Designing employee benefits and flexible working strategies that genuinely support health and wellbeing – while also driving performance – remains one of the biggest challenges facing employers today.
For SMEs and growing organisations in particular, limited budgets, lean teams and competing priorities can make it difficult to know where to start. But larger organisations are facing their own pressures too: rising costs, increasing expectations from employees, and a need to demonstrate measurable impact.
A forthcoming webinar from Make a Difference aims to cut through the noise, offering practical, real-world insights into what actually works.
From good intentions to real-world impact
Too often, workplace wellbeing strategies fall into one of two traps: they are either too superficial to make a difference, or too complex to implement effectively.
This session focuses on bridging that gap – moving from good intentions to practical action.
Rather than theory, attendees will hear directly from organisations that are taking a different approach, showing that high performance and employee health and wellbeing are not competing priorities, but mutually reinforcing ones.
Learning from bold disruptors
A key theme of the webinar is learning from employers who are challenging traditional ways of working.
Speakers include:
- Adam Creasey, the founder of an award-winning legal firm redefining culture in a sector historically shaped by billable hours and high workloads
- Holly Leckenby-Rye, a people leader from the mission-driven tech start-up Lottie which has embedded wellbeing into the employee value proposition from day one
- Chris Saunders, Deputy Head of SME with cross-sector broker PIB Employee Benefits, offering a broader market view on what is working across organisations of different sizes
- Pauline Alonso from EGYM Hussle who will lead the discussion
Together, they provide a mix of strategic thinking and practical application – from culture change through to benefits design and implementation.
Why this matters for all employers
While the session is rooted in the realities of SMEs, the insights are highly relevant for larger organisations.
In many cases, smaller employers are leading the way – moving faster, experimenting more freely, and embedding wellbeing into the fabric of their organisations rather than layering it on top.
For larger employers, this creates an opportunity to learn from more agile models and rethink how benefits and flexibility are designed and delivered at scale.
At the same time, SMEs can benefit from understanding how more established organisations structure their approach, measure impact, and build sustainable strategies over time.
Key challenges – and how to overcome them
The webinar will explore some of the most common barriers employers face when trying to improve health and wellbeing support, including:
- Budget constraints and competing priorities
- Lack of clarity on what “good” looks like
- Difficulty balancing flexibility with operational needs
- Low engagement with existing benefits
Crucially, the session will not just highlight these challenges, but provide practical ways to address them – helping organisations move forward with confidence.
Designing benefits that actually work
A central focus will be on how to create the right mix of benefits and flexible working practices.
This includes:
- Understanding what employees actually value
- Avoiding overcomplicated or underutilised offerings
- Aligning benefits with organisational culture and goals
- Ensuring flexibility works for both the business and its people
The emphasis is on effectiveness over volume – designing benefits that are used, understood and valued, rather than simply adding more options.
The link between health, wellbeing and performance
One of the most important shifts in recent years is the growing recognition that wellbeing is not separate from performance – it underpins it.
Organisations that get this right are seeing benefits across:
- Employee engagement and morale
- Retention and talent attraction
- Productivity and performance
- Organisational culture and reputation
This session will explore how to make that connection tangible, moving beyond rhetoric to measurable impact.
Who should attend
The session is designed for a broad range of roles involved in shaping workplace culture and employee experience, including:
- C-suite leaders
- HR, wellbeing, DE&I, and occupational health professionals
- Reward and benefits specialists
- Talent, engagement and communications leads
- Line managers and team leaders
- Wellbeing champions and ERG leads
Ultimately, it is relevant for any organisation – large or small – committed to building a healthier, more engaged and high-performing workforce.
Join the conversation
The webinar takes place on Tuesday 28th April from 10:00am to 11:00am and is free to attend.
You can find full details and register here
For those unable to join live, a recording will be shared with all registered participants.
As organisations continue to navigate an increasingly complex landscape, sessions like this provide a valuable opportunity to learn, reflect and take practical steps forward.
Because when it comes to workplace wellbeing, the question is no longer whether to act – but how to do so in a way that truly makes a difference.
