Workplace Wellness Is Unwell—Companies Must Refocus on Fair Pay and Livable Hours

By Thierry Malleret, economist

In 2022, $51 billion was spent globally on workplace wellness programs (according to the GWI, in measures ranging from apps to counseling). Yet, the global workforce seems never to have been so unhappy, unhealthy, and unwell. 

According to a recent Gallup report, employees’ stress has reached unprecedented levels, with the result that “the majority of the world’s employees continue to struggle at work and in life, with direct consequences for organizational productivity.” Why such a dissonance when $51 billion is being spent on workplace wellness? This is a topic of endless debate in the academic literature, but more and more researchers are concluding that many workplace wellness programs are being proposed and sold despite the lack of evidence that they work. An example is provided by this peer-reviewed study showing that, with the exception of doing charity and volunteer work, none of the wellness offerings—the apps, coaching, relaxation classes, courses in time management or financial health—have any positive effect, and that training on resilience and stress management seemed to have a negative effect. 

In essence, researchers in general recommend that before offering employees solutions to manage their stress, employers should do more to address the ways in which they (and their business) cause stress in the first place. Wellness perks and programs achieve little or nothing in a stressful working environment. As Jim Harter, chief workplace scientist at Gallup, puts it in the report: “To get wellbeing right, at a fundamental level, you not only need the organization to provide resources, but you also need managers who know how to direct people to the right resources and how to help them have good work lives.” The bottom line: fair remuneration, livable hours and good working conditions are the best workplace programs that exist.