The scope of wellness practices at work

A British study reveals that instead of meditation, coaching, and stress management, companies should focus on improving working conditions

Editorial staff

Over the last few years, workplace wellness initiatives, such as meditation practices, stress management, the use of specific apps, and volunteering have become almost mandatory within companies. In the United Kingdom, where most workers have access to such tools, a study was conducted to test the effectiveness of these practices on workers’ well-being. And the conclusion is that they have no effect.

Published in the Industrial Relations Journal, the study was performed by researcher William J. Fleming, of the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre. Fleming based this on the responses given to the 2017 and 2018 “Britain’s Healthiest Workplace” surveys, which involved more than 40,000 workers from 233 organizations.

The researcher considered the results of 90 different well-being interventions and compared workers who had participated in any of these initiatives to others who had not participated in any.

The conclusion was that those who participated in some type of well-being program did not have much better results than those in the other group.

The only exception was found among workers who had the opportunity to perform volunteer work: this activity did seem to improve their well-being.

However, the author himself points out: “Volunteer activities offer a possible exception, but the estimated effects are small, and these initiatives are not directly related to the demands of the job or the understanding of what well-being at work means.”

On the other hand, none of the other initiatives—apps, coaching, relaxation classes, time management classes, or financial health classes—had any explicit positive effect.

In fact, the opposite was found to be true: training, such as resilience and stress management classes, seemed to have a negative effect.

The author suggests that employers concerned with their employees’ mental health would do much better to focus on the essentials, such as organizational practices, working hours, salaries, and performance reviews.

“If employees do want access to mindfulness apps and sleep programs and well-being apps, there is not anything wrong with that,” says Fleming to The New York Times. “But if you’re seriously trying to drive employees’ well-being, then it has to be about working practices.”

According to the journal, Fleming’s study has been met with criticism and reservations, given that the corporate wellness services industry has been booming in recent years, with thousands of suppliers competing for billions of dollars.

David Crepaz-Keay, head of research at the UK’s Mental Health Foundation, described Fleming’s data and analysis as “certainly more robust than most of the research that has created the consensus that employee assistance works.”

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