September 19, 2024
Global employers have fully embraced multidimensional well-being strategies, an acknowledgment of evidence showing that supporting employees holistically has a far greater impact than a singular focus on physical health.1 These broader well-being strategies are influenced by current events and global trends and are evolving to address employees’ changing needs and align with organizational culture, goals and budget.
Showcasing data findings from the 15th Annual Employer-Sponsored Health and Well-being Survey, this resource lays out how employers are reimagining their strategies by providing a snapshot of current offerings across six dimensions of well-being: mental health, physical health, financial security, social connectedness, job satisfaction and community. It also forecasts the future state of each dimension and directs Business Group on Health members where they can go to find out more.
Mental Health
Signaling understanding that employee and covered dependents’ mental health needs are broad, varied and sometimes urgent, multinational employers have made mental health a primary dimension of their well-being strategies. In 2024, employers are offering a range of programs and benefits focused on the prevention of mental health challenges and the treatment of existing conditions.
While some of these offerings, specifically teletherapy, increased among employers in the U.S. in 2024, other mental health support, including mindfulness, stress management, resiliency, sleep and happiness programs, decreased. Such a shift may not necessarily indicate a de-emphasis on these focal areas, but rather a move away from siloed solutions in lieu of more comprehensive benefits. Supporting this hypothesis are data showing that newer EAPs are increasing: 49% of employers utilize newer EAP models in at least some countries, up from 38% in 2023. These newer models may incorporate many of the offerings listed above, potentially providing employees with a more integrated place to address their mental health needs.
Virtual offerings have become ubiquitous among employers as a way to scale easily accessible mental health services across their populations, but on-site care still plays a role in well-being strategies. Nearly one third of employers (30%) in the U.S. have an on-site EAP in 2024 and 27% offer on-site counseling/therapy, providing a convenient source of care for employees working in the office.
In tandem with the varied mental health programs and services already in place, employers have initiatives underway to create psychologically healthy workplaces. Among global employers, 48% offer manager training in all/most countries, while 32% offer peer training to help staff recognize mental health issues and direct employees to appropriate services. In a similar fashion, in 2024, 44% of employers in the U.S. have mental health champions/allies, employees who serve as important conduits to mental health benefits and programs. These initiatives are vital to each employer’s strategy, especially since peers/colleagues and supervisors are well positioned to support employee mental and emotional health.2 Broad communication about mental health (72%) and flexible work schedules that encourage employees to seek care during work hours (47%) are other ways that global employers are promoting open discourse, normalizing mental health and supporting care in 2024.
Outlook
- Mental health will remain a top priority among multinational employers, recognized as inextricably linked to other aspects of health. Global employers have indicated that they plan to expand this dimension of their well-being strategy in the next 3-5 years.
- Amid rising health care costs, employers will be judicious in their approach to adding new offerings and assessing the effectiveness of existing well-being initiatives. As employers consider the implementation and renewal of mental health solutions, outcomes will take center stage, focusing on the improvement of mental health conditions rather than relying on participation rates as a measure of success. Employers will also pay close attention to reducing solution redundancies and increasing the benefits experience, with a particular eye to improving integration across offerings.
- Supported by emerging or enhanced capabilities of vendors both old and new, employers will focus on mental health topics previously under- or unaddressed. These include maternal mental health challenges; pediatric mental health and substance use disorders (nicotine and opioid addiction); neurodiversity and ADHD; and eating disorders. In addressing these challenges, employers will push for timely, evidence-based and integrated care, as well as a supportive work environment.
- Leaders across the organization will continue to consider how workplace culture and job design, such as greater flexibility, time away, autonomy and attention to work/life needs, manager training (with a focus on empathy and authenticity), practices to promote team cohesion and social support and communication, can prevent and address the root causes of issues like burnout and loneliness – problems that can’t be solved with mental health treatment alone. As a part of these efforts, employers will also examine common workplace practices to be more inclusive of employees in recovery from substance use and eating disorders.
- Employers will stay abreast of mental health topics that have the potential to influence mental health care and well-being strategy in the future. Examples include psychedelic-assisted mental health treatment and the impact of natural disasters and climate change on mental health.
Related Resources:
- Engineering Mental Health: Building a Strategy from the Ground Up
- Redesigning the EAP: Employer FAQs for Getting Started
- Podcast: Turning Guidelines into Action: WHO on Mental Health at Work
- Podcast: Mindful of Motherhood: Prioritizing Maternal Mental Health
- Podcast: The Truth about Eating Disorders
- Webinar: Innovation Showcase: The Health and Well-being Needs of a Neurodiverse Workforce
Physical Health
Supporting physical health has been foundational to almost all global employer well-being strategies since the advent of wellness programs. Employers have, however, renewed their focus on physical health due to rising rates of diseases such as obesity and cancer around the world along with increasing costs associated with these conditions. In 2024, employers are providing numerous offerings that seek to prevent disease, identify health risks, promote behavior change and serve as extra support to clinical care. These offerings include those represented in Figure 1.2, all of which are expected to grow in 2025.
As with mental health, virtual tools and on-site services both play a role in supporting the physical health of employees. Worksite services to promote physical activity and healthy eating range from traditional offerings like treadmill desks and ergonomic support (70%), on-site gyms (69%), nutritional labeling in cafeterias (53%) and policies regarding health food options (45%), to more novel programs like farmers’ markets/CSA boxes (19%) and workplace goods pantries (15%).
When it comes to motivating employee participation in offerings related to physical health and well-being, most employers leverage well-being champions (67%) and financial incentives (72% of employers offer incentives in the U.S. and 22% of employers offer incentives outside the U.S.). Among the 72% of employers offering financial incentives to employees in the U.S., 40% of the incentive allocation is dedicated to health assessments/biometric screenings and 35% to other physical health activities, indicating the emphasis employers place on supporting the prevention and treatment of conditions.
Outlook
- To manage rising costs associated with obesity, organizations will promote weight management programs to guide patients to achieving sustainable behavior change. As part of this effort, employers will scrutinize existing and prospective weight management programs for fidelity to evidence-based care; mental health support; practices and protocols related to prescribing and overseeing the appropriate use of anti-obesity medications, including GLP-1s; the ability to integrate and refer to other benefits and programs (bariatric surgery, mental health); the duration of engagement for participants ; and outcomes, including but not limited to weight.
- Employers will look for ways their well-being strategy can serve as a complement to health benefits and improve the daily lives and experience of employees seeking medical care. Birth and death doulas; condition- specific support groups for patients or caregivers; coverage of items that acknowledge patient quality of life; and thoughtful consideration on how to welcome back and support employees who underwent a life-changing event or diagnosis are just a few examples of ways employers will seek to show up for employees.
- Although a long-standing focus, employers will re-emphasize principles of disease prevention, including physical activity, good nutrition and nicotine cessation. As a part of this emphasis, employers will explore creative approaches to engaging employees in these areas (e.g., incenting healthy eating through grocery discount cards) and pay greater attention to the ways in which social determinants of health may impede employees from positive behaviors that contribute to good health.
- Screening, including biometric and cancer screening, will be top of mind for employers, especially since nearly 7 out of 10 adults in the U.S. is behind on at least one routine cancer screening.3 Of course, employer considerations related to screening will include how to make it easy and accessible, but they'll also include how to create a grassroots movement to promote screening, particularly among younger populations who may not feel that they are at risk for disease.
Related Resources:
- Food as Medicine: Nutrition Interventions for a Healthier Workforce
- Podcast: By the Numbers: Cancer Facts & Figures 2024
- Podcast: Designing the "Carrot” in Incentive Programs so that Behaviors Stick
- Designing Incentives and Lifestyle Spending Accounts For a Modern Workforce
- The Global Landscape for Overweight and Obesity: A Guide for Employers
- An Employer's Practical Playbook for Treating Obesity
- Achieving a Healthy Workforce Worldwide: Business Drivers for Wellness Globally
Financial Health
Demonstrating their commitment to the financial well-being of employees, the majority of employers have included this dimension in their overall well-being strategy in 2024 (90% include it in their U.S. strategy and 65% include it in their global strategy).
The financial well-being initiatives that are being offered go well beyond helping employees save for retirement and include those represented in Figure 1.3 all of which are expected to increase in 2025.
Employers’ global financial well-being initiatives include general financial education (43% offer in all/most countries), discounts on products and services (28%), locally relevant solutions tailored to specific country needs (18%), financial planning sessions (17%), programs focused to support non-citizen employees (8%) and emergency loans (5%).
Employers are encouraging the use of varied programs and benefits to help employees with their day-to-day financial priorities and challenges and a small number offer financial incentives to promote engagement in these offerings; of those that provide incentives in the U.S. in 2024, 12% of the total incentive allocation is dedicated to financial well-being.
Outlook
- In the continued face of economic uncertainty, employers will increase their commitment to the financial well-being of employees: 99% of organizations indicate that they plan to have this as a dimension in their U.S. well-being strategy and 85% indicated that it will be a part of their global well-being strategy in 2025. Such an increase reflects understanding that stress about money impacts employee physical and mental health, as well as productivity and performance at work.
- Employers will strike a balance between education and action in all financial well-being benefits and programs. Improving financial literacy will be an aspect and goal that employers integrate into current and future offerings, ensuring that employees have opportunities to learn about financial-related topics. They’ll also prioritize ways employees can take action when it comes to their financial health, which research shows is more effective in reducing financial worries than education alone.4
- Multinational employers will focus on strengthening the global capacity of the financial well-being programs offered. In particular, they will look for vendors with the ability to curate financial educational content to specific countries and regions, as well as the ability to hire local financial professionals aware of geographic and cultural nuances and considerations.
- Employers will ensure that financial well-being programs account for the relationship between financial health and other dimensions of well-being through benefit or program integration. Integration is particularly important because financial health and other dimensions of well-being a influence one another bidirectionally, which must be acknowledged and responded to accordingly.
Related Resources:
Social Connectedness
A majority of employers include a focus on social connectedness as a part of their well-being strategies (77% in the U.S. and 61% globally), showcasing widespread understanding that supportive positive relationships and social belonging are not only necessary for employee well-being but important for business outcomes such as engagement. Employers are prioritizing promoting familiarity and helping employees uncover common interests/similarities, which research says are crucial ingredients to friendship formation in the workplace and help create a sense of belonging and pride.5
Beyond promoting connections with colleagues, employers are putting policies and practices in place to enable employees to maintain relationships with loved ones and their broader community. Companies are providing flexible work policies, encouraging employees to use their time off, providing paid time away or flexibility for volunteerism, and sponsoring events that incorporate family and friends
Outlook
- The lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic about the importance of human interaction will stay with employers for years to come. Leaders across organizations will seek to foster connection, belonging and positive work relationships through intentional approaches to support high-quality social ties. Doing so will be critical to retaining employees, as relationships at work are one way that employees can find meaning at work.6
- Employers will explore ways in which workplace connections can be enhanced through the overall well-being strategy specifically, such as through physical activity challenges, monthly healthy meal clubs, cooking classes and random acts of kindness campaigns.
- Leaders will consider opportunities to promote intergenerational friendships at work, such as through intergenerational mentorships or ERGs, because of the advantages that such connections may offer (e.g., two-way knowledge transfer and learning).
- Companies will continue to look at options to promote friendship formation throughout the employee life cycle, beginning with onboarding, and to deepen existing relationships, such as through leadership training.
- Initiatives to promote work/life balance will remain a priority as employers seek to enable employees to maintain a fulfilled life outside work and nourish relationships with loved ones.
Job Satisfaction
In 2024, 61% of employers included job satisfaction in their U.S. well-being strategy, while 43% of employers included it in their global strategy. Incremental growth of this dimension over the years indicates an acknowledgment of job satisfaction as a contributor to employee health and well-being, with research showing links between job satisfaction and employee turnover, customer satisfaction and loyalty, safety, productivity and health.7 Simultaneously, there’s an increasing sense of responsibility for job satisfaction among well-being leaders.
Leave and work/life balance initiatives are prominent ways benefit professionals contribute to the dual goals of improved well-being and more positive feelings about work, as work/life harmony is one of the many factors influencing job satisfaction.8
In addition to offering leave and flexibility, well-being leaders are addressing other factors that research shows impact job satisfaction. Providing benefits and a safe and healthy work environment are foundational to large employer well-being strategies and have never been more important, especially as organizations seek to recruit and retain talent. As described above, promoting social connectedness, another driver of job satisfaction, has also risen in importance.
Encouraging positive manager behavior, characterized by a willingness to listen and show respect, care, support and appreciation, is an area of current focus. This is demonstrated by the fact that 48% of employers in all/most countries offer manager training to help managers recognize mental health issues/stressors, and 62% of employers in the U.S. have manager training to build team connectedness.
Outlook
- Contributing to employee job satisfaction will continue to be a part of well-being leaders’ role as they consider how the initiatives they’re responsible for can contribute to a positive employment experience. This increased focus will lead to partnerships across the organization in pursuit of shared goals, such as by integrating well-being into learning and development objectives.
- Employers will seek to balance employees' desire for flexibility – ever-mindful that paid leave and flexible work arrangements impact their ability to attract and retain their workforce – with the need to meet business objectives, especially as businesses strive for growth.
- Equity and inclusivity will remain an important element of employers’ leave strategies, especially for multinational employers seeking to establish a global leave policy/philosophy.
- Organizations will seek to connect organizational and individual purpose (which nearly one-third of employers focus on as a part of their well-being strategy) and the connection between the two. Tapping into purpose has the potential to drive well-being and business outcomes.9
Community
In recent years, community has emerged as a dimension of employer well-being strategies, with employers focusing on both community involvement (i.e., encouraging volunteerism and engagement in local organizations) and the attributes of the communities in which employees live, work and play (i.e., addressing social determinants of health (SDOH)).
In 2024, 79% of employers include community in their U.S. well-being strategy and 61% of employers have it in their global strategy.
The focus on community involvement in employer well-being strategies is likely reflective of the benefits of these kind of activities, including the potential to foster social connections, enhance meaning and purpose, promote an active lifestyle (depending on the type of volunteerism), and contribute to job satisfaction.
Organizational focus on SDOH will likely increase in future years, with about half of employers reporting that they have SDOH on their roadmap. Some of the growth in SDOH efforts can be attributed to increased understanding that behavior change programs and health benefits may prove ineffective if social determinants, which influence 40% of our health status, aren’t also addressed. It may also be attributed to the fact that health plans and other vendors are developing more robust capabilities, which employers can then leverage on behalf of their workforce.
Outlook
- To improve employee well-being, more employers will look outside their own walls and consider community as a lever for health. They will enhance community involvement for employees and strive to integrate these efforts into their well-being strategies, such as by providing employees with volunteer opportunities or time off to volunteer.
- Employers will leverage the increasing data capabilities of their vendor partners to more deeply understand the social needs of employees and their families, including differences across geographies. Employers will also rely on employee input and feedback to validate and expand data findings.
- With SDOH data in hand, employers will develop new solutions or alter existing ones in conjunction with vendor partners to address social needs.
More Topics
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- 7 | Business Group on Health. Job satisfaction: The secret agent in well-being. January 9, 2020. https://www.businessgrouphealth.org/resources/job-satisfaction-the-secret-agent-in-well-being. Accessed August 12, 2024.
- 8 | NEF Consulting. Well-being at work: A review of the literature. March 26, 2014. http://neweconomics. org/2014/03/wellbeing-at-work/?lost=true&_sf_s=+publications+++well+being+at+work. Accessed August 12, 2024.
- 9 | McKinsey & Company. Help your employees find purpose—or watch them leave. April 5, 2021. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/help-your-employees-find-purpose-or-watch-them-leave. Accessed August 12, 2024.
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