Being asked to lead workplace wellbeing does not always come with a clear obligation, reliable data or a proven roadmap. Emily Pearson explains how to move from scattered initiatives to an evidence-led strategy that professionals leading on wellbeing at work can govern, implement and measure for impact.
The blank page is rarely the real problem.
The real problem is that the person asked to write the wellbeing strategy has often inherited a collection of activities rather than a coherent system: an Employee Assistance Programme, awareness days, trained MHFAs, survey comments, sickness absence data and perhaps a senior leader asking, “What should we do next?”
They may have limited authority, incomplete data and no agreed baseline, yet they are expected to identify priorities, secure investment and demonstrate impact.
That is why so many capable professionals find themselves guessing. They are not short of commitment; they are short of a structured process.
With 964,000 workers in Great Britain experiencing work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, accounting for 22.1 million working days lost, workplace wellbeing is too important to build on assumptions. A credible strategy must show how the organisation will prevent harm, respond early and sustain the human capacity on which performance depends.
A wellbeing strategy is not a list of initiatives
One of the most common mistakes when considering how to write a wellbeing strategy is to begin with solutions.
This creates a plan filled with webinars, apps, campaigns, resilience sessions, health checks and communications. Some may be useful, but activity alone does not explain what problem is being solved, who is most affected or why the response is likely to work.
A resilience workshop cannot compensate for chronic understaffing. Promoting an EAP will not resolve a culture in which people do not feel safe disclosing that they are struggling. Training MHFAs will have limited impact if the problems lie with work-load and lack of manager support.
Every intervention must connect to evidence, risk and a defined outcome.
Start with insight, data and employee voice
The first step is not senior leadership buy-in or a new campaign. It is understanding what is happening.
Ask four questions:
- What is the evidence telling us about health, wellbeing and work?
- Which parts of the workforce are most affected?
- What organisational conditions may be contributing?
- What would meaningful improvement look like?
This requires triangulation. Employee surveys should be considered alongside sickness absence, turnover, exit interviews, occupational health referrals, EAP themes, stress risk assessments, safety incidents, workforce demographics and operational pressures.
Employee voice must also be safe, inclusive and representative. An organisation-wide average can conceal very different experiences by role, location, shift, demographic group or manager.
The goal is not more data. It is better evidence so resources are focused where they can make the greatest difference.
Benchmark the system, not the benefits
Many organisations assess wellbeing maturity by counting what they offer. A better question is: how capable is the organisation of preventing harm, supporting people and learning from evidence?
The Wellbeing Lead Academy® Culture Change Framework benchmarks four stages: At Risk, Box Ticked, Mentally Healthy and Inspiring Culture.
It examines nine connected domains, beginning with insight, data and employee voice and moving through leadership and governance, strategy and policy, work design and psychosocial risk, manager capability, professional support, peer support, communication and measurement.
This reveals important mismatches. An organisation may have strong awareness campaigns but weak accountability. It may offer clinical support while failing to manage workload or job design. It may train managers in basic mental health awareness without providing the knowledge, skills, behaviours and tools to prevent work-related stress or time to support their teams.
Benchmarking makes those gaps visible before money is committed to another initiative.
Change the work as well as supporting the worker
An effective workplace wellbeing strategy balances support with prevention.
Counselling, coaching, financial education and health promotion remain valuable. However, they sit lower in the control hierarchy than actions that remove or reduce sources of harm.
Where work is contributing to poor wellbeing, the strategy should consider workload, role clarity, staffing, working hours, autonomy, relationships, change management, bullying, discrimination and access to support.
The principle is simple: do not ask people to become more resilient to avoidable organisational harm.
This is where wellbeing becomes a leadership and risk discipline rather than a programme of employee benefits.
Write a strategy leaders can govern
A strong strategy should give the organisation a clear multi-year direction and translate it into an achievable action plan. It should include:
- The evidence and strategic case for action.
- Priority workforce needs and risks.
- Clear outcomes and success measures.
- Named ownership, governance and senior sponsorship.
- Preventative, supportive and inclusive actions.
- Links to people, health and safety, equality, operational and business priorities.
- A review cycle showing how learning will shape future decisions.
For every priority, leaders should be able to answer: Why are we doing this? Who owns it? What will change? How will we know? When will it be reviewed?
That clarity turns wellbeing from good intentions into an accountable operating model.
Build measurement in from the beginning
Do not wait until the end of the year to decide how success will be measured.
Attendance, EAP usage and campaign reach are useful outputs, but they do not automatically demonstrate impact. Outcomes may include reduced work-related stress absence, improved psychological safety, stronger manager confidence, more timely adjustments, reduced long term sickness, turnover or improved employee experience.
Use quantitative and qualitative evidence. Segment results where appropriate. Establish a baseline. Be honest about attribution and avoid presenting every positive movement as proof that one intervention caused it.
Good measurement helps leaders decide what to continue, improve, scale or stop.
Professional confidence comes from having a process
Professionals leading workplace wellbeing are often expected to solve complex organisational problems without a common methodology, sufficient authority or clear professional boundaries.
The answer is not to work harder at guessing.
Learning how to write a wellbeing strategy means following a disciplined sequence: listen, diagnose, benchmark, prioritise, govern, implement, measure and learn.
When that process is in place, the conversation changes. Instead of asking, “What wellbeing initiative should we run?”, leaders can ask, “What does our evidence show, what risk are we addressing and what organisational change will make the greatest difference?”
That is how workplace wellbeing moves from activity to impact.
Ready to stop guessing?
Download Wellbeing Lead Academy®’s free 28-page eBook, A Practical Guide to Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace Culture. It includes the Wellbeing Lead Academy® Culture Change Framework to help you benchmark where your organisation is now and identify what needs to happen next.
Download the complete free 28-page guide here
About the author:
Emily Pearson is founder of the Wellbeing Lead Academy and Manbassador with over 25 years’ experience across health and social care, public sector systems, and workplace culture change. Her work focuses on prevention, early intervention, and addressing health inequalities particularly those affecting working-age men. Emily has worked across criminal justice, homelessness, substance misuse, and emergency services, and now supports organisations to design evidence-based wellbeing strategies that move beyond awareness and deliver real system change.
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