A third of employers only direct employees to health and wellbeing support when requested

New research¹ from the employee benefits experts at Everywhen shows that the most common method for encouraging employees to make use of health and wellbeing support is to only direct them to support when requested. Nearly a third (32%) of employers stated they signpost support on demand, which Everywhen is advising is often not the best approach.

Debra Clark, head of wellbeing at Everywhen, said: “Relying on employees to request the health and wellbeing support they need has issues, not least that they may not want to ask for help, and definitely wouldn’t if they do not know what support is available.”

In fact, 13% of all employers, and nearly one in five SME employers (19%), state they do not actively encourage use of support at all. This is disappointing given the advantages for employees and the businesses where health and wellbeing support is offered and taken up.

Debra Clark comments: “It’s almost a waste of time having benefits in place if no one knows about them.”

Although clearly more needs to be done to promote the health and wellbeing support available, it is positive that there is a varied mix of approaches and tactics used to encourage engagement among many businesses. This includes:

• 30% of employers produce wellbeing calendars of events and awareness days. These provide regular opportunities to remind employees of the support available, often focusing on a specific topic or area, and can cover a wide variety of topics.

• 29% of employers use the company intranet to promote support and a quarter (25%) have apps or an employee benefits platform. Digital support is a good way to ensure lots of employees are made aware of the support available.

• 23% of companies have health and wellbeing champions and 19% use ‘lived experiences’ to help make support more personal and approachable.

• 21% run in-person events with health and wellbeing specialists

• 17% use providers/suppliers/advisers to help with their in-person events, and 21% use advisers/suppliers/providers to help with their written communications.

Using a mix of messages and methods is the best approach to promoting health and wellbeing support, as different media will resonate with different people. Some will respond best to written communications, while some will prefer to see case studies and examples of lived experiences, and others will be happy to talk in person.

Regular communication of the support available is also very important, as employees often do not really take notice or engage with a message until they actually need the support. It is worth employers talking to their health and wellbeing advisers and providers regarding employee engagement, as many will be able to help with communications, and will have case studies they can share.    

Large corporate companies (those with 250+ employees) are more likely than SMEs (those with 249 or less employees) to offer every kind of approach for showing the support available, including, for example,

• 35% of large corporates provide access via apps or a digital platform, compared to 19% of SMEs,

• 36% of large corporates have health and wellbeing champions, compared to 16% of SMEs and

• 31% of large corporates offer webinars, compared to 13% of SMEs.

Many SMEs find it harder to compete with large corporates for talent and have a poorer reputation for offering benefits and support. So, it is often even more vital that SMEs promote their health and wellbeing support.

 There are many ways, however, that SMEs, and indeed all companies, can encourage employees to make use of health and wellbeing support that do not have to be expensive or time-consuming to implement. Having wellbeing calendars and sharing information on the intranet are just two examples and an SME’s adviser or provider will often have something readymade that they can use.

Debra Clark concluded: “It is good news that a wide variety of approaches are being used to encourage employees to seek health and wellbeing support if and when needed, but generally more employers need to be implementing more methods of communication and promotion to engage with more employees regarding the health and wellbeing support available. This is the best way to ensure that the support in place has a positive impact for the employee and the company alike.”

Sources:

 1.     Research undertaken on behalf of Everywhen by Opinium in January 2026 among 500 HR decision makers across the UK