An Old Hand's Guide to Practical Employee Wellbeing

After 20-odd years working in employee wellbeing, I find myself reflecting on the state of our industry. It’s not great.

I coined the term ‘the wellbeing con’ over a decade ago. Sadly, it didn’t catch on. But it highlights that most of the activity in the UK wellbeing market completely lacks any real scientific evidence base and couldn’t care less about gathering it. Instead, we have a group of primarily ‘faith-based’ providers – doing things because they feel it’s the right thing to do, rather than the effective thing. Or as we might say now – ‘vibe wellbeing’.

And yet, we have an incredible wealth of robust scientific evidence in this space. The UK had pretty much nailed the science of wellbeing in the 1970s, and a lot of the key research sits at the heart of the methodology and approaches of organisations such as The Health & Safety Executive. Like climate change or social media policy, it’s not that we don’t know what to do in these complex situations. It’s that we don’t want to do it – usually for political expediency or fear of disrupting the status quo.

So, in the spirit of moving things forward, here’s a list of my main consultative techniques for building a simple yet effective wellbeing strategy for your business. It may not change the world, but it’ll give you a framework you can operate and grow within:

One reason the wellbeing con is so easy in the UK is ‘wellbeing’ can mean pretty much anything. When a term is nebulous, it’s much easier to believe what you want to believe. “Our wonder tonic will cure anything. Baldness? Why sir, I too was bald before. Step right up!”

This vagueness also makes the problem seem too big for people to handle. So, to begin, create your own definition of employee wellbeing, based on your culture and most important goals.

At Employee Benefits Collective LLP , we recommend starting with the simple ‘supporting our employees’ physical, mental, and financial wellbeing’.

We use the word ‘supporting’ deliberately. It recognises that while employers have a crucial role to play, there are limits. Employees also need to take some personal responsibility.

We also suggest focusing on physical, mental, and financial wellbeing because these three areas are very closely linked to working life. They also have some of the strongest support tools for employers at a reasonable cost. And importantly, they’re interconnected. Good physical health can improve mental wellbeing, while financial stress can quickly undermine it.

Having a simple and clear definition of employee wellbeing makes it much harder for you to be sold ‘snake oil’. It gives you a lens to look at any product or service and ask: “Will this actually help us achieve what we want to do?”

Channel your inner Simon Sinek (look him up) – and grab the whiteboard gathering dust in your office supplies cupboard, break out the coloured pens, and write physical, mental, and financial wellbeing at the top of a clean sheet of paper.

I’ve done this dozens of times throughout my career.

Most employers with a good mix of modern employee benefits and HR policies already support wellbeing in more ways than they realise. Seeing it all laid out on one page can be heartening. And if it’s empty, you know you have plenty of scope to make improvements.

Remember that HR policies are an important part of supporting employee wellbeing. Having a volunteering policy can be great for mental health – doing good for the community can be extremely psychologically rewarding. A sports club can show your support for physical wellbeing. And yes, much as it pains me to say it, even golf counts.

Once your list is done, ask yourself two simple questions:

Is this enough support for our employees – or are there any obvious gaps?
What else could we invest in to support our employees?

If I can emphasise one thing here, it’s this. Please try to offer your employees some form of health or risk assessment. Ideally, that means a physical examination with full bloods, but even a reputable provider’s online health check can still be useful. People are most likely to take action when they understand their health risks, especially the ones they didn’t know they had.

Once you’re happy with your employee wellbeing support package, make a song and dance about it.

For employees to actually use the support you’ve put in place, they need to know it exists – and be reminded, regularly. However, if you keep telling them about it, preferably quarterly, even someone as stubborn as me might get the message and know where to find help when there’s a problem, or even, dare I say it, do something preventative.

It’s not difficult to get your business into a decent place on employee wellbeing. We’re an SME ourselves, and we’ve built a solid employee wellbeing set up that we’re always looking to improve. In fact, if you’re an EBC customer, you’re already likely showing strong support across the three wellbeing areas.

For physical and mental wellbeing, you have access to WeCare from Canada Life UK – which includes a Virtual GP, full emotional counselling services, and nutrition and exercise support. I’m also continually pestering our friends at Canada Life to add an online health assessment, so watch this space.

Until they finally cave in to my polite persistence, we’ve filled the platform with a range of voluntary health assessments. These include affordable physical checks from Bluecrest Wellness and home testing kits via York Labs. And when it comes to getting people moving, we’ve got the tax-efficient Cycle to Work scheme and a wide range of gym discounts, including online exercise programmes for those who prefer lunges in their living room.

For financial wellbeing, there’s both virtual and onsite support from our in-house team. We also offer the award-winning EBCtv, with a wealth of financial wellbeing content your employees can dip into anytime, along with plenty on physical and mental wellbeing.

Our great discount scheme can help with the cost of the weekly shop or that much-needed holiday. And we offer a range of voluntary services in this space, including spouse life assurance, critical illness cover and (for me, the criminally underrated) will-writing services.

This isn’t an exhaustive list and doesn’t include core benefits like your pension, life assurance and private medical insurance – which are all likely to come with added-value tools to support your employees’ wellbeing.

These easy steps are something every UK employer should consider. They’ll get you to a solid starting point and lay the groundwork for a more robust wellbeing strategy with minimal new investment. And if you need help or want to discuss a more detailed approach – with measurement, dashboards, assessments or planned interventions, let us know. Supporting your wellbeing is what we’re here for, after all.

Andrew Supple always enjoys a long chat about wellbeing – a lot – sometimes even at parties. Just be ready with a polite excuse if I get too enthusiastic!