How to create a successful health and wellbeing strategy for your workplace

Wellbeing at work has evolved rapidly. Flexibility, technology and changing employee expectations have reshaped how people experience work. 

A decade ago, workplace wellbeing may have been described as a collection of programs and benefits. Today, wellbeing is increasingly recognised as a foundational element of performance, leadership and culture.  

A successful wellbeing strategy looks beyond individual initiatives. It considers how work is designed to enable people to perform at their best. This includes how people experience work, how work itself is structured, and how wellbeing is supported in everyday moments. 

How do we work better?

Recent global research highlights the growing importance of workplace wellbeing as a strategic priority. Investing in workforce health can boost productivity, reduced absenteeism, and heightened employee engagement and retention.  

Yet, a gap remains between the research and employees’ everyday experience. The State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report found that 65% of Australian and New Zealand employees are not engaged and 12% are actively disengaged, while 49% report experiencing significant stress during the previous day. At the same time, an Australian study showed that  74% of employees say workplace wellbeing is now one of their top priorities over the next month. 

These findings reveal an opportunity for workplaces to re-imagine workplace wellbeing, including how work itself is designed. 

The core elements of work designs

Safe Work Australia highlights the importance of intentionally designing work in ways that support people to perform at their best and prevent harm. Amongst other key areas this includes:   highlights the importance of intentionally designing work in ways that support people to perform at their best and prevent harm. Amongst other key areas this includes:   
 

• How work is designed.  Work design plays an important role in shaping employee wellbeing. Addressing psychosocial risks such as high job demands, low job control and lack of role clarity can help create environments that support both wellbeing and performance. It is also important to recognise other potential risks, including vicarious trauma, fatigue and hazardous conditions.  
• Leadership capability. Leadership behaviours may play an important role in shaping employee experience, psychological safety and team culture. This also extends to workplace relationships that create a supportive and fair environment free from bullying, harassment and discrimination. 
• Prevention rather than reaction. Organisations that design systems with proactive approaches to wellbeing are better positioned to identify and address risks. 

When these elements work together they may protect workers from harm and improve employee health, wellbeing and business innovation.  

Defining your organisation’s vision

While these frameworks provide the foundations, workplace wellbeing strategies are often most effective when they are aligned with your organisation’s culture and leadership. 

For example, Medibank’s vision is to become the healthiest workplace in Australia by 2030. Achieving this requires creating a culture where wellbeing is embedded into everyday ways of working. This may include leadership check-ins that support workload management and team energy, networks of wellbeing champions that encourage participation in wellbeing initiatives, and larger organisational experiments such as the four-day work week. 

Discover your workplace DNA

Creating a customised wellbeing strategy begins with understanding your organisation's unique needs. An end-to-end approach may include: 

• Engaging employees and leaders through discovery sessions, surveys and focus groups 

• Analysing organisational data to understand priorities, pressure points and opportunities 

• Designing and delivering a wellbeing strategy tailored to your workplace 

• Measuring outcomes that matter and enabling continuous improvement 

From action to impact

A successful workplace wellbeing strategy can help you power your people's potential and realise your workplace wellbeing objective.  

As Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Oxford, explains: 

“For too long, wellbeing has been treated as an option. But the evidence is clear: when organisations put people’s health and wellbeing at the heart of their strategy, everything else improves, from innovation to resilience to business performance.” 

To find out more about designing your workplace wellbeing strategy, contact our team of our accredited Workplace Wellbeing Practitioners. We can help you create your organisation's wellbeing strategy including program design, delivery, budgeting and implementation.