Measuring employee wellbeing in the workplace

Before implementing new initiatives, it’s helpful to measure current levels of employee wellbeing. You can use surveys, interviews, group discussions and other methods to gather data.

For instance, some companies use pulse surveys to collect frequent, specific data on employee sentiment, making it possible to track changes over time. Regular measurement helps employers determine whether these changes align with their goals.

You may want to consider tools that help employees monitor and support their own workplace wellbeing, such as mental health apps, journaling platforms, AI check-in tools or stress management resources. If you’re exploring digital solutions, prioritize tools that give employees control over their own data and avoid mandating activity trackers like step counters, which may not be appropriate for everyone.

Some employees may have limited mobility or a history of disordered exercise patterns, and wellness programs should be inclusive and non-intrusive. Consider flexible work options, paid time off and mental health resources that support self-care without tracking or comparison, helping all employees feel supported on their terms.

AI tools can be used as examples of modern methods for assessing employee wellness. These tools help employers gather and consolidate feedback more efficiently, especially across large or distributed teams. For example, AI-powered survey platforms can analyze open-ended responses to identify sentiment trends such as whether employees feel overwhelmed, supported or disengaged.

Some tools also summarize wellness check-in data or flag potential concerns in anonymous feedback, helping HR teams spot changes in morale, engagement or stress over time. While AI should not replace human judgment, it can support broader efforts to monitor and improve employee wellbeing.

Key elements of employee wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is a broad term, so it’s helpful to understand its components. Some of the elements employers track as part of their wellbeing initiatives include:

• Accomplishment: Providing frequent feedback, such as conducting weekly, monthly or quarterly one-on-one meetings, may give employees a sense of accomplishment, improving their emotional wellbeing.
• Appreciation: In a supportive workplace, company leaders generally show appreciation to employees for their contributions. Consider writing thank-you letters, recognizing employees during meetings or offering half-day Fridays during the summer months.
• Belonging: Belonging refers to a sense of connectedness within a team. You can foster a sense of belonging by warmly welcoming new employees, engaging in regular team-building activities and supporting open communication.
• Effective management: Successful leadership can lead to increased motivation, employee retention and productivity. When employees feel heard and respected at work, they’re also generally more likely to have higher morale.
• Energy: Teaching employees when to delegate tasks, communicate about their bandwidth and when they need additional support can help protect their energy at work.
• Fair pay: When employees feel they’re compensated fairly, including your company’s benefits, bonuses or equity for their contributions, they may be more likely to stay with your company.
• Flexibility: Enabling employee flexibility at your company can encourage creativity and a better work-life balance. You might offer remote work arrangements, a hybrid schedule or flexible hours, such as 40-hour workweeks divided into four 10-hour shifts.
• Inclusion and respect: An inclusive workplace welcomes team members from different backgrounds. When you show respect for differences, employees may experience less stress, leading to increased wellbeing.
• Learning: Providing employees with opportunities to gain new skills and knowledge helps them feel more confident in their careers.
• Support: In a supportive workplace, colleagues may assist one another. Leaders also encourage employees to reach their goals by offering mentorship, continuing education or training opportunities.
• Trust: To create a high-trust culture, consider how you can provide team members autonomy, actively listen to and address their feedback and create an inclusive workplace.

Strategies for enhancing career wellbeing

To promote workplace wellbeing, consider updating your training and development program. If most of your training sessions focus on company policies and processes, think about adding material on stress relief, ergonomics and other topics related to wellbeing. Alternatively, you can have conversations about wellness to help identify employees who might need extra support.

You may also want to help employees identify their strengths by making a development plan with incremental goals and a path to achieve them. You might meet weekly or bi-weekly for one-on-one check-ins to adjust as needed. When employees have opportunities to use their strengths, they’re more likely to feel satisfied with their work.

Consider training managers to adopt a coaching management style. When managers engage in coaching, they provide regular feedback, celebrate employee successes and strive to match employees to tasks based on their strengths and interests. This helps build trust and creates an environment that promotes employee wellbeing.

The role of social wellbeing

Interpersonal relationships at work can help employees feel satisfied, foster a sense of belonging and build trust among colleagues. You might offer a company-provided holiday to support this effort. Consider starting an employee volunteer program, such as a fundraising event for a community cause or one supporting an environmental conservation project, to promote social connections while contributing to your community.

Volunteerism can also help employees reduce stress and enhance emotional wellbeing. It also provides team members with the opportunity to interact in a different environment, strengthening their relationships.

Mental health and its impact on employee wellbeing

Mental health affects every aspect of an employee’s life, including work. Improved mental health can make it easier to focus, which may support performance and enhance decision-making abilities. You can take several actions to support your employees’ mental wellbeing.

You may want to find ways to remove work-related stressors, such as uneven workloads or a lack of flexibility. Eliminating stressors can improve communication and reduce conflict among team members. For example, you might host morning meetups to clearly define each employee’s tasks for the day to avoid role conflict, or overlap between job duties.

If employees need help strengthening their relationships, consider offering training on conflict resolution, effective collaboration and open communication.

If you don’t have existing mental health initiatives, consider adding wellness programs to your company. For example, some programs offer confidential counseling to team members experiencing high levels of stress. Consider creating inclusive mental health policies to help employees feel supported.

The employer’s role in promoting employee wellbeing

Promoting employee wellbeing can benefit your company by increasing productivity, preventing burnout and creating a positive work environment. When companies make this a priority, employees are seven times as likely to be satisfied with their company.

Since wellbeing may impact performance, you may benefit from taking an active role in improving it rather than merely acknowledging it. For example, investing in wellbeing can make your company more attractive to potential applicants, making it easier to meet your recruitment goals.

Effective wellbeing programs and initiatives

Effective wellbeing programs help employees improve their physical and mental health. They can also help your company save money. Consider implementing some of these initiatives:

• Offer incentives for health checkups. Health-related incentives encourage employees to build healthy habits. You may want to offer a branded water bottle, gift certificates for healthy food or other incentives to motivate employees to get an annual checkup.
• Encourage physical activity if possible. Having a gym on the premises provides employees with more opportunities to exercise, which may improve their physical health. If you don’t have space for a full gym, you can create an exercise area with floor mats, stretching bands, balance balls and other equipment. Consider having a fitness trainer come to your workplace to teach employees how to exercise safely. You might also offer wellness programs for remote or hybrid employees.
• Plan wellness challenges. Wellness challenges combine friendly competition with healthy behaviors, making them an effective way to promote physical and mental wellbeing. You may want to choose one aspect of wellbeing to focus on for one week or one month. For example, some employers have water challenges to encourage employees to stay hydrated.

Improving employee engagement through wellbeing efforts

Improved wellbeing has several benefits for employers, such as:

• Increased customer engagement
• Lower turnover
• Reduced costs
• Better financial performance
• Higher levels of job satisfaction

Your wellbeing efforts may also help strengthen an employee’s performance and their interest in your organization, including their loyalty, willingness to refer others in their professional network or employee advocacy. When team members feel supported, they may be more productive and potentially deliver better results.

Best practices for supporting employee wellbeing

To support employee wellbeing, consider offering mental health resources in addition to those provided by your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). For example, you may want to create a stress kit, digital or physical, to help employees relieve tension on their busiest days. Digital options might include a playlist or subscription to a meditation app like Calm or Headspace.

It’s also helpful to incorporate employee empowerment into your wellbeing program. Empowered employees feel confident in their decisions and have some autonomy in their work activities.

Soliciting suggestions from employees may help them feel more empowered, especially if you acknowledge their feedback and act on it promptly. Even negative feedback can help you create a better work environment, so encourage employees to be honest.

FAQs about work wellbeing

What is work-life balance?

Work-life balance is a key aspect of employee wellbeing, as it represents a manageable balance between an employee’s professional and personal lives. Offering flexible schedules, allowing remote work, scheduling frequent breaks and helping employees manage their workloads are all ways to improve work-life balance within an organization.

What is a mentally healthy workplace?

A mentally healthy workplace is one where employees feel supported by managers, supervisors and colleagues. In this type of environment, these leaders actively listen to feedback and show appreciation, while team members typically enjoy collaborating and have regular opportunities to relieve stress.

Employees also feel comfortable discussing their mental health, especially with team leaders. Implementing employee wellbeing initiatives can help you create a mentally healthy workplace for your team.