Employee wellbeing is now a business performance issue

For a long time, workplace wellbeing was treated primarily as an employee experience issue. Employers invested in it because they wanted their people to feel healthier, happier and better supported. Yet, wellbeing is also fundamental to performance.

When employees are struggling with their physical, mental or financial health, the effects do not stop at the workplace door. They influence people’s energy, concentration, confidence and ability to cope with pressure and change.

Employers want to know whether their people can access and use the right support when they need it and is it making a meaningful difference?

Wellbeing and performance connection is clear

Benifex’s latest global research survey found that 85% of HR and reward leaders believe their investment in employee wellbeing is contributing positively to business performance, including financial outcomes.

Employees can feel the impact too. Nearly three-quarters (72%) say the benefits they receive from their employer have improved their quality of life, while 67% say they have improved their productivity.

When employees are healthier, more financially secure and better equipped to manage pressure, they are more likely to be able to focus and perform. When they feel supported by their employer, that can also influence engagement, trust and retention.

Employers are already seeing measurable results. Among the HR leaders surveyed in the research, wellbeing and benefits provision had contributed to improved employee engagement or sentiment, productivity and retention over the previous 12 months. Many had also seen lower levels of burnout, stress or mental health-related issues and reductions in sickness absence.

Provision alone is not enough

The challenge is that having support available does not mean employees can - or will - use it.

According to Benifex’s research, more than half (51%) of employees globally say it is difficult to access and understand the full value of their rewards and benefits.

This is a significant barrier. An employer may have invested in excellent mental health, financial wellbeing or preventative healthcare support, but its impact will be limited if employees do not know it exists, cannot find it or are unsure whether it is relevant to them.

It is also easy to underestimate what accessible support can mean to an individual.

In Benifex’s Little Book of Employee Benefits Stories, one employee describes experiencing severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. An NHS referral would have meant waiting months for support, but the employee assistance programme enabled them to be assessed and begin therapy within a week.

Wellbeing needs are rarely neatly separated

Employees do not experience physical, mental and financial wellbeing as isolated issues.

One story in the Little Book of Employee Benefits Stories comes from an employee who became seriously ill and was later diagnosed with Long Covid. Alongside concerns about their physical and mental health, they were worried about what would happen financially if they could not return to work.

Access to group income protection provided financial reassurance, while the provider worked with their employer and healthcare professionals to support their return.

Employers need to look at wellbeing as a connected experience. Employees should not have to understand the boundaries between different benefits providers or navigate several disconnected systems before they can find help.

Crisis support to earlier intervention

Employers will always need services that support people facing serious or complex health challenges. But workplace wellbeing cannot focus only on employees who have already reached crisis point.

There is an opportunity to help the wider workforce build healthier habits and manage pressure earlier.

This does not always require a large-scale programme. Short, evidence-based interventions - such as movement, breathing exercises, mindfulness and better-quality breaks - can help people manage stress, improve focus and build resilience when they are easy to fit into everyday life.

The employer’s role is not to take responsibility for every aspect of an employee’s health. It is to create an environment in which positive behaviours are easier and support is visible before somebody reaches breaking point.

That means thinking about the whole experience:

Is support easy to find and access?
Do communications help employees recognise when a benefit might be relevant?
Can employees access support wherever and however they work?
Are managers equipped to signpost help appropriately?
Is the organisation measuring outcomes, rather than simply the number of benefits offered?

Listen to individual stories

Data is essential if HR and reward teams are to understand whether wellbeing investment is working. Engagement, utilisation, absence, retention and employee sentiment all help build the picture.

But it’s important to note that data alone cannot show the full impact. Behind every utilisation figure is a person who may have received therapy sooner, felt more financially secure, returned to work after an illness or found support during a difficult period in their life.

The most effective wellbeing strategies combine both perspectives. They use data to identify patterns and make better investment decisions, while continuing to listen to the experiences of individual employees.

That is how organisations move from offering wellbeing initiatives to creating support that people can genuinely use and value.

Making wellbeing part of performance

Workplace wellbeing should not sit at the edge of the employee experience as a collection of optional initiatives. It should form part of the infrastructure that helps people remain healthy, resilient and able to perform.

This requires employers to look beyond what is offered and focus on whether support is relevant, accessible and delivering meaningful outcomes.

Benifex’s latest global research report, Energizing Reward and Benefits, explores how organisations can connect wellbeing and benefits investment with employee experience, productivity and business performance.