World Wellbeing Week 2025: Prioritising mental and physical health

World Wellbeing Week is a global event held annually to highlight the importance of personal wellbeing.

It recognises the many dimensions of wellbeing, from purposeful work and financial stability to physical, mental and emotional health. It also shines a light on social resilience, responsible leadership, strong community ties and environmental care.

Supporting wellbeing at work means creating an environment where people feel valued, supported and able to thrive. When employees feel that their wellbeing is being supported, the benefits are felt across the entire organisation.

Wellbeing matters more than ever

As the world of work continues to evolve, with new technologies, hybrid models, and rising demands, the wellbeing of employees is under increasing strain. World Wellbeing Week serves as a timely reminder of why employee wellbeing can no longer be viewed as optional. It’s a strategic imperative.

Recent findings from the HR Priority Report by Reward Gateway and Edenred reveal a stark truth: employee wellbeing is in crisis. Four in ten UK employees report that workplace concerns have negatively impacted their wellbeing, leaving many feeling unmotivated, unsupported and burnt out.

The current state of employee wellbeing

The data paints a troubling picture as 28% of UK employees say their mental wellbeing has worsened in recent years.

The top drivers of burnout are:

• Excessive workload (50%)
• Lack of resources (34%)
• Feeling unrecognised (31%)

Psychological safety is also under threat with fewer than half (47%) of employees feel they can take risks or make mistakes without fear of blame. These issues not only impact morale but directly affect retention and productivity.

Managers play a pivotal role in shaping workplace culture, yet many are underprepared. Just 57% of people managers feel confident in their ability to lead effectively, and 21% say they received no adequate training when stepping into their roles.

The business case for investing in wellbeing

Investing in employee wellbeing only has benefits. Employees spend as much time at work as they do at home, so it’s vital the workplace supports them. When your employees’ wellbeing is thriving, they take fewer sick days, deliver higher performance, and have lower rates of burnout and turnover.

Gallup research underscores this impact. Burnout-driven voluntary turnover accounts for 15% – 20% of payroll budgets each year, costing the global economy $322 billion (approximately £238 billion) in turnover and lost productivity.

World Wellbeing Week is a powerful reminder that creating a culture of wellbeing isn’t optional, it’s essential for sustainable success during uncertain times.

3 ways to improve and protect employee wellbeing

So, how can your organisation improve and protect your employees’ wellbeing? Here are our top 3 tips:

1. Implement wellbeing HR policies

Wellbeing should be a consistent thread running through all your people policies. That means setting clear expectations, addressing the causes of work-related stress and making sure support is available when it’s needed. Consider that:

• HR policies should be reviewed to ensure they promote wellbeing across the whole employee experience, from health and safety, working hours, and sickness absence to return-to-work, recruitment, and performance management.
• Processes like performance or disciplinary action should be designed with care, recognising how wellbeing can influence behaviour or capability. Support options and reasonable adjustments should always be considered before formal steps are taken.
• People policies should go beyond what’s required in order to truly improve employee wellbeing. Forward-thinking initiatives like fertility policies, menopause, pregnancy loss and transition support demonstrate to your people-first commitments to your workforce.

When ED&I is under attack, this demonstrates your organisations commitment to doing the right thing, protecting your employees above all else.

Making sure employees know what help is available, how to access it, and whether that’s internal support or external advocates, can also make a world of difference for wellbeing at work. Making this information clear, accessible and stigma-free can be transformative for workplace wellbeing.

Our HR policy support services are designed to help organisations review, refine, and future-proof your HR documents, ensuring they meet legal standards and actively promote wellbeing, consistency, and compassion across the entire employee experience.

2. Empower managers to support wellbeing

Managers have the greatest day-to-day impact on employee wellbeing, yet only 57% feel equipped for the role, and 21% received no proper training. Many are ‘accidental managers‘, promoted for performance but lacking leadership experience, tools, or guidance to navigate people challenges, including managing wellbeing concerns, effectively.

Without support, they face added pressure, inconsistent outcomes, unnecessary escalations to HR and missed chances to protect wellbeing. empower® gives managers the confidence to act early, safely and consistently. With step-by-step guidance and built-in templates, empower® helps them handle issues early and lead conversations with empathy, to support both wellbeing and business outcomes.

HR and employee relations teams also benefit from empower®‘s people analytics and real-time insights. These enable HR to identify trends, for example spikes in grievances or absences in individuals or teams that may indicate an issue, and take proactive, data-driven steps to remedy the situation before it becomes business critical.

Find out how empower® can support your managers and HR teams to strengthen wellbeing across your organisation by getting in touch.

3. Training improves wellbeing in the workplace

Building a workplace that supports wellbeing starts with giving people the knowledge and confidence to talk about mental health and take action when it matters.Embedding mental health awareness into your culture, through training, regular check-ins, access to mental health first aiders and visible leadership, creates more psychologically safe environments where people feel supported and more able to thrive.

Specialist training also plays an important role in supporting neurodiversity. Helping managers understand different neurodivergent experiences, such as how someone might process information or respond to workplace stress, enables more inclusive conversations and better day-to-day support.

Ongoing training helps managers recognise early signs that someone may be struggling and gives them the confidence to have supportive conversations and check-ins with their team. But its impact goes beyond management. When the everyone in the organisation understands how to talk about mental health and where to go for help, it improves communication and builds trust across teams.

Education is key to sustaining a culture where wellbeing is a shared responsibility and unlock everyone’s potential. Our range of training options support your people and create lasting impact, improve resilience, and even potentially save your organisation costs associated with poor mental health, such as absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover.

Measure the impact of wellbeing programmes

If you want your wellbeing strategy to drive real change, not just tick boxes, then measuring its impact is essential. This means going beyond simple metrics like how many sessions were run, or how many employees attended. To understand what’s really working, the focus needs to shift to outcomes.

Start by defining what impact looks like in your context:

• Are you trying to reduce stress-related absence?
• Improve engagement?
• Increase retention?

Set clear, measurable objectives and choose KPIs that reflect real change.

Gather both quantitative and qualitative data. Survey results, absence rates and employee assistance programme (EAP) usage can show trends, but richer insights often come from employee feedback, interviews or focus groups. Measuring over time will help you see what’s having a lasting effect.

If you can translate these outcomes into financial terms, even better, as this helps build the case for continued investment.

A well-structured approach to measurement doesn’t just prove value. It helps you refine and evolve your approach, ensuring your wellbeing initiatives stay relevant, meaningful and aligned to your organisation’s priorities.

Ready to improve wellbeing in your organisation?

Whether you’re looking to review your policies, empower your managers or embed meaningful training, we can help you build a wellbeing strategy that works for your people and your business.

Get in touch to explore how our HR consultancy, employee relations transformation technology and training programmes can support your organisation.