As stress is on the rise and burnouts are not uncommon, only 15% of individuals working full-time for an employer are enthusiastic and engaged in their work, with over 65% reporting stress or stress -related issues in the last 12 months. A company therefore might have a variety of reasons why they should introduce a wellbeing programme for their employees and needs can range from the requirement to maintain a duty of care and help improve employee mental health by decreasing the onset of stress-related issues and illnesses, to increasing employee satisfaction and external reputation. A good wellbeing programme will also help to reduce absenteeism, increase motivation and increase staff retention.

Whatever the reason for the wellbeing scheme is, it is clear that a company must first ask the right questions of themselves in order to determine what they require.

There are some common areas which workplace wellbeing can have a positive effect on a company and its employees:

1. By improving staff retention - In such a competitive era, it is essential for every organisation to be able to retain great staff. Companies should support staff from the start of their employment to maintain a focus on employee engagement and to offer real tangible benefits that employees can take great benefit from. Employers should ensure they can: pay their employees well, treat everyone equally and value employee input across the company. Having regular staff meetings and discussions whilst also providing training opportunities helps to ensure that workplace stress is reduced on a daily basis.

2. By decreasing stress and pressure - Job roles can change overtime and as a result stress can build up and create strain on employees, with the pressure to deliver more work within the same time frame, employee mental health can suffer. Employers can reduce workplace stress and pressure by introducing solutions which help employees reduce their stress at work, to ensure work is evenly distributed and all employees work to their best abilities and to ensure good communications are maintained throughout the organisation and a good HR service is available when needed. This then helps to reduce stress, burden and burnout. It is also important for employees to understand the science of mental health and wellbeing in order to be able to make changes to their lifestyle to benefit them.

3. To help increase market impact - a company with a healthy, happy workforce is often a successful one with the ability to maintain great staff and a high level of productivity, performance and creativity which can in-turn help a company thrive in a highly competitive market place.

4. To help reduce absence and sickness - Stress related issues and/or illness constitute a large proportion of work-based absences. According to the UK Government Office of National Statistics, 17.9 million Working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2019/20 and the rate of work-related stress depression and anxiety has increased in recent years. In 2019/20 stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health cases and 55% of all working days lost due to work-related ill health. Workplace wellbeing programmes have been proven to dramatically decrease stress-related issues and illness.

5. A great return on investment - by introducing a workplace wellbeing programme, organisations can benefit in a huge variety of ways as their employee base enjoys reduced stress and a good work-life balance, company reputation is maintained and work production is high. The investment ensures that costs can be saved on many areas such as staff replacement costs, the cost of lost knowledge and contacts often taken by exiting employees, temporary staffing costs, the training of new staff, additional administration, time - spent on discussions and meetings on how to reduce issues in the workplace that are directly or indirectly affected by the lack of wellbeing services for employees.

6. To prepare for the future - by developing a workforce that is both personally happy and happy to work for the company, the company is creating a future proofed system that will be able to withstand problems with the general economy or with changes to government regulation etc, by ensuring their workforce stays loyal and supportive of what they do and of the organisation in general.