Health and wellbeing at work

Promoting and supporting employee health and wellbeing can deliver mutual benefit to people, organisations, economies and communities. Healthy workplaces help people to flourish and perform to their full potential. 

To gain real benefit, employee health and wellbeing priorities must be integrated throughout an organisation, embedded in its culture, leadership and people management.

Employers should develop and implement a holistic framework to support people’s physical health and safety, and mental health. This includes offering sources of help such as counselling, an employee assistance programme (EAP) and occupational health (OH) services where possible. Further, line managers need ongoing guidance and training to support their teams, so they can have sensitive conversations with individuals and signpost to expert help where needed. All employees should be encouraged to have a good self-care routine.

It also means taking a prevention-based approach and addressing the work-related risks to health, many of which are psychological. This has led to a growing recognition of the need for employer practices to address the psychosocial, as well as the physical, aspects of health and wellbeing. 

Our 2025 Health and wellbeing at work report, supported by Simplyhealth, shows that more employers are adopting a holistic and strategic approach to supporting people’s health. Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents say that health and wellbeing is on senior leaders’ agendas. 

The survey findings show that there is considerable focus by employers on supporting people if they are affected by certain challenges, particularly in the case of caring responsibilities for young children (75% of respondents), chronic health conditions or disabilities (67%), bereavement (67%) and neurodiversity (66%). 

The survey also found that average absence levels have increased to 9.4 days on average per employee per year, compared with 7.8 days in 2023. This underlines the need for organisations to understand the main causes of absence across their workforce and put in place steps to manage the key health risks. 

The value of employee wellbeing

To create a healthy workplace, an employer needs to ensure that its culture, leadership and people management are the bedrock on which to build a fully integrated wellbeing approach. If employers place employee wellbeing as a vital source of value creation, the dividends for organisational health can be significant.

Our 2025 Health and wellbeing at work report identified the top three opportunities for employers of increasing their focus on employee wellbeing:

• Improvements to people’s health and wellbeing
• Higher employee engagement
• Enhanced employee performance

We've identified a range of inter-related 'domains' of employee health and wellbeing. Although there’s no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to designing an effective strategy, it should be based on the unique needs and characteristics of the organisation and its workforce.

The underlying elements include examples of workplace initiatives and activities to support people’s health and wellbeing.

1. Health

• Physical health - Health promotion, good rehabilitation practices, health checks, wellbeing benefits, health insurance protection, managing disability, OH support, EAP.
• Physical safety - Safe working practices, safe equipment, personal safety training.
• Mental health - Stress management, risk assessments, conflict resolution training, training line managers to have difficult conversations, managing mental ill health, OH support, EAP.

2. Good working conditions

• Working environment - Ergonomically designed working areas, open and inclusive culture.
• Good line management - Effective people management policies, training for line managers, sickness absence management.
• Work demands - Job design, job roles, job quality, workload, working hours, job satisfaction, work-life balance.
• Autonomy - Control, innovation, whistleblowing.
• Change management - Communication, involvement, leadership.
• Pay and reward - Fair and transparent remuneration practices, non-financial recognition.

3. Values/Principles

• Leadership - Values-based leadership, clear mission and objectives, health and wellbeing strategy, corporate governance, building trust.
• Ethical standards - Dignity at work, corporate social responsibility, community investment, volunteering.
• Inclusion and diversity - Valuing difference, cultural engagement, training for employees and managers.

4. Collective/Social

• Employee voice - Communication, consultation, genuine dialogue, involvement in decision making.
• Positive relationships - Management style, teamworking, healthy relationships with peers and managers, dignity and respect.

5. Personal growth

• Career development - Mentoring, coaching, performance management, performance development plans, skills utilisation, succession planning.
• Emotional - Positive relationships, personal resilience training, financial wellbeing.
• Lifelong learning - Performance development plans, access to training, mid-career review, technical and vocational learning, challenging work.
• Creativity - Open and collaborative culture, innovation workshops.

6. Good lifestyle choices

• Physical activity - Walking clubs, lunchtime yoga, charity walks.
• Healthy eating - Recipe clubs, healthy menu choices in the canteen.

7. Financial wellbeing

• Fair pay and benefit policies - Pay rates above the statutory National Minimum/Living Wage, flexible benefits scheme.
• Retirement planning - Phased retirement such as a three- or four-day week, pre-retirement courses for people approaching retirement.
• Employee financial support- EAP offering debt counselling, signposting to external sources of free advice (for example, Citizens Advice), access to independent financial advisers.

The CIPD supported the development of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing toolkit at the University of East Anglia. This is a free, evidence-informed workplace wellbeing resource, drawing on cutting edge research and insights that can help your business evolve and thrive.

Adopting an organisational approach carries with it distinct responsibilities for particular employee groups.

People professionals

People professionals have a lead role to play in steering the health and wellbeing agenda in organisations. They need to ensure that senior managers regard it as a priority and integrate effective practices into the organisation’s day-to-day operations.

They need to communicate the benefits of a healthy workplace to line managers, who are typically responsible for implementing people management and health-related policies. They need to work closely with all areas of the business and provide practical guidance to ensure that policies and practices are implemented consistently and with compassion.

Senior managers

Senior managers have the authority and influence to ensure that health is a strategic priority embedded in the organisation’s day-to-day operations and culture. They are crucial role models, and line managers and employees are more likely to engage with health and wellbeing interventions if they see senior leaders actively participating in them. 

Line managers

Much of the day-to-day responsibility for managing employees’ health and wellbeing falls on line managers. This includes spotting early warning signs of stress, making supportive adjustments at work, and nurturing positive relationships.

Our guidance for managers on preventing and reducing stress at work outlines the key steps they should take. 

Occupational health 

OH is a specialist branch of medicine focused on health in the workplace. For this reason, OH practitioners should work closely with people professionals and those responsible for health, wellbeing and safety in a workplace. 

Employees

Employees also have a responsibility for looking after their own health and participating in the initiatives on offer. Employers can encourage employees’ involvement by communicating how staff can access the support and benefits available to them. 

Contacts

Wellbeing helpline and resources for CIPD members

People professionals guide on managing mental health

Acas – Health and wellbeing

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Council for Work and Health

NHS Health at Work Network

Books and reports

Cooper, C. and Hesketh, I. (eds.) (2022) Managing workplace health and wellbeing during a crisis: how to support your staff in difficult times. London: Kogan Page.

Hesketh, I. and Cooper, C. (2023) Wellbeing at work: how to design, implement and evaluate an effective strategy. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2015, updated 2016) Workplace health: management practices. NICE guidelines, No NG13. London: NICE.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2017) Healthy workplaces: improving employee mental and physical health and wellbeing. Quality Standard QS147. Manchester: NICE.

Waddell, G. and Burton, A.K. (2006) Is work good for your health and well-being?  London: Stationery Office

Visit the CIPD and Kogan Page Bookshop to see all our priced publications currently in print.

Journal articles

Eliatamby, A. (2024) How to create a mental health and wellbeing programme that works. People Management (online).16 May. 

Fisher, J., Silverglate, P.H. and Bordeaux, C. (2023) As workforce wellbeing dips, leaders ask: what will it take to move the needle? Deloitte Insights (online). 20 June.

Fleming, W.J. (2024) Employee well-being outcomes from individual-level mental health interventions: cross-sectional evidence from the United Kingdom. Industrial Relations Journal. Vol 55, No 2, March, pp162-182.

Mayne, M. (2024) Is your firm guilty of ‘wellbeing washing’? People Management (online) 6 June.

Virhia, J., Blavo, Y. and Lordan, G. (2023) The ‘Beyond Workplace Wellbeing’ framework: a new framework for the organisation of work to cultivate wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. PsyArXiv preprint. 27 November. 

CIPD members can use our online journals to find articles from over 300 journal titles relevant to HR.

Members and People Management subscribers can read articles on the People Management website.