National Wellness Month 2025: Why it matters for your organisation
Every August, National Wellness Month encourages individuals to prioritise their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Created in 2018 by Live Love Spa, the initiative has grown into a movement supported by wellness brands, global employers and several household names.
But while the focus is often on personal self-care, encouraging hydration, movement, and mindfulness, given the central role our workplaces play in our lives and the challenging employment landscape, the question must be asked: what is the employer’s role in supporting wellbeing?
Wellbeing matters: HR burnout and rising absence rates
The pressure on employees, and the organisations supporting them, has never been higher. Wellbeing challenges are increasingly driving absenteeism, presenteeism, and long-term disengagement, particularly when it comes to mental health.
Recent data highlights a steep rise in the number of people experiencing mental ill health, affecting one-in-five on average and rising to one-in-four among young people. Anxiety and stress-related absences are now among the leading causes of time off work. Many of these absences are long-term, and talented individuals are likely to leave the workforce altogether because their needs aren’t being met.
Access to support is also a concern. CQC figures reveal that 40% of people wait too long for mental health care, and 42% report their condition worsens while waiting – a figure that rises to 71% for those waiting over six months.
These pressures don’t just impact employees; they also create additional strain for HR teams who are trying to respond without the right resources, training, or systems in place
Wellbeing challenges are straining HR too
At the same time, HR leaders report that their teams are stretched thin, often without the resource, training or systems needed to respond effectively. While there’s growing awareness at senior levels about the importance of wellbeing, the reality on the ground is often reactive, rather than proactively preventing wellbeing issues from arising in the first place.
Yet when employers do take meaningful action and embed wellbeing into their culture, enabling managers to have meaningful conversations and reducing stigma, the results are clear.
Of the employers who measure the impact of supporting staff wellbeing:
- 98% report positive results;
- Nearly half say it demonstrates to employees that the organisation cares and is invested in their wellbeing, which strengthens loyalty and engagement;
- Many organisations also see practical gains, with 41% reporting fewer or shorter absences and faster returns to work.
That’s why National Wellness Month is more than a hashtag. It’s a timely prompt for employers to pause and ask: are we supporting self-care in theory, or in practice? Are our managers equipped to spot early signs of burnout? Do our policies and culture enable people to put their wellbeing first, or are we relying on individuals to manage alone?
From lifestyle to leadership: Reframing workplace wellness
Wellbeing can’t just be a personal goal, it has to be a leadership priority that is adopted throughout the organisations culture. While individual employees may take the 31-day wellness pledge this August, their ability to truly care for themselves is shaped by their environment.
That means looking beyond perks and benefits. A supportive culture, psychological safety, line manager capability, job design and manageable workloads are all part of the self-care equation.
How forward-thinking organisations are managing employee wellness
Progressive organisations aren’t waiting for wellbeing crises; they’re building in preventative, practical support. For example:
- Equipping line managers to handle wellbeing conversations confidently and compassionately;
- Embedding wellbeing into onboarding and leadership development, not treating it as a one-off intervention;
- Using data from absence trends, exit interviews and ER cases to identify hotspots for stress and burnout;
- Supporting self-care through flexible working, coaching, and simple, evidence-based tools employees can use in real time.
Crucially, they’re also recognising that HR teams themselves are under increasing pressure. Recent analysis has shown that some HR professionals now have Bradford Factor scores typically associated with serious burnout risk. With rising sickness absence, tribunals and complex employee relations issues to manage, even experienced HR teams are feeling the strain.
That’s why forward-thinking employers are taking a more holistic view and supporting not just frontline employees but the people professionals holding it all together. By investing in both manager capability and HR capacity, they’re ensuring wellbeing is sustainable and supported from top to bottom.
Turning wellbeing awareness into action: a 3-step wellness plan for HR leaders
If you’re ready to move from campaign to culture, here’s where to start:
- Diagnose the current state: Review what wellbeing support exists today. Is it ad hoc or embedded? Are managers confident in having difficult conversations? Are your policies fit for purpose? Do managers have digital training that is refreshed regularly?
- Empower your people managers: Most wellbeing challenges show up first in one-to-ones and not in engagement surveys. Equip managers with the confidence to respond proactively.
- Sustain the momentum: Wellbeing needs to go beyond reacting to mental health crises in the moment. It needs to be about improving everyday experiences; how people feel at work, how manageable their workload is, and how supported they are by their team and leadership.
A culture of wellness, not a one-off campaign
National Wellness Month is a great reminder that self-care is essential, but organisations play a pivotal role in enabling it.
By investing in everyday wellbeing rather than one-off events, talks or initiatives, you can create the conditions where individuals and teams can thrive, which in turn can reduce absence rates and improve employee engagement and organisational performance.
If you’re looking to make wellbeing a strategic priority that delivers for your people and your business, we’d love to help.