How employee wellbeing will move up the agenda in 2025

Looking ahead to 2025, it seems certain that workplace mental health will continue to rise up the agenda for the UK’s employers. 

According to the latest official statistics from the Labour Force Survey, 1.7 million workers were suffering from work-related ill health (new or long-standing) in 2023/24. Nearly half of this was due to stress, depression, or anxiety, with 16.4 million working days lost.

We also know that the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the nation’s mental health, triggering varying emotional responses between different social groups that had impacts in the workplace, with the after-effects still being felt today.

The new Labour Government has acknowledged the need to address the economic impacts of mental ill-health in their recently published Get Britain Working White Paper. But the focus so far has been on improving employment support for those currently not in the labour force.

In 2025, this will need to expand to include the existing workforce too. And the catalyst for this will be the growing realisation that employee wellbeing is an essential ingredient for productivity.

Many employers across the UK have already made this connection. HR leaders are also becoming more aware of the need to take a proactive approach to employee wellbeing if they are to be competitive in attracting staff.

In the research community, the focus is already there with the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) at Warwick Business School involved in a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore the links between mental health and productivity.

The project has brought together researchers from economics, management studies and occupational psychology, and is following firms, work groups and individuals in three countries: the UK, Ireland and Sweden. 

In 2025, the multiple pressures on the workforce created by the pandemic legacy, economic uncertainty and technological change are likely to create an even more widespread shift.

Governments and more employers will realise it is firmly within their interests to invest more in workplace mental health. As a result, we will see mental health and wellbeing support start to move from being something that is offered to individuals at times of crisis to being seen as an essential component of management strategy.

Further reading:

Predictions for 2025: a bleak outlook but with glimmers of light and hope

What will 2025 bring for energy and climate action?

The dilemma at the heart of an employee wellbeing strategy

Workplace Mental Health in Midlands firms 2024 report

Vicki Belt is Deputy Director of Impact and Engagement at Warwick Business School’s Enterprise Research Centre.

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