Workplace well-being isn’t in a healthy place.
Many organizations are falling short when it comes to supporting and investing in their employees’ well-being. Oxford University researcher, Dr. William Fleming, found that of the 90 well-being programs he assessed, all were found to be ineffective, excluding voluntary work. This inability to support employee mental health has led to a spike in disengagement and a costly impact on retention rates.
Yet in the first quarter of 2024, engagement among U.S. employees dropped three percentage points to 30%. According to Gallup, this decline represents 4.8 million fewer employees who are engaged in their work, marking the lowest reported level of engagement since 2013. In May 2024, half of U.S. employees (51%) were watching or actively seeking a new job, the highest rate since 2015 and continuing a recent upward trend.
In 2024, preventable turnover, resignations driven by career stagnation, work-life balance issues and management failures, accounted for 63% of all exits. With every resignation costing around 33% of the outgoing employee’s base salary, turnover has proven to be costly.
So, how should learning and development (L&D) leaders rethink employee well-being? And what trainings should be in place? This article will review practical ways L&D can leverage employee well-being initiatives as a retention strategy.
No More Perks: Rethinking Employee Wellness Strategies
L&D leaders must rethink how they envision their training offerings for employee well-being. It seems that, while businesses recognize the importance of well-being, the programs they provide are not cutting through. Programs such as yoga, mindfulness, gym sessions and sleep apps may be beneficial in their own right. But none successfully offer a strategic response to disengagement. It’s tempting to look for new and better programs.
Employee mental health requires more than yoga classes and wellness perks. Instead of asking which well-being programs are offered, organizations should ask how well-being is truly valued. Participation in programs is often low — and those who do engage may feel they’re managing the effects of a stressful culture on their own. Without addressing the root causes of burnout, fatigue and disengagement, these efforts fall short. A supportive culture must go beyond perks to prioritize mental health systemically.
L&D leaders must prioritize initiatives that strengthen company culture and support employee well-being. Research from experts like Amy Edmondson and Paul Zak consistently points to a core set of values: trust, respect, psychological safety and belonging. Together, these values form the foundation of social well-being — a vital driver of inclusive, energized and committed teams. When employees feel respected and connected, they’re more likely to thrive and contribute meaningfully to organizational success.
Introducing Social Well-Being
People don’t quit jobs; they leave managers and practices they no longer find acceptable. Social well-being tackles toxic environments. And it encourages management practices that build better cohesion and teamwork, improving engagement and easing retention.
Recognition from peers and managers is fundamentally important to most people. So too is an element of agency (as opposed to being micro-managed). Equally, people value humanistic moments that prioritize personal interaction.
Opportunities for informal personal interaction can be limited, by zealous managers or by spyware — both monitoring performance in the interests of efficiency. But curtailing that personable side to work can easily lead to disinterest, inefficiency, and ultimately, disengagement.
How to Embed Social Well-Being in L&D
Here are practical ways to integrate social well-being into your training courses at three levels:
- Foundation: By building social confidence, employees can learn to bring their authentic selves to work and engage more effectively with others. This includes learning to speak up in meetings, feel comfortable interacting across levels, and express ideas clearly and confidently. L&D can support this by offering training that helps employees present with impact, overcome stage fright and communicate with presence in a variety of workplace settings.
- Intermediate: By learning to encourage psychological safety, managers build stronger teams that benefit from higher collective intelligence. Skills in critical thinking inspire flexibility in decision-making processes. And progressive actions lead to recognition and reward, such as replacing backward-looking annual appraisals with continuous feedback focusing on career development.
- Advanced: By adapting culture to current needs, leaders can create an environment that supports stronger team engagement. This begins with an understanding of social well-being, which underpins skills in other areas, for example leading through change. To respond to people’s reactions to change, leaders will need to rely on the emotional intelligence that social well-being encourages.
To truly support engagement and protect retention, L&D must focus on training that can support their people at work. What matters more than any particular program is the culture of the company that provides it. If the objective is to provide a few perks, disengagement and retention may continue to be challenging. However, if the aim is to develop a great place to work, where people want to commit to their role and stay with their employer, something deeper is needed. Culture is a great place to start. And training can nudge it in the right direction.
