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15 Ideas for improving work-fife balance and wellbeing at work

Written by Investors In People

According to our Wellbeing at Work survey over a quarter (29%) of those in full-time employment in the UK are unhappy in their job.

More than one in five workers (23%) ‘pulled a sickie’ in the last year, and 6% did so more than five times. So here are some of the best ways to give people a healthy work-life balance and improve their wellbeing:

1. Get to know your workplace

Discover what the culture is like in your organisation. Get to grips with the attitudes and support available to your people, particularly from their line managers.

2. Talk to your people

What would help your people balance their career success with a positive personal life? Collect information through team feedback, surveys, focus groups and interviews.

3. Work fewer days, get more done

Why not consolidate normal full-time hours worked over four days, instead of five? Or spread the contractual requirements across the whole year – allowing for more hours in busier periods and more time off during quieter months.

4. Job-sharing and term-time contracts

Divide the responsibilities of one job between two people or introduce term-time only contracts to attract skilled parents who need to care for their children during school holidays periods.

5. Flexitime

Flexible working is on the increase. Offer people the chance to work core hours and the responsibility and freedom to manage their workload outside of these hours. This goes a long way towards helping them to balance their private and personal life.

6. Working from home

Let people work wholly or partially from home in order to manage their work and home commitments.

7. Childcare assistance

Offer people childcare vouchers to make it easier to manage work and family commitments. Or provide a creche at work to reduce stress and time commitments for your people.

8. Employee assistance programmes

Offer access to stress counselling, work-life balance hints and tips, access to concierge services or advice on anything from finding schools to setting up dependent care.

9. Improve maternity care

Attract skilled female workers to your company by offering even more maternity cover than required by law, including higher pay whilst on leave, extended leave options and returner bonuses.

10. Provide occupational health facilities

Introduce health checks and provide advice on health issues. This could be in-house or through a local provider.

11. Integrate work-life balance into company culture

It’s time to take work-life balance seriously and integrate it into your company culture. A better work-life balance benefits both individuals and the company. And It sends out the right message to your senior team, board, partners and investors.

12. Get managers on board

Flexible working can really boost a team’s effectiveness. So make sure managers are trained to introduce positive changes within their teams – they’ll need counselling, decision-making, evaluating, mentoring and communication skills.

13. Communicate your wellbeing strategy

You’ve spent time and effort developing solutions that meet the needs of your people – so make sure they know all about the great new resources and initiatives they’re entitled to.

14. Keep it consistent, but personal

Everyone from the workers on the shop floor to the management team (and even the CEO!) should have the same access to a personalised plan to balance their work and personal lives. That doesn’t mean everyone’s solution is the same. So take care to listen to individuals’ unique needs.

15. Walk the walk

Make sure everyone is striving for a healthy work-life balance. If people stay in the office until 8pm every evening, they aren’t setting a great example for others to follow.

16. Build support

Plan flexible working so the team as a whole are not disadvantaged. Offer an open door for discussions of concerns and problems. Work-life balance options should be for everyone, not just the prerogative of some groups.

And in the end

If all else fails just remember to treat people like people.

Take our 2-minute organisation wellbeing questionnaire

Beginner – your journey is just starting…


Thanks for completing our workplace wellbeing assessment! Don’t be disheartened by your result, the fact you’re considering employee wellbeing is a huge step in the right direction.

Here are some common themes we see when organisations are only just starting out on their wellbeing journey:
  • No strategy or poor buy in from executives
  • No goals or objectives or they’re poorly defined
  • No budget assigned to wellbeing
  • Company doesn’t consider all areas of wellbeing
  • Company doesn’t collect any data on wellbeing
  • Company doesn’t understand how to measure success


It’s great to see that you’ve made the commitment to start your wellbeing journey. If you take the time to plan, execute and measure your strategy you’ll start to see positive results.

We’re here to help you every step of the way – complete our enquiry form and our team will get in touch to see how we can help you!

Intermediate – you’re taking wellbeing seriously!

Thanks for completing our workplace wellbeing assessment. You can be pleased with your result, you value your employees wellbeing, your approach needs refining to get to the highest level.

Here are some common themes we see when organisations are making the right steps but need to refine them:
  • There is a strategy and execs buy into it, but it needs developing further to achieve your ambitions
  • There may be goals and objectives but they need refining
  • There is a budget assigned to wellbeing
  • Company may not consider all areas of wellbeing
  • Company struggles to collect and use wellbeing data
  • What defines success may be a little blurry


It’s great to see you’re making positive steps with your wellbeing plan. If you take the time to refine your strategy you’ll start to see even better results.

We’re here to help you every step of the way – complete our enquiry form and our team will get in touch to see how we can help you!

Advanced – your strategy is flying high!

Thanks for completing our workplace wellbeing assessment. You should be ecstatic, employee wellbeing is a key driver at your company and you’re doing everything on your own to promote it.

Here are some common themes we see in top organisations:
  • There is a clear strategy and executives actively promote it
  • There are clear goals and objectives – you know what you want to achieve
  • You have a budget that’s dedicated to wellbeing
  • You deliver in all areas of wellbeing
  • Your company collected data and uses it to inform your strategy
  • You have stealer KPIs and understand how they contribute to success


It’s great to see you’re making positive steps with your wellbeing plan. However, wellbeing can always be improved – so you’re in the perfect place to undertake our official wellbeing assessment!

Complete our enquiry form and our team will get in touch to talk you through our wellbeing accreditation.

Organisation wellbeing questionnaire (2 mins)
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These numbers cost no more than a national rate call to an 01 or 02 number,  please note that our calls may be recorded for training purposes.

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