Employee wellbeing: HR’s next biggest challenge

The recent jobs report put HR leaders on notice: The competition for top talent is not subsiding. The figures smashed expectations, showing robust growth in an expanding economy. Now, my company has a new study showing one of the most critical things today’s organizations can do to excel in that competition: Build the kinds of wellbeing programs that deliver real results.

The State of Work-Life Wellness 2025 is packed with new findings that make this clear. It shows that today’s workforce is seeking a comprehensive suite of solutions that address their needs and aspirations. However, many organizations are not doing as well as they think.

To understand what makes a wellbeing program successful in driving productivity, attraction, retention, satisfaction and more, we first have to understand the needs of the workforce. So, Wellhub surveyed more than 5,000 full-time employees across a range of industries in North and South America and Europe.

We discovered that work stress has become the leading cause of decreased mental wellness. While inflation and worries about being replaced by AI may be getting more attention in the public sphere, for today’s employees, the stress of the daily grind has risen to the top. And the younger they are, the more likely they are to say this—suggesting that this problem will only grow as more members of Gen Z enter the workforce.

Many leaders think their companies are bucking the trend. But they don’t realize what’s really going on inside their ranks. Piecing through other recent research, we found that while 94% of CEOs believe their organizations are doing enough to support mental health in the workplace, only two-thirds of workers agree. Similarly, employers are much more likely than their staff to say that employees have access to mental health resources and the flexibility to get help.

Employees aren’t exactly thriving in terms of physical health, either. Only about half (54%) consider themselves to be in good shape. Even fewer say they’re eating well (40%), working out (39%) or getting enough sleep (32%).

All of these problems can exacerbate each other, creating a negative wellbeing cycle. Trying to get through each day, people become trapped in a routine of poor habits, damaging their health.

But there is good news. Some organizations are taking on wellness programs that work and seeing excellent results. In companies with these kinds of programs, employees are much more likely to say their overall wellbeing is good or thriving—and that they believe they are adequately compensated. And while only 45% of employees said their HR department genuinely cares about them, that figure skyrocketed to 79% of employees whose companies have wellness programs.

A crucial part of the solution is to understand that your team members may have different ideas about what constitutes a wellbeing “program.” Some employers believe that having health insurance, access to mental health resources and perhaps sporadic opportunities for stress reduction are enough. But today’s employees have a deeper, more nuanced vision of wellness.

They see all aspects of their wellbeing coming together. Researchers have studied these as “dimensions” of wellness, including occupational, physical, emotional, social, financial, intellectual, spiritual and environmental.

The more an organization does to provide a wide variety of resources to help team members improve in all these ways, as well as the flexibility to put those resources to use at whatever times work best for them while still getting their work done, the more likely employees are to see substantial improvement. That, in turn, fuels productivity and lower healthcare costs.

It also makes employees more likely to choose to work for the organization even when the job market is flourishing. In our study, 83% of employees said they’d consider leaving their current employer due to a lack of focus on wellbeing. And 89% said that when seeking a job, they’ll only consider companies that prioritize employee wellbeing.

Right now, more than half say their employers are falling short—meaning that the majority are ready to pick up and move to another organization that provides what they’re looking for. On the flip side, this presents HR leaders with an opportunity. Build out wellness and see those attraction and retention rates soar.

This is one of the reasons that we have found that when companies enact these programs, virtually all (95%) leaders who track return on investment say they find a positive ROI. As our CEO Cesar Carvalho explained in Fortune, “More than half (56%) said they get returns of more than 100%—meaning they are getting at least double their investments.”

In looking to map out a strategy for the year ahead, HR teams should face this unavoidable truth. Helping the workforce reduce stress and improve overall wellness is essential. Wellbeing is no longer a perk; it’s a must-have. As a people leader myself, I’ve seen how transformational it can be.