Rethinking Employee Wellness Initiatives Addressing the real needs of today's workforce

What are the key challenges with employee wellness, and how can implementing personalised wellness programmes elevate team engagement and transform company culture? Entrepreneur UK talks with Steph Hind, co-founder of Heka, a London based wellness platform designed to provide employees with personalised health and wellness benefits, to find out.

Why are employee wellness programmes failing and how can founders rectify this?

Employee wellness programmes fall short due to a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach. Many companies offer standard perks like gym discounts or cycle-to-work schemes (which are great) but fail to address the diverse, evolving needs of their workforce. The result is a tangled web of underused or irrelevant benefits and disengaged employees.

To turn this around, founders need to rethink their approach. The keys here are personalisation and flexibility. Wellness initiatives should be tailored to individual needs and adapt as employees move through different life stages. More importantly, it must be up to the individual to decide the benefit that is right for them. It is also vital these benefits are easily accessible to encourage employees to make use of them, even the best benefits will be underutilised if redeeming them is a painstaking experience.

By shifting from tick-box exercises to genuine, employee-centric support, founders can create wellness programmes that truly resonate. This approach will boost engagement in wellness programmes, producing a better Return On Investment (ROI) for the organisation, and also builds a healthier, more productive workplace culture in the long term.

What emerging trends in employee wellbeing do you foresee in 2025?

We expect to see a shift towards hyper-personalised benefits as companies realise that static, one-size-fits-all packages simply don't cut it anymore.

A major focus for organisations will likely be managing rising healthcare costs, particularly Private Medical Insurance (PMI). We anticipate a growing emphasis on preventative care and early intervention to reduce the number of claims. For instance, physiotherapy - currently the most common PMI claim - could be covered through alternative platforms like Heka, allowing employees to access treatments more efficiently and consequently reduce claims.

Ultimately, the trend is moving towards holistic wellness ecosystems that integrate various elements of wellbeing that are personal to the individual employee. This will be underpinned by data-driven strategies, allowing companies to measure the impact of their initiatives and justify investments.

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What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs or organisations looking to enhance their employee wellbeing strategies?

Start with the fundamental question: Why are we all so stressed?

Rather than immediately jumping to solutions like gym discounts or fruit bowls, dig deeper into the root causes of workplace stress and dissatisfaction.

This starts with gathering honest employee feedback about their challenges and needs. This insight will help tailor wellbeing initiatives to address real issues rather than presumed ones; standardised programmes offering little flexibility fail to account for individual employee circumstances and evolving needs.

Only with this feedback can companies focus on providing meaningful support that tackles the core stressors in your workplace. This might involve reassessing workloads, improving communication or enhancing work-life balance. Organisations are more likely to create lasting positive change by addressing these fundamental issues.

Importantly, view wellbeing as an ongoing journey and not a quick fix. Regularly reassess and adjust wellbeing strategies to ensure they remain relevant and effective - data gathered from your platform of choice can help in this regard. Prioritising the 'why' behind a company's wellbeing initiatives is the best way to develop more targeted, impactful programmes that truly support employees and contribute to a healthier, more productive workplace culture.

What can we expect to see from Heka going forward?

At Heka, we're constantly enhancing the personalised recommendations on our platform. Part of this will come in the form of Heka Journeys. Once ready, this new functionality will allow Heka users to join wellbeing journeys relevant to their current goals, be it running faster, sleeping better, or eating healthier. By joining these journeys, Heka takes a holistic analysis into what products are right for each individual now, and in the future as they progress with their goals. It will add longevity to employee wellness benefits never seen before! Journeys will also enable users to track their progress, celebrating each milestone with them.

Our vision is a wellbeing platform that truly understands and adapts to each user's needs and preferences. Recognising that wellbeing is deeply personal - what invigorates one employee may not resonate with another - we're integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to take personalisation to the next level. This will enable our platform to suggest wellbeing activities and benefits that are hyper-personalised. It's an exciting leap towards making workplace wellbeing as unique as the individuals it serves, ensuring that every employee finds activities that genuinely inspire and benefit them.

What's the most surprising lesson you've learned about employee wellbeing?

Just how impactful employee wellbeing can be. If you picture two scenarios side-by-side, in the first an employee doesn't have good support, and in the second they do, those two people will perform very differently.

Real people face real challenges, whether financial, mental, physical, or otherwise. When employees can access tailored support systems, they're better equipped to navigate these hurdles and thrive in their lives in and outside of the workplace. It's not just about addressing problems but rather empowering people to reach their full potential.

Of course, there is also the dynamic of affinity between organisation and employee. It seems obvious, but employee benefits are a key way individuals assess how valuable they are to an organisation. A greater degree of personalisation and flexibility goes a long way in helping an employee feel connected and valued by their organisation, particularly when compared to the standardised alternatives we've grown accustomed to. So beyond employee satisfaction and increased performance, there can also be staff retention as a positive by-product.