistance of an effective wellness programme, this can be difficult for leadership to manage, so implementing a programme to boost organisational engagement will only boost workforce productivity.