It’s time we have a real conversation about the state of workplace wellbeing. There’s a strange paradox occurring in organisations right now. On the one hand investment in corporate wellbeing solutions is set to reach $94.6 billion in 2026, while on the other hand, we’re also seeing a 13% increase in employee stress levels YOY.
It appears the plethora of wellbeing solutions primarily designed to get employees to take ownership over their health has reached its ceiling in effectiveness.
So perhaps it’s time we leaned into a new paradigm in workplace wellbeing. If it’s not people that need fixing, perhaps it’s organisations that need fixing instead.
Let’s look at this problem through Airbnb’s framework of Elephants, Dead Fish and Vomit.
- Elephant: What unspoken thing needs calling out?
- Dead fish: What past event needs addressing?
- Vomit: What needs to be out in the open?
Calling out the elephant in the room: Individual wellbeing solutions don’t work
Before employers throw their hands up in the air and cancel their subscriptions to digital wellbeing apps and mental health platforms, let’s be clear on one thing: wellbeing is a crucial investment in the workplace.
According to a recent study by the Wellbeing Research Centre, organisations with higher subjective wellbeing outperform the stock market. And not just by a small margin. They saw an 11% greater return than the S&P 500 in the first half of 2024.
Given that investing in wellbeing is a business and people imperative, that still leaves us with the question of how to make workplace wellbeing work for your organisation. Earlier this year, a new study by Oxford University’s William Fleming examined the impact of various wellbeing interventions such as mindfulness classes and wellbeing apps. It found that almost none of these solutions had any statistically significant impact on employee wellbeing.
Upon closer examination, all of these interventions have three things in common:
- They are individual interventions designed to treat the symptoms of stress or mental ill health in employees
- They start with the premise that the person needs fixing
- They all try to input more wellbeing into the employee’s workday
None of these interventions seek to address the most obvious question of all: “Why are so many employees feeling so stressed in the first place and could it possibly not be their fault?”
It’s an unpopular question that few dare to ask. Perhaps because it’s a bit like opening Pandora’s box, revealing some uncomfortable truths about workplace culture.
Human workplaces are successful because they integrate wellbeing into the design of work at every level of the organisation so that it becomes indistinguishable from work itself.
Dead fish: What is keeping employees stuck in stress and burnout?
A 2024 YouGov poll showed 15% of UK households reported a member/members of their household had taken time off work due to mental ill health this year. They cited this was due to:
- 51% – poor work-life balance
- 50% – excessive workload
- 36% – demanding management
- 27% – long or inflexible hours
- 24% – discrimination and harassment
Each of these reasons relates to issues with company culture and leadership approaches. They can’t simply be fixed by apps, yoga sessions, fruit baskets and the odd webinar on an awareness day.
If you’re talking about wellbeing, you may be having the wrong conversation.
Vomit: Employees are crying out for more organisational wellbeing interventions
Studies from the CIPD show employee wellbeing is positively impacted by healthy and supportive workplace culture. So does the solution to the wellbeing conundrum lie in fixing the workplace culture?
Actually, it’s about more than simply fixing it. It’s about creating the kind of culture that people love to work in. It’s about creating a more human workplace environment where people are inspired and enabled to give their best because they are valued, respected and appreciated.
Human workplace cultures simultaneously sustain people’s performance while unlocking their potential. They are not places where workers sit around holding hands and visualising success. They are based on accountability, ownership and having clear goals that everyone is pro-actively working towards achieving.
These human workplace cultures encompass drivers of wellbeing, ranging from happiness, to energy, to flexibility. And according to Jan-Emmanuel De Neve’s brilliant research on workplace wellbeing these cultures focus on creating a sense of belonging in the organisation, which is the number one driver of workplace wellbeing.
Human workplaces are successful because they integrate wellbeing into the design of work at every level of the organisation so that it becomes indistinguishable from work itself.
For any leader looking to invest in workplace wellbeing, the message from your employees and the experts is the same: invest in your culture.
The three most effective things leaders can do to integrate wellbeing into their culture
1) Calendars
Create some space in people’s diaries so they can actually be well and maybe attend the odd well-meaning mental health webinar on an awareness day. This will enable greater productivity through deep work and increase wellbeing levels among staff.
Recommended reading:
Quick wins:
- Initiate meeting-free days
- Automatically set meetings to finish at 25 or 45 mins in your calendar
- Complete a calendar audit – be ruthless and decline 50% of meetings in your calendar. Ask your people: does this need to be an email/meeting/informal chat? Encourage employees to run this audit too.
As Bruce Daisley said in his brilliant work, Presence, “fixing workplace culture starts with your calendar not your office.”
2) Community
Intentionally create moments of connection between staff during the work day to improve belonging and performance.
Recommended listening:
East Sleep Work Repeat podcast episode: ‘Call centre workers whose breaks overlapped formed a social unit where they could vent and connect with each other resulting in 23% increase in productivity and 19% reduction in their stress levels’
Quick wins:
- WFH workplaces – introduce work-free meetings over coffee and cake
- In office environments – create a magic lunch hour – a protected time when employees can get together and break bread
- In office – create quiet spaces where employees can rest and recharge their social batteries so they can take advantage of other moments of connection
3) Lead loudly
When leaders role model a positive work culture by setting healthy boundaries it boosts performance and employee wellbeing because people feel psychologically safe to do the same.
Quick wins:
- Include in your email signature that you don’t expect replies to emails outside of working hours
- Send emails only during working hours (in Outlook use the delay delivery feature where possible)
- Leave your working day on time very loudly to help others do the same
Infuse your workplace with empathy
One example of a forward-thinking organisation adopting these effective wellbeing interventions is VaynerX. This company is on a mission to create a human-centred organisation by infusing it with empathy; its leaders are role models in doing business with heart, where culture and people’s wellbeing are prioritised.
As their brilliant Chief Heart Officer, Claude Silver said: “Corporate culture has lost a lot of its humanity. It’s time we put the heart back into the workplace.” For any leader looking to invest in workplace wellbeing, the message from your employees and the experts is the same: invest in your culture.
At the very least it will clean up the stench of dead fish, vomit and the giant elephant in the room.
