At a time when an environment of change continues to reshape priorities, it’s more important than ever to tune into evolving needs and expectations.
With this in mind, in November 2024 the organisers of our sister event, The Watercooler, conducted research with professionals who attended the last edition of the show. They also sought the opinions of those in their network that didn’t attend the event. The goal: to give the audience the chance to shape the future of work by making the content of the The Watercooler Event in 2025 as relevant to them as possible.
The insights shared provide a “State of the Nation” snapshot of evolving priorities, which is useful for
employers that want to stay ahead. It’s also insightful for suppliers who want to understand what employers are looking for in the year ahead.
Crucially, the majority of respondents indicated that they will be spending about the same, more or much more. Particularly around wellbeing, training, systems, benefits and the office environment.
Employee health & wellbeing and leadership are stand out issues
To gain insight into the information needs and investment priorities of the community, respondents were asked to share the key areas that they are reviewing in 2025.
Employee health and wellbeing is the stand-out issue (79.3%), followed by employee experience (65.2%), DE&I (47.8%) and AI (43%).
As referenced in this report from our summer “In search of productivity?” Leaders’ Lunch, ten, or even five years ago, it felt insensitive to talk about employee health, wellbeing and productivity in the same breath. The focus was more on the moral rather than the business imperative. But the narrative is shifting – with over a third (34.8%) of respondents naming business productivity as an investment priority.
One respondent commented that they are focused on the different pillars of employee wellbeing under the umbrella of “leadership”. Others noted their frustrations around the lack of accountability for managers and leaders in their organisation with regards to health and wellbeing. The impact that change fatigue and management decisions is having on employees’ health and wellbeing was also emphasised.
All of these comments emphasise the crucial role that leaders play, both in creating workplace environments that enable colleagues to thrive, and in embedding strategies that really make a difference.
Aligning rewards, benefits, health, wellbeing and inclusion
Top priorities for respondents around pay and benefits are inclusive benefits options, benefits packages (broadly), new benefit opportunities and trends, as well as the rising cost of employee benefits. National minimum wage and salary sacrifice issues were also cited as a key area of focus.
Meanwhile a top priority around diversity, equity and inclusion is integrating DE&I into health & wellbeing and management training. This approach will not only ensure that initiatives are inclusive and respond to specific needs. It should also deliver the greatest value on investment.
Taking the professional pulse
As well as understanding investment priorities, the survey aimed to get a sense of how professionals with a workplace culture, employee health and wellbeing remit feel about their work, and the specific challenges that they are facing. Whilst 42.6% indicated that they love their job and find it very fulfilling, the majority (54.3%) recognise that it has challenges.
Reassuringly, whilst 47.8% of respondents feel about the same about their job as they did last year, over 40% think that their job is better or much better than last year. I wonder how many professionals in other roles would say that?
When respondents were asked to elaborate on the key challenges they personally face in their role, the two stand-out issues are:
- Choosing between competing priorities
- Overcoming silos and getting departments to work together.
By bringing all stakeholders together, The Watercooler Event provides a unique opportunity for those responsible for health & wellbeing, safety, workplace culture, benefits, DE&I, L&D, employee experience and engagement to convene. Networking, sharing ideas on new and best practice and discovering products and services that will maintain the leadership buy-in needed to empower both people and businesses to thrive.
You can download the full report of key insights from The Watercooler research here.
Taking place on 7th and 8th May 2025 at ExCeL in London, The Watercooler Event is Europe’s leading trade show, with free-to-attend content, dedicated to creating workplaces that empower both people and business to thrive.
Now in its fourth year, it’s two days of cutting-edge employee health, wellbeing, workplace culture, networking and product discovery – celebrating the future of work. Co-located with The Office Event for the full 360 degree workplace experience.
You can find out more and register to attend here.
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