It’s 2025. Employees expect more than free fruit and the odd mental health webinar – and rightly so.
According to recent research from Michael Page, almost half of UK employees don’t trust their leadership to strike the right balance between business demands and employee wellbeing. That stat should be a wake-up call. Because if your people don’t believe you’ve got their backs, you’ve got bigger problems than a disengaged team — you’ve got a culture issue.
If you’re serious about building a healthy, high-performing workplace, these are the six areas you need to focus on, without the gimmicks.
1. Leadership that walks the talk
If wellbeing isn’t on your leadership team’s radar, it won’t land anywhere else in the business. Employees are quick to spot when words don’t match actions and they’re tired of performative wellbeing.
This isn’t about sticking a mental health awareness day on the calendar. It’s about putting budget behind wellbeing initiatives, holding leaders accountable for their team’s wellbeing as part of performance metrics, and modelling healthy behaviours from the top down (yes, that includes logging off at a reasonable time).
People want to see that wellbeing matters to the business, not just the comms team.
2. Wellbeing that goes beyond Yoga and Fruit Bowls
Wellbeing isn’t just about physical health. It’s about how people feel at work; emotionally, mentally, and socially.
Holistic support means giving people access to mental health support like Employee Assistance Programmes or Mental Health First Aiders. It means providing opportunities to move, whether that’s walking meetings, run clubs, or gym schemes, whatever works for your team.
And it means creating space to connect, virtually as well as physically, which is especially important for remote or hybrid setups. This needs to be baked into your culture, not bolted on.
3. Support for all teams
We’ve all heard about “returning to the office”, and “The New Normal”.
Wherever you work and however you work, what we do know is that wellbeing strategies need to evolve.
Whatever your work set-up, there should always be a focus on regular check-ins that are more than a diary tick-box, clear boundaries to stop work merging into home life, and equal access to growth and development opportunities.
If you’re not intentional here, people will disengage or leave.
4. Managers who know what to spot (and what to do)
Your managers are on the frontline of wellbeing. But many don’t know how to have these conversations or they’re scared to get it wrong.
Fix that by giving them the tools to spot signs of burnout or stress, training them in how to listen without trying to ‘solve’ everything, and setting up a clear process for referring people to professional support when needed.
This isn’t about turning managers into therapists, it’s about equipping them to be better humans, leading better teams.
5. Take financial wellbeing seriously
Money stress is one of the biggest factors affecting mental health and it’s still the elephant in the room in many organisations.
Want to do better? Try financial education sessions (think budgeting, saving, managing debt), signposting to independent financial advice or support tools, and transparent reward structures that don’t leave people guessing whether their performance counts for anything.
You can’t control the cost-of-living crisis, but you can show your people you’re not ignoring it.
6. Psychological Safety: The bedrock of lasting wellbeing
Wellbeing initiatives are pointless if people don’t feel safe to speak up when they’re struggling.
Build psychological safety by training leaders to listen without judgement or defensiveness, creating a culture where it’s OK to say “I’m not OK”, and ensuring your policies genuinely protect people who raise concerns.
If people don’t feel safe, they won’t be honest. And if they’re not honest, you’ll never truly know how your team is doing.
Final Word: Wellbeing is a business imperative, not a perk
Your people are your biggest asset, but they’re also human. When you take care of them, they take care of your business.
So stop waiting for the perfect wellbeing strategy. Start with the basics, do them well, and commit to making it part of your culture. not just your benefits package.
People Era can support you in building a Wellbeing Plan. Get in touch to find out more.
