In recent years, employee well-being has taken center stage in the world of work. And for good reason—it directly impacts company culture and productivity. But the truth is, traditional wellness programs and bowls of bananas in the office kitchen are no longer enough. Employees need real attention from their managers and a workplace culture that genuinely supports them.
Traditional Wellness Initiatives Fall Short
A recent study by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre highlights that traditional wellness initiatives—such as fitness perks and mental health apps — have a limited impact. They often fail to meet employee expectations or move the needle on business outcomes. Instead, the research calls for a broader and more integrated view of well-being, one that considers the entire work experience.
This aligns with what we’ve seen in user feedback collected through our own employee experience platform. Our data, gathered from nearly 6,000 users across approximately 30 organizations in Estonia and the Baltics, spans various aspects of employee experience: engagement, trust, leadership quality, and more. Over the past four years, daily pulse monitoring has given us a clear picture of where the real challenges lie—and what’s worth celebrating.
Learning and Development Fuel Engagement
One of the strongest and most consistent trends in the data is the connection between learning & development and employee engagement. Employees who feel their workplace supports personal and professional growth tend to be more motivated and productive.
The Oxford study reinforces this finding: strategies that focus on growth and career development outperform isolated perks like gym compensation or health insurance. Not only do these efforts enhance job satisfaction, but they also reduce employee turnover. Interestingly, we’ve also seen that when employees have access to meaningful development opportunities, their perception of compensation improves—even if their actual salary hasn’t changed. It’s a reminder that satisfaction is shaped by the overall experience, not just isolated factors.
Workload and Time Management: The Hidden Burnout Drivers
One of the most critical (and overlooked) drivers of well-being is how employees perceive their workload and time management. These areas have consistently scored below average in our measurements and have dropped into the bottom three categories over the past six months.
Why? The reasons are likely tied to budget cuts, staff reductions, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical instability. Our data shows a clear link between time pressure, workload, work-life balance, and mental health. When employees feel their workload is reasonable, they also report better mental health. On the flip side, when time pressure rises, so do stress levels and burnout risks.
While not every job can offer full flexibility or autonomy, these are still critical components of employee well-being. Work design that aligns with employees’ strengths supports both engagement and a sense of purpose.
Everyone Tracks Stress—but Who Asks Why the Team Is Tired?
Productivity in Estonian companies still lags behind the European average, while stress levels remain high. To bridge this gap, it’s time to reassess how we work. Is every process still adding value? Are we using digital tools efficiently? Many organizations could benefit from a workflow audit.
Digital tools that support task and time management can help bring clarity and fairness to the distribution of work. One real-world example: in one organization’s crisis management unit, employee perceptions of workload improved significantly once the team realized the entire company—not just their team—was stretched thin. That shared understanding eased the pressure.
Unrealistic workloads are often more of a leadership issue than an individual one. From a sustainability perspective, overburdened leadership poses a serious risk. After all, who listens to well-being advice from a manager who’s on the brink of burnout?
Trust and Good Leadership as Pillars of Wellbeing
Despite the challenges, there’s good news: ratings for leadership quality and trust have remained high across the organizations we measure. During times of crisis, these strengths create stability and foster resilience. A strong leadership culture doesn’t just lead to better results—it directly improves employee well-being.
Trust, in particular, enables open dialogue and effective teamwork. When trust scores drop, we typically see declines in engagement and leadership perception as well. According to the Oxford study, good leadership practices have a greater impact on employee satisfaction than wellness initiatives or kitchen fruit bowls. In fact, strong trust in leadership can even offset dissatisfaction in other areas like internal communication or compensation.
Leadership Development Always Pays Off
Empathy, transparency, clear communication, and recognition may be repeated buzzwords, but they’re repeated for a reason—they work. Involving teams in decision-making builds trust and helps to surface opportunities for innovation. The message is clear: investing in leadership skills pays back in employee well-being, retention, and performance.
As one powerful line from the article puts it: “An employee doesn’t need yoga—they need a reasonable workload.” This sentiment is echoed by Gallup’s global data, which shows that only 23% of employees feel engaged at work. Yet, in some companies, engagement levels exceed 70%. In February 2025, Moticheck’s client organizations reported engagement scores of 87%, with trust and recognition scoring 85%. These are not coincidences—they’re results of a strategic and holistic approach.
Mental Health Needs a Broader Perspective
When mental health ratings decline, we often see a spike in response activity, indicating that people care deeply about this topic. But real mental health support means going beyond individual coping strategies. It requires addressing systemic factors—like workload, leadership quality, and the broader work environment.
While mindfulness training and access to psychologists can help individuals in distress, they don’t fix a toxic workplace culture. Instead, organizations should integrate well-being into their overall strategy, ensuring that mental health is not treated in isolation but as part of a healthy, human-centered workplace.
In Conclusion
Focusing on employee well-being is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic decision that directly affects engagement, retention, and business outcomes. Organizations that invest in leadership development, fair work design, growth opportunities, and a holistic approach to mental health are building workplaces where people can truly thrive.
The wide-angle view may come with a cost, but compared to the price of disconnected perks and shallow wellness programs, it’s a much better investment.
Pille Parind-Nisula, March 2024.
The article was originally published in Estonian in personaliuudised.ee
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