Why Workplace Mental Wellbeing Isn't Working - and How We Can Fix It
- Abigail Rogers
- 58 minutes ago
- 14 min read
What Employers, HR Professionals & Wellbeing Leads Need to Know
We're not the sort of people to just stand by and let things happen, here at The Better Brain Company. Don't get us wrong, we're peace-loving people - but we also get frustrated when things just don't seem to be working as well as they should.
And mental wellbeing in the UK workplace?
It's got us fired up and determined to make a difference.
Mental health is in a mess, and things needs to change.
Over the past few years, the stats on absenteeism, presenteeism, burnout and mental health issues have exploded.
We've seen (and worked with) so many leaders and passionate, highly capable professionals who are barely hanging on, fighting to stay "resilient" and keep showing up each day - and increasingly struggling to keep their teams afloat.
People are suffering.
Leaders and businesses are suffering.
The economy is suffering - to the tune of billions each year.
(And we're not kidding, the overall costs of mental ill health year on year have been likened to "a pandemic-scale shock on a recurring basis" - Centre for Mental Health).
Yet - despite what you might have read on Linkedin - this is often not down to a lack of investment or to employers burying their heads in the sand. Certainly, some organisations could be doing much more - but the reality is that many are trying hard, yet seeing little return for their efforts.
Many employers are holding their heads in their hands, because despite throwing budget at EAPs and wellbeing initiatives, investing in culture change and hugely increasing awareness - things just seem to be getting worse, not better.
And, as solution-focused mental wellbeing experts, we thought we needed to stop sitting here and watching it happen - and start to ask why.
So we did just that.
We commissioned our own report into the state of mental wellbeing in the UK workplace - working with an incredible group of undergraduates from Leeds University to understand what the landscape really looked like, and the reasons current initiatives were falling flat.
We began to pull together our own white paper, combining this research with our knowledge of the evidence around solution-focused work - to explore whether it might be a good fit for the realities of modern workplace needs. And then - Sir Charlie Mayfield's "Keep Britain Working" review for the UK Government landed in November 2025 - aligning exactly with what we were thinking.
Employers didn't need to invest MORE.
They just needed to do differently - and invest BETTER.
“Much of what’s required is not additional expenditure: employers already invest billions in health and wellbeing but need greater clarity on what works"
~ Sir Charlie Mayfield
Keep Britain Working Review, Nov 2025
If you're interested in our full findings, you can download our the white paper "Mental Health in the UK Workplace: Challenges, Gaps and Strategic Solutions" along with an accompanying overview and data sheet here:
Or if you'd like to read our plain English summary first, read on!
This blog sets out the key findings from the white paper and the Mayfield review, giving key insights employers and HR leads really need if we're to make a difference to the current state of play:
looking at the wider issues facing mental health and current, overstretched NHS provisions;
exploring the specific reasons why there's often limited uptake and impact of existing workplace wellbeing provision;
examining what effective mental health support for employees really looks like and why;
understanding where existing interventions do - and don't - measure up.
We also present the evidence for evidence-based solution-focused strategies that are well established in private therapy and wellbeing consultancy, and have already been demonstrated to be effective in creating real-world, functionally improved outcomes in the workplace.
We believe many of the answers are already available, to employers willing to step outside of the established norms and embrace the idea of a better way.
How serious is the mental health crisis in the UK - and why does it matter to employers?
Mental ill health has significantly increased in recent years, and the NHS is struggling to cope with demand.
This is specifically recognised in the Keep Britain Working report, with a call for employers to take a more active role in preventative care and intervention.
"Employers must be in the lead... many already recognise they are carrying the cost of ill-health every day. They are uniquely placed to 'do' prevention... many already try, spending significantly but too often against a system that feels fragmented and unsupportive".
~ Sir Charlie Mayfield
Keep Britain Working Review, Nov 2025
To illustrate the wider demands on the NHS and impact on the population:
By 2023/24, more than one in five adults had a (recognised and reported) mental health issue.
The overall cost of mental ill health stands at hundreds of billions - it was reported as £153 billion in 2022, which was double the entire NHS budget for that year.
Awareness and desire to access support has increased - in 2024, mental health services in England received a record 5.2 million referrals (a 38% increase from 2019) - with 47.7% of people with a common mental health disorder accessing treatment.
Waiting times have lengthened - according to Rethink Mental Illness, eight times as many people are waiting over 18 months for mental health treatment compared to physical health care.
There are no government plans to tackle mental health waiting lists at present - leaving around 1.6 million people without a clear route to timely support.
For employers, this creates a critical gap: employees are often waiting months - or years - while continuing to work under strain, deteriorating further, or leaving employment altogether.
What is the real cost of poor mental wellbeing for UK employers?
As a result of the current crisis, many employees are operating under sustained psychological pressure. They are not necessarily "unwell" in a way that is obvious to anyone else, or triggers crisis intervention, but many are:
chronically anxious
emotionally exhausted
struggling to recover from prolonged stress
carrying unresolved psychological strain that undermines performance
trying their best to be "resilient" whilst teetering on the brink of burnout
This ongoing strain is often insidious, becoming evident through:
rising short-term sickness absence
recurring “stress-related” leave
declining concentration and decision-making quality
disengagement, irritability and interpersonal conflict
increased turnover among experienced staff
technically capable leaders who are emotionally depleted
Independent analysis by Deloitte estimates that poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion per year, driven by absenteeism, presenteeism and staff turnover.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data show that stress, anxiety and depression account for around 52% of all work-related ill health cases and 62% of working days lost due to ill health
“Employers lose on average £120 per day in profit from sickness absences, which are at a 15-year high, and face costs to replace staff which stretch into the tens of thousands each time. This causes disruption, lost capacity and unplanned costs”.
~ Sir Charlie Mayfield
Keep Britain Working Review, Nov 2025
Whilst absence figures are stark, it is presenteeism that represents the largest share of loss.. The review estimates that presenteeism costs employers the equivalent of 4–9 lost productive days per employee per year, through poor decision-making, extended recovery times and performance contagion
Other analyses show that in 2022, employees lost an estimated 20.2% of working hours to unproductive time - equivalent to 51 productive days per employee per year
Meanwhile, employees still frequently report concealing the true reason for mental health-related absence - indicating that barriers to trust and engagement remain.
For original references and sources, plus accompanying overview and data sheet, download our full white paper:
If employers are investing more than ever in mental health and wellbeing, why are outcomes getting worse?
The short answer is that there's low uptake and high drop-out from workplace wellbeing provisions - and often the interventions available through workplace provisions aren't effective in terms of making a real, tangible difference to culture and productivity, for various reasons which we'll outline below.
This results in employers, HR professionals and leadership teams finding themselves increasingly frustrated - meeting compliance expectations and demonstrating visible commitment, yet continuing to see rising absence, presenteeism and disengagement.
EAPs (Employee Assistance Programmes) are the most dominant form of workplace provision - yet utilisation rates typically sit between just 3–5% (HCML, 2024), despite there being a clear increase in levels of need.
Meanwhile, over half of employees (52%) still believe their employer could be doing more to support their mental health (HCML, 2024), which illustrates this clear disconnect between intent and reality.
This may be because there is often a mismatch between the workplace mental health support provided, and the real-life needs of employees. Most people do not engage with EAP services for the long-term, tending to drop out - for reasons such as:
support being poorly integrated into working life;
support being difficult to trust or navigate;
support being focused on narrow, rather than work-relevant, person-centred objectives
Support is also often accessed too late - at crisis point, rather than preventatively, if at all - and is frequently too reliant on overstretched external systems.
Employers and EAPs have recognised and responded to this through the addition of wellbeing and training initiatives focused on stress management, resilience training, and short-term coping strategies.
Whilst often valued and well-intentioned, these approaches are not typically designed to address the deeper psychological drivers of anxiety, burnout, or sustained performance decline - and do not offer the therapeutic depth and personal focus that is required to effect real, long-lasting impact for individuals struggling with anxiety and an overwhelmed nervous system.
The effect is that they provide something of a "sticking plaster" rather than a comprehensive solution, and certainly do not help struggling employees to flourish and make real gains in terms of motivation, focus, confidence and self-mediated emotional regulation.
Where therapeutic services are offered, they are often experienced as impersonal or overly clinical, and recipients report that they do not feel well aligned with the realities of senior or high-pressure roles. Therapeutic services often duplicate those on offer through the NHS - meaning that those employees who have already experienced CBT or counselling, for example, may feel that the solutions on offer through their workplace EAP will do little more for them.
What are the common barriers to uptake for workplace mental health provision?
In addition to the issues just outlined, we also identified several other important barriers to uptake:
Stigma and fear of professional consequences
Despite significant cultural change and greater acceptance/discussion of mental health issues in the workplace and wider society in recent years, stigma still remains a significant barrier - particularly in competitive or high-performance work environments, and particularly for those in more senior roles.
Evidence indicates that fear of judgement and professional repercussions remains a significant deterrent to help-seeking, even where support is formally available.
Perceived confidentiality and trust concerns - the need for disclosure
Employees often express concern that information shared through employer-linked mental health services could be accessed - formally or informally - by HR or
management. Even when confidentiality policies exist, perceived proximity to the
employer is enough to deter use.
Lack of clarity and visibility of support pathways
Many employees do not know that therapy is available, are unclear about what the service offers, or do not know how to initiate contact.
Capacity, timing and practical constraints
Practical barriers often obstruct access to workplace therapeutic provision. Issues such as restrictions on the number of sessions, long wait times, inconvenient appointment hours and restricted availabilty often stand in the way of full engagement with available support.
Perceived intent and organisational credibility
Wellbeing initiatives that feel reactive, image-driven or disconnected from everyday work practices are much less likely to be trusted by employees as a genuine source of support.
Perceived effectiveness and relevance of support
Employees who have previously accessed therapy may approach workplace
provision with low expectations, particularly if their prior experience involved
outcomes that did not translate into sustained improvements in daily
functioning.
EAP therapeutic provision is typically weighted towards generic counselling models and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), reflecting NHS commissioning norms -
however outcome data indicates that these approaches are not effective for
everyone. Around 45–50% of patients do not meet recovery criteria following a
course of CBT, and dropout rates of 20–30% are commonly reported.
For full details, download our full white paper:
What makes workplace mental health support effective?
To prove effective, workplace mental health support needs to:
work at sufficient psychological depth
provide a sense of autonomy, goal-direction and ownership
be accessible, flexible, and at the earliest stage possible (i.e. preventative rather than reactive)
fit the realities of modern work
provide guaranteed confidentiality, ideally through methods that do not require disclosure
Effective support comes from therapeutic depth
Approaches that address the underlying psychological drivers of anxiety, burnout, and disengagement (i.e. trauma, identity and belief structures) are associated with more durable improvements in wellbeing and functioning.
"Temporary symptom relief does not reliably reduce absence, presenteeism, or turnover, whereas sustained psychological change does"
~ Deloitte, 2022
Support that works at this level has been shown to reduce recurrence of distress and improve longer-term outcomes, rather than leaving employees cycling back through repeated interventions.
Emotional regulation and burnout prevention are essential
In investing in support, employers also need to consider whether it addresses emotional and nervous system regulation.
A healthy, well regulated nervous system provides and reflects a state of natural resilience, as opposed to willed/"survivor"/staying strong resilience (which actually tends to fuel burnout, rather than preventing it, and is highly prevalent in driven and senior professionals).
Interventions which support optimal functioning and capacity rather than just engaging with distress are associated with improvements not only in self-reported wellbeing, but also in engagement, productivity, and retention. This is because they support emotional regulation under pressure, aid confidence and clarity, and help individuals operate more effectively - responsively rather than reactively.
In further support of the need for emotional regulation as a preventative measure, studies consistently show that:
earlier intervention leads to faster recovery
preventative psychological support reduces escalation into long-term sickness absence
and employees who receive timely, appropriate support are more likely to remain in work and re-engage fully
There's a clear need for goal-focused, person-centred support
Many employees remain highly capable and engaged, but experience internal strain that progressively undermines decision-making, emotional regulation, and resilience.
Engagement and outcomes have been shown to improve significantly when individuals experience:
autonomy and choice
relevance to their working reality
meaningful (personally relevant) change
confidence in confidentiality & therapy
.
When goal-focused support is offered, it tends to result in higher engagement, lower dropout, and stronger transfer of change into daily work behaviour.
It is important for people to feel invested in their change process, such that it is happening 'through them' rather than 'to them' - feeling completely in control of their desires, outcome and speed of change facilitates this and increases buy-in and belief in the intervention.
Why existing workplace mental health strategies don't always work
As we've just seen, the real key to helping employees who are struggling with chronic sub-par mental health lies in preventative support that feels personally relevant, yet tackles deeper underlying issues in a non-confrontational, discrete and empowering way.
Crucially, this support also needs to appeal to the people who don't see themselves as needing support (and certainly wouldn't engage with the idea of therapy) - but are as much at need as those more outwardly showing signs of struggling.
Most workplace wellbeing provision is designed to:
raise awareness
build basic skills
signpost support
encourage earlier conversations
manage stress in the short-term
These are all fantastic and much-needed parts of the picture. However, for employees who are already chronically anxious, emotionally exhausted, or psychologically overloaded, information and self-directed tools rarely resolve the underlying issue.
We'll explore the most common existing interventions in more detail below, looking at their merits and limitations.
Mental health awareness, education & training
Awareness and education initiatives are a valuable component of a broader wellbeing strategy, and signal organisational commitment to wellbeing.
However studies consistently show that while training can improve knowledge and attitudes, it has limited impact on mental health outcomes such as psychological distress, burnout or work functioning, unless paired with accessible therapeutic support.
Mental Health First Aid & peer-led approaches
These approaches can increase confidence in recognising distress and encouraging help-seeking.
However, they are intended as a crisis-point service and do not address the underlying causes of anxiety, burnout and psychological distress. They also require careful management to avoid transference of stress, and to ensure they don't unintentionally increase detection without supporting resolution.
EAP/insurance-funded therapy & counselling
The therapy and counselling services offered through EAPs and insurers tend to be clinically well-evidenced and regulated. However, evidence from real-world delivery raises important limitations for workplace contexts. Reducing symptoms does not necessarily restore confidence, resilience, decision-making capacity or engagement under pressure - the capabilities most closely tied to performance and retention - and in terms of outcomes, unfortunately NHS Talking Therapies data currently indicate only around 50% positive outcomes for those who complete a course of sessions (with relatively high drop-out reducing the total further).
Part of the reason may be that these interventions tend to be reliant on clinician-led frameworks, whereby the structure, pace and focus of the sessions is determined by the therapist and goals are defined by diagnosis or symptoms, rather than the client/employee's preferred practical outcomes.
Of course for professionals who have previously accessed similar therapies without experiencing meaningful or lasting improvement, confidence in workplace provision will be reduced.
There is also the issue that therapeutic interventions are typically offered or accessed reactively, at the point where a problem has become untenable - rather than as a preventative or protective measure. This has a real impact on outcomes, and the "last resort" framing of therapy may also have a bearing on associated stigma.
Digital & software-based wellbeing solutions
Digital solutions are becoming increasingly popular as a low-cost, scalable way to provide workplace wellbeing support. They can certainly support awareness, self-monitoring and light-touch stress management, and may appeal to employees seeking privacy or flexibility.
However many employees disengage or experience limited benefit, particularly if they have moderate to complex difficulties - digital solutions are not able to provide adequate psychological depth or relational engagement, which is what most people suffering from chronic stress and burnout really require.
Concerns have also been raised regarding ethical standards and client safety within some digital platforms; there is currently no regulation or real accountability as regards outcomes or data use.
For full details, download our full white paper:
Mental health support that fits the realities of modern work
Full disclosure before we dive into the detail - we are big fans of the solution-focused approach, having used it to help leaders and high achievers online and in-person for almost 10 years.
It may come as no surprise that we think our way of doing things has some serious benefits.
In fact, I (Abi Rogers) transitioned from being a private therapist to establishing The Better Brain Company with the specific intention of flying the flag for solution-focused approaches to mental wellbeing - which I've found to be often overlooked and underutilised, despite the fantastic outcomes myself and my peers have been seeing in practice over the years - and despite a growing and reliable base of evidence for their effectiveness (not just as powerful clinical tools but in terms of creating real-life impact, too).
So yes, I'm happy to admit I'm somewhat biased.
I'd like to invite you to keep reading, though, as I think you'll find that solution-focused therapies and coaching address a lot of the barriers and issues we've covered here - and present a powerful and impactful way of bridging the gaps so many employers and employees currently face.
Why we think you should consider solution-focused mental health support for your workforce
Solution-focused approaches offer:
genuine psychological depth with no need for pathologising and stigmatising labels or diagnoses
a route to therapeutic-level support that feels much more like the coaching many professionals and executives are familiar with (and accepting of)
complete confidentiality - they don't require any disclosure of presenting problems or concerns, previous traumas or precipitating events
a way to provide early, preventative access aligned with working life.
Solution-focused therapeutic approaches (like SFBT and Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy) can be used as tools to embed healthy emotional functioning and nervous system regulation, and enable employees to work towards personal goals such as increased confidence, focus or clarity without the need for employees to identiy with having a 'problem'.
They provide strong engagement through autonomy and goal clarity
With emotional regulation as an integral part of the framework, they are perfectly geared towards burnout prevention
And they match with professional governance suitable for organisational investment - requiring accreditation, CPD and supervision
Solution-focused interventions have demonstrated effectiveness across a wide range of presentations, including anxiety, depression, trauma-adjacent stress, and identity-related difficulties
They support change in beliefs, self-concept and behavioural patterns by strengthening psychological resources such as agency, confidence and adaptability.
And, comparative research shows that for many common difficulties, brief solution-focused approaches achieve outcomes comparable to longer therapies, often with fewer sessions and lower resource demands.
Has the efficacy of solution-focused therapy been demonstrated in the workplace?
Quite simply - yes! Several studies highlight the potential of solution-focused approaches in occupational and performance-critical settings. For example:
An online solution-focused hypnotherapy study involving police personnel reported recovery rates of 78% for anxiety and depression, with 88.9% achieving clinically meaningful improvement and no reported deterioration - substantially exceeding typical recovery benchmarks in standard pathways.
Markedly faster return-to-work outcomes have been found following solution-focused rehabilitation compared to standard care
Business-context coaching research has demonstrated improvements in performance, self-efficacy, wellbeing and positive affect using solution-focused brief coaching, as measured through 360-degree evaluations.
For full details and references, download our full white paper:
And if you're keen to talk about how this could work in practice for your organisation, book a conversation with us here:
At The Better Brain Company we specialise in mental health and wellbeing, leadership development, and cognitive performance solutions tailored to SMEs, corporate clients, and high-performance individuals. Our neuroscience-based, solution-focused, ‘talk-optional’ therapeutic framework is individually tailored to reduce stress, burnout, anxiety, and disengagement, boost productivity, and help create psychologically safe foundations for sustainable growth and impact.
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