How to nurture employee & workplace wellbeing

Running a business isn’t only about profit margins, deadlines, or KPIs. It’s about investing in your people, their wellbeing, and how they feel walking into work each day. By focusing on employee and workplace wellbeing, you have the chance to create a more productive environment and a space where people actually want to be. 

This article will guide you through why wellbeing should be a leadership priority, and how you can weave it into your business culture.

What wellbeing means

Wellbeing is a state of feeling physically healthy, mentally and emotionally balanced, and socially supported. When your wellbeing is in a good place, you’re more able to cope with everyday challenges, use your strengths, and feel connected to others.

In a workplace context, it’s helpful for leaders to fully understand the difference between employee wellbeing and workplace wellbeing. 

Employee wellbeing focuses on the individual, like how satisfied they feel in their role, how they manage stress, and whether they have a healthy work-life balance. It’s shaped by things like workload, leadership style, flexibility, and access to support. It can also include financial stability, career development, and a sense of purpose.

Workplace wellbeing, on the other hand, is about the environment people work in. It involves the physical work environment and other less tangible factors like culture, leadership, and policies that help employees feel safe, supported, and able to do their best.

Why employee & workplace wellbeing are important

Workplaces that prioritise wellness in the workplace tend to see more engaged employees, stronger relationships, and better collaboration across the board. But the benefits go even further. 

According to Comcare, the national authority on work health and safety in Australia, getting health and wellbeing right can lead to major improvements in business performance. Some of the key benefits for organisations include:

• Lower absenteeism and fewer workplace injuries

• Faster return to work after illness or injury

• Fewer workers’ compensation claims

• A more inclusive and supportive workplace culture

When leaders actively invest in their staff's wellbeing, the whole business benefits, not just in the short term, but as part of long-term growth and success.

Workplace factors that impact wellbeing

If you’re serious about building a healthier, more productive work environment, it’s first worth looking at the workplace factors that may have an impact on your team’s wellbeing.

One major factor that can undermine a corporate’s wellbeing is workplace conflict. When people experience ongoing tension, rudeness, or social exclusion, it creates a stressful environment that impacts performance and morale. 

And if this behaviour becomes repeated and unreasonable, it can cross the line into work bullying or even cyberbullying. Bullying doesn’t just harm one person. It affects the whole team by weakening trust and making the environment feel generally unsafe for everyone.

Other critical factors that affect your employee and workplace wellbeing include: 

• Job security

• Access to learning opportunities

• Realistic balance between performance expectations and available resources

• Consistent support from leaders and colleagues

When these factors don’t align, it can lead to stress, fatigue, lower engagement, weakened team morale, and higher staff turnover. These are outcomes that no business can afford to ignore.

5 tips to nurture wellbeing at work

Creating a healthy wellbeing at work means building an environment where people feel safe, supported, and able to do their best, without burning them out. That starts with making wellbeing part of everyday working life, and not a one-off initiative or tick-the-box policy.

Here’s what research, forums, and lived experiences suggest works best for supporting and maintaining employee wellbeing:

1. Ask employees what they actually need

Employee health and wellbeing can’t be a top-down decision. Ask your team what’s actually helpful. 

One of the biggest barriers to mental wellbeing is avoidable stress at work (check out this Reddit thread and LinkedIn discussions to see what some employees are saying). The basics need to be right: fewer unnecessary meetings, fewer last-minute changes, and more reasonable workloads. It’s not about eliminating all pressure, rather, it’s about not adding to it needlessly.

To get their honest opinions, regularly conduct wellbeing check ins or staff wellbeing activities. Invite them for mindfulness sessions or walking meetings, and you’ll get better buy-in and more realistic solutions.

2. Build a psychologically safe culture

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor from the University of Oxford, stresses the importance of psychological safety in improving workplace wellbeing. This means creating an environment where people feel they can speak openly about mental health at work, ask for help without fear, and trust their team and leaders. It also means making sure your team gets fair, consistent support, especially in tough times, and not just during performance reviews.

3. Use the PERMAH™ framework as a guide

If you’re still unsure where to get started, you can use Dr Martin Seligman’s evidence-based PERMA™ model as a starting point. According to this workplace wellbeing strategy, there are five building blocks that you can follow to support your team’s wellbeing and performance at work:

• Positive emotions - Help your teams manage stress in healthy ways

• Engagement - Use feedback that highlights their strengths

• Relationships - Foster trust and connection

• Meaning - Show your employees how their work contributes to something bigger

• Accomplishment - Celebrate your team’s learning and progress

4. Offer access to professional support

Another valuable tip is to make sure your team knows that help is available, and most of all, easily accessible. 

With Talked’s Beyond EAP program, employees can access confidential therapy sessions paid for by employers. This support isn’t just for people in crisis, but it’s for anyone who wants to process their thoughts, build healthier patterns, or simply have a safe space to talk. 

It’s also worth considering offering corporate wellness programs as part of their benefits package. Give your employees access to a mix of formal and informal wellbeing resources, from mindfulness workshops to mental health support groups.

5. Support recovery through workers’ compensation

If an employee becomes injured or develops mental health issues due to poor wellbeing at work, workers' compensation can ease financial stress and give employees space to focus on recovery. For those claiming workers’ compensation for psychological injuries, it’s crucial to provide timely and specialised support to help them feel safe and supported during the process.

In Queensland, most claims are managed by WorkCover Queensland, which offers access to treatment and psychological services for eligible workers. Talked supports WorkCover Queensland and other major insurers to help employees through their recovery journey, help them navigate complex claims, and return to work with confidence.

A healthier workplace starts with you

Creating a workplace where people feel supported, safe, and able to thrive doesn’t have to be complicated. It starts with paying attention to what your team actually needs, and following through with consistent, human-centred action.

When leaders promote workplace mental health and wellbeing, it sends a clear message: people matter here.

Whether it’s reviewing workloads, encouraging more workplace wellbeing activities, or giving access to professional support like Talked’s Beyond EAP program, these efforts go a long way. Because when your team feels well, your whole business does better.