A wellbeing strategy isn't a fruit basket. It's not a meditation app subscription. It's not Mental Health Awareness Week.

Those things can be part of a strategy. But they're not the strategy itself.

A real wellbeing strategy is a coherent answer to this question: what do we want our people to do more of, and what have we redesigned so that doing it is the easier option?

If your answer is "we bought some bananas," keep reading.

What actually is a wellbeing strategy?

It's a plan that makes healthy behaviour the default, not the exception. It's built on systems, not one-offs. It changes the environment, not just the individual.

And it matters because the UK has a workplace wellbeing crisis. Employee engagement sits at 10% – one of the lowest in the world – costing the economy around £257 billion a year. 

Sickness absence hit a 15-year high in 2023. Poor mental health alone costs UK employers £51 billion annually.

The ROI is there: every £1 spent on employee wellbeing returns an average of £4.70 in improved productivity, according to Deloitte.

But most wellbeing initiatives fail. They rely on willpower instead of systems. They're reactive instead of preventative. And they fade after the first month because engagement was never baked into the design.

A strategy fixes that.

Start with the problem, not the perk

Before you do anything, ask: what's actually going on?

Don't guess. Look at the data. Sickness absence trends. Exit interviews. Engagement surveys. Workload patterns. Where are people struggling?

Then talk to your people. Run focus groups. Send a short anonymous survey. Ask things like:

• What makes it hard to look after yourself at work?

• What would make healthy habits easier?

• If we could change one thing, what would make a real difference?

You're not fishing for a wishlist. You're looking for friction – the stuff that makes it harder to rest, move, eat well, switch off.

Skipping this step and jumping straight to "let's do yoga" is how you end up with a perk, not a strategy.

Remove friction before you add incentives

Most strategies focus on motivation. That's the wrong place to start.

People don't fail because they lack willpower. They fail because the healthy option is too hard.

Before you offer yoga or mindfulness, ask: what's stopping people doing this already?

Friction looks like:

• Back-to-back meetings with no time to move

• Expecting people to book health checks during work hours at an off-site clinic

• Hoping employees will take lunch breaks without making space for them

• Healthy food costs more than chips in the canteen

Fix the environment first. Make the healthy choice easier.

Set meetings to 25 or 50 minutes by default. Bring flu jabs on-site. Block out lunch breaks in shared calendars. Price salads the same as sandwiches.

The easier it is, the more people will do it. No willpower required.

This is what behavioural scientists call the "law of least effort" – when there are multiple ways to do something, people choose the path that requires the least energy. Design around that.

Make it visible

Wellbeing is invisible. People don't see their colleagues resting, moving, or managing stress. So they assume no one else is doing it either.

Make it normal by making it visible.

That means:

• Leaders model it – blocking lunch, leaving on time, talking about rest without apologising

• Share participation rates: "70% of the team joined this month's challenge"

• Celebrate small wins: "We walked 2 million steps this month"

• Run team challenges or use leaderboards for a bit of friendly competition

When people see others doing something, it becomes the norm. And norms are powerful. Social proof is one of the most effective behaviour change tools we have.

Build in accountability and feedback

People stick with habits when they get immediate feedback and feel accountable.

That could look like:

• Real-time progress tracking (Earn It's Creds Clock shows daily progress across move, wellness, exercise, habits)

• Team challenges where people feel accountable to each other

• Nudges at decision points ("take a 5-minute walk before your next meeting")

• Celebrating milestones as you go, not just at the end

This taps into something called the goal gradient effect: people get more motivated the closer they are to finishing. Visible progress keeps momentum going.

Only pay for what works

A lot of wellbeing budgets get wasted. Gym memberships no one uses. Apps no one downloads. Initiatives with strong sign-ups that die by week three.

Shift to paying for participation, not potential.

That's the Earn It model. Employers set a monthly allowance. Employees earn it by hitting wellbeing goals. If they don't earn it, you don't pay.

It's built on loss aversion: the fear of losing something you've already been given is a stronger motivator than the promise of gaining something new.

And it means your budget goes further. You're not paying for dormant accounts. You're investing in real behaviour change.

Measure what actually matters

Sign-ups aren't success. Participation is.

Track:

• Active users over time – are people still in after month 3? Month 6?

• Repeat behaviour – are they engaging regularly or just once?

• Health outcomes – absence dropping? Engagement improving?

• What people spend rewards on (tells you what they value)

Use that data to tweak the strategy. If participation drops after month one, you've got a habit problem. If no one touches a specific initiative, scrap it.

Measure both the leading stuff (participation, repeat actions) and the lagging stuff (absence, retention, engagement). Leading indicators show if habits are forming. Lagging indicators show if it's working.

Keep iterating

A strategy isn't static. It evolves.

Check in quarterly. Ask what's working, what's not, what's changed. Pilot new ideas with one team before rolling them out. Test, learn, adjust.

And remember: prevention is way cheaper than cure. Fixing things before people burn out costs a fraction of dealing with the aftermath.

Does your strategy actually qualify as a strategy?

If you can tick most of these, you're on the right track:

• It's based on data and employee feedback, not assumptions

• It has a clear, measurable goal

• It removes friction and makes the healthy option easier

• It's designed for long-term habits, not one-off buzz

• Healthy behaviour is visible and normal

• There's accountability, feedback, progress tracking built in

• You only spend on what's being used

• You measure participation and outcomes over time

• It evolves based on what works

If you can't tick many of these, you've got a perk. Not a strategy.

And that's fine – as long as you know the difference.

Want to see what a behaviour science-led strategy looks like in action? Book a demo.