What are the best practices for implementing employee wellbeing strategies?

Employee expectations have changed.  

People increasingly look beyond salary when deciding where to work and whether to stay. Healthcare, financial support, mental wellbeing and flexibility can all play a part in how employees feel about their employer.  

But adding more perks isn't necessarily the answer.  

A wellbeing strategy needs to reflect what your employees actually need. That means understanding your workforce, making good use of the support you already provide and making sure employees know it's there.  

Here are some of the best practices to consider when building or reviewing your employee wellbeing strategy. 

How can you move from perks to a wider wellbeing strategy?

Free fruit, gym discounts and wellbeing days can all have a place. But on their own, they don't make a wellbeing strategy.

Employee wellbeing is much broader. A well-rounded approach should consider areas such as:  

• Physical health
• Mental health
• Financial wellbeing
• Social connection
• Work-life balance

The right balance will look different for every organisation.  

That's why one of the most important things you can do is listen before you act.  

Start with your workforce, not the latest trend

It's easy to look at what other employers are offering and assume you need to do the same.  

Instead, start with your own people.  

Howden Employee Benefits works with employers to look at workforce demographics, employee feedback and existing benefits utilisation data. This can help identify where support could have the greatest impact.  

That might mean looking at:  

• Workforce age
• Salary levels
• Career stages
• Family circumstances
• Where employees are based
• Working patterns
• How existing benefits are being used

Take a younger workforce, for example. Employees may place greater value on financial wellbeing support, workplace savings and mental health resources.  

An organisation with more employees approaching retirement could have very different priorities. Pension engagement, retirement planning and healthcare provision may become more important.  

Neither group is completely uniform, of course. Demographic data gives you somewhere to start, but it shouldn't replace actually asking employees what they want. 

Ask employees what they need

Employee feedback can help fill in the gaps that numbers can't.  

What do employees value about the current package? What challenges are they facing? Which benefits do they understand, and which ones have they barely heard of?

Combining these answers with demographic and utilisation data gives you a much clearer picture than assumptions alone.  

Howden's experience across different sectors shows that effective wellbeing programmes are built around the needs of the workforce, rather than simply following the latest market trends.  

There's also value in looking at benefits as a whole.  

For example, Howden's legal sector benchmarking research highlighted how employers are increasingly connecting benefits, pensions and wider financial wellbeing to improve employee outcomes, rather than treating each area separately. 

How can you secure leadership buy-in and budget?

Wellbeing needs investment, whether that's money, time or both.  

When you're asking senior leaders for that investment, it can help to move the conversation beyond the benefits themselves.  

Instead, connect wellbeing with the things the wider business cares about.  

That could include:  

• Employee absence
• Staff turnover
• Engagement
• Productivity
• Recruitment
• Workforce resilience
• Employer brand

The aim isn't to promise that introducing one benefit will suddenly solve absence or retention.  

It's about showing how the overall wellbeing strategy can support the organisation's wider goals and agreeing how you'll measure whether it's working. 

Do you actually need to spend more? 

Not always.  

Many organisations already spend significantly on employee benefits but aren't getting the full value from them.  

Employees might not know what's included. They might not understand how to use a service. Or they may not appreciate the value of something that's already part of their package.

Before adding something new, ask a simpler question:

Are we making the most of what we're already paying for?

Workplace pensions and financial wellbeing are good examples.

Employees can place significant value on employer pension contributions and financial support, but they need to understand what they're receiving and why it matters.

Clearer communication can sometimes increase awareness and engagement without increasing the overall benefits spend.  

That's why Howden's approach is to help employers improve the visibility, understanding and use of existing benefits before recommending additional investment. 

How should you communicate employee wellbeing benefits?  

You can have an excellent wellbeing package on paper and still see very little engagement.  

Why? Because employees need to know what support exists, understand why it's relevant to them and know how to access it.  

One email at enrolment isn't enough.

Communication should continue throughout the year and appear at the moments when employees are most likely to need it.  

This could include:  

• Wellbeing information during onboarding
• Targeted benefits campaigns
• Webinars and educational sessions
• Wellbeing events
• Manager toolkits
• Benefits platforms
• Regular reminders and updates  

Repetition matters.  

Most employees aren't going to remember every service available to them after reading about their benefits once. 

Make communications relevant

Not every employee needs to hear about every benefit at the same time.  

Where appropriate, communications can be tailored around what's most relevant to different groups within the workforce.  

An employee with a young family, for example, may be particularly interested in family support or financial wellbeing resources. Someone approaching retirement may find information about pensions and retirement planning more useful.  

The aim isn't to bombard people with information.

It's to help them notice the right support at the right time. 

Give managers the tools to help

Line managers can also play an important role.  

They're often closer to the everyday challenges employees are experiencing and may be able to spot when someone is struggling or showing signs of burnout.  

But managers can't signpost employees towards support if they don't know what's available themselves.  

Training, simple guidance and manager toolkits can help them understand the benefits available and point employees towards the appropriate resources.  

Managers can also help create an environment where employees feel able to use wellbeing support and maintain healthy workplace boundaries. 

How do you know if your wellbeing strategy is working?

Launching a wellbeing initiative shouldn't be the end of the process.  

You need to understand whether employees are actually engaging with it.

Depending on the benefits and technology available to you, useful measures could include:  

• Benefit registrations
• Utilisation rates
• Employee feedback
• Awareness levels
• Absence trends
• Staff turnover
• Engagement data  

But numbers need context.  

Low utilisation doesn't automatically mean a benefit isn't valuable. Employees might not know it exists, they might not understand how to access it, or it may be a service that's extremely valuable to a smaller number of people.  

That's why utilisation data and employee feedback work best together.  

Look at what's happening. Ask why. Then decide what needs to change.  

This creates an ongoing cycle of awareness, engagement, measurement and improvement rather than treating wellbeing as an annual campaign. 

How can you futureproof your employee wellbeing strategy?

A wellbeing strategy shouldn't be something you create once and leave untouched.  

Your workforce will change. So will the economy, employee expectations, healthcare pressures and the benefits market.

Regular reviews can help you understand whether your current approach still works.  

For example, you might find that your workforce demographics have changed significantly since the package was introduced. Or employees may be facing new financial pressures that weren't as prominent when you last reviewed your benefits.  

The support available from providers changes too.  

Reviewing your existing policies can uncover services or features that weren't previously available or simply aren't being used.  

An employee benefits advisor can help bring those different pieces together. That can include reviewing your existing provision, benchmarking it against the market, identifying gaps and looking for opportunities to control costs or make better use of what you already have.  

The goal isn't to keep adding benefits.  

It's to make sure the benefits you provide continue to be relevant to your people and your business. 

What does a successful employee wellbeing strategy look like?

There isn't one perfect wellbeing package.  

The strongest starting point is understanding your workforce rather than guessing what employees want.  

From there, look at the support you already provide, communicate it properly and measure how employees are engaging with it. Keep reviewing the strategy as your workforce and business change.  

Employee wellbeing works best when it isn't treated as a collection of individual perks.  

It should be part of the wider employee experience and support what you're trying to achieve as a business.

Want to get more from your employee wellbeing strategy?

Howden Employee Benefits can help you understand your workforce, review your existing benefits and identify where changes could make the biggest difference.

Talk to Howden Employee Benefits about building a wellbeing strategy that works for your people and your business. 

Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing Limited is part of the Howden Group. Registered in England and Wales under company number 2248238, with its registered office at One Creechurch Place, London EC3A 5AF. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register No. 312841).    The Financial Services Register can be accessed through www.fca.org.uk