7 Current trends in employee wellbeing for 2025

Companies are taking an increasing interest in the wellbeing and mental health of their employees. Understanding the knock-on effects to employee engagement, productivity and performance, most businesses have come to understand that a well-thought-out employee wellbeing strategy is a necessity, rather than a luxury. It’s an investment in your people and the future of your own organisation. Businesses fare better when they’re run by healthy, confident employees. 

As with any area of work life, however, workplace wellbeing is a dynamic and agile field. What worked five years ago to support employee wellbeing might not work today. Changes in our political and financial environments can impact the way we live and what we need from our workplaces. To ensure you are catering to your employees’ wellbeing in a meaningful way, businesseses must keep up with current trends. 

Below are seven trends in employee wellbeing, why they have increased in popularity, and how you can go about implementing policies and processes to support them. 

Delve deeper and explore our employee wellbeing guide 

1. Holistic wellbeing support and programmes 

Our data shows that, across the board, employees generally believe that their companies are trying to offer wellbeing support. 67% of respondents across our benchmark data say that their organisation is doing enough to support their health and wellbeing at work. But that still leaves a lot of scope for improvement. 

Increasingly, organisations are offering staff more mental health resources and support, including access to mental health days, stress management programs and counselling services. For businesses with remote or hybrid employees, there are even platforms designed to provide mental help and wellbeing support online, accessible anytime. 

Beyond this, employers are shifting towards a more holistic approach to wellbeing, offering comprehensive programs that encompass not only mental health, but also physical health, emotional health and social wellbeing to support a range of diverse needs. Other initiatives employers invest in include mindfulness workshops, wellbeing workshops and emotional resilience workshops.  

2. More flexible working arrangements 

Despite an increase in employers encouraging employees to come back to the office over the past year, research shows that employees greatly value and want flexibility rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. A recent 2023 research by CIPD demonstrated that a lack of flexibility at work resulted in 4 million workers changing careers, which only added to the skills shortages. It is clear that flexible working arrangements (including hybrid working) are here to stay and are only becoming more important as it allows employees to balance work and personal life more effectively, reducing stress and increasing employee engagement. Some companies, including Dropbox, Songkick, and Eventbrite, are even going a step further and providing benefits such as unlimited annual leave, as long as goals are hit. It’s worth getting creative and seeing what would work for your organisation and what would keep your employees happy, while also promoting good performance. 

3. A rise in wellbeing technology 

As we move into a more digital working environment, it is unsurprising that technology plays a significant role in employee wellbeing. Organisations are exploring and incorporating a range of wellbeing apps and platforms to support staff, including wellness apps, mindfulness exercises, virtual fitness classes and even leveraging technology and AI to provide personalised and accessible solutions that enable employees to manage their health, automate mundane tasks and elevate decision-making processes.  

4. Financial wellbeing initiatives 

The cost-of-living crisis has further strained people’s finance and health. CIPD data from the recent winter 2023 research has shown that 33% of surveyed individuals reported money worries affecting their job performance, while only 31% felt their employer adequately supported their financial wellbeing.  

As employers start to recognise the impact of financial stress on employee health, more organisations are now implementing programs to support financial wellbeing, including offering financial education, debt management resources, retirement planning assistances as well as innovative benefits such as student loan repayment programs.  

Read Further: How to support employee wellbeing during the cost of living crisis 

 5. A preventative approach to health 

As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure.” This is the approach many employers are now embracing by investing in preventative health measures. Organisations are seeing the value in offering low cost, high value health screens to employees, including wellness screenings, health assessments, eye checks, employee assistance programmes (EAPs), counselling services and initiatives that promote healthy lifestyles.  

6. Work-life balance and boundaries 

As remote and hybrid working becomes more common, the boundary between work and personal life becomes increasingly blurry. When the lines between work and personal life are blurred, it can lead to several negative consequences for both the employees and the organisation, including increased stress and burnout, a decline in mental and physical health, reduced productivity and creativity, lower morale and increased absenteeism and turnover. Sometimes, we become so invested in our work that we forget to take care of ourselves. We go too fast for too long, and we forget the importance of slowing down. 

To combat this, more organisations are implementing policies that promote work-life balance, including enforcing boundaries for work hours, implementing technology policies (for example, Right to Disconnect, Email Blackout Periods) and encouraging employees to take annual leave.   

The good news is that the data indicates we’re moving in the right direction in terms of work-life balance. According to our extensive data, 68% of employees agree that they are able to strike the right balance between work and home life, with 65% stating they can comfortably cope with their workload. There is still a long way to go in this area, though, and much that businesses could do to help. 

7. Encouraging social connection 

About 1 in 10 employees feel lonely, with loneliness estimated to cost UK employers £2.5 billion annually. Armed with this information, it’s easy to see the importance of building a sense of community within the workplace, especially in remote or hybrid working settings.  

Many employers today are exploring and incorporating more social events (both in person and virtually), team-building activities, social committees and communication and collaboration platforms to help employees feel more connected.   

Ultimately, by keeping up to date with these wellbeing trends and adapting or incorporating those that are relevant, organisations can foster a supportive environment that enhances employee wellbeing and drives overall success. 

Good wellbeing can make all the difference to the success and longevity of a company. To assess and improve the levels of employee wellbeing within your organisation, get in touch with us today to arrange an staff wellbeing survey.