Workplace well-being initiatives don't boost employee mental health

The mental health of people who undertake mindfulness or meditation courses offered by their employer is generally no better than those who are not offered such programmes

The well-being initiatives offered by many companies do little to boost their employees’ mental health, according to a survey of more than 46,000 workers.

In the UK, more than half of employers have adopted formal staff well-being strategies. These can include employee assistance programmes, which provide support on professional or personal issues, as well as counselling, online life coaching, mindfulness workshops and stress management training.

“Increasingly, employers have been offering various strategies, practices and programmes to improve well-being and mental health,” says William Fleming at the University of Oxford. “The basic aim of them is to change people’s psychological capacities and coping mechanisms,” he says.