Workplace mental health has reached a critical point. Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2025 reveals that one in five employees took time off for mental health reasons last year, while Deloitte estimates poor mental health is now costing UK employers £51 billion annually.

And yet, organisations are investing more than ever in “wellbeing.” Global spend on wellness interventions is projected to reach nearly $95 billion by 2026. The uncomfortable truth? These programmes aren’t making any significant difference.

Why the Wellness Boom Isn’t Working

From meditation apps to mindfulness workshops and subsidised smoothies, employers have embraced a wide range of tactical solutions that make for great PR and internal comms but deliver little systemic change. These interventions soothe symptoms but ignore causes.

Many organisations are prioritising optics and resource over genuine inquiry into why their people are struggling. They are slapping an expensive bandage on the problem, instead of trying to prevent it in the first place.

The Generation Most at Risk

Younger workers are bearing the brunt. Over a third of 18–24-year-olds took stress-related leave last year – more than triple the rate of workers over 55 (Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2025). Greater mental health awareness and lower stigma play a role, but these factors alone don’t explain the widening gap.

Gen Z is navigating a workplace no previous generation has experienced: remote and hybrid norms, AI disruption, constant comparison culture, and organisational structures that often dilute human connection. Many have never truly “switched off,” and their managers – shaped by a different professional era – are not equipped to support them.

A Culture That Has Lost the Human Touch

Despite good intentions, today’s workplace has deprioritised the one thing that consistently strengthens mental health: meaningful human connection. During the pandemic, we saw its power, yet many young employees now work mostly alone, socialise digitally, and measure themselves against the curated success of peers online. The pressure to keep up, fit in, and stay relevant has never been higher.

The Way Forwards: Re-humanise the Workforce

If organisations genuinely want to support employee mental health, they must shift from wellness initiatives to connection initiatives.

That is not to say that companies should get staff back into the office 5 days a week – the benefits of remote working are still relevant – but encouraging human interaction should be a priority.

What does this mean in practice? Re-introducing human-led infrastructure.

Mentoring programmes
Mentoring is hugely beneficial for everyone involved. Staff who are newer to the workplace gain insight, understanding and learning from their more experienced colleagues. Mentors, likewise, gain insight from fresh perspectives and reconnect with purpose.

In-person development
Workshops are a great way of delivering training and encouraging people to think differently, while also doubling up as relationship-building activities. Workshops can be on any subject, but stress management, confidence, communication and navigating early career pressures are topics worth considering.

Train managers to support their teams’ wellbeing
Team Leaders are at the sharp end when it comes to staff support. Offer them training to help them identify employees who may be dealing with stress and anxiety, recognise the signs of burnout, and understand generational differences. Equip them with the tools they need to initiate conversations that they may currently avoid due to a lack of understanding or discomfort.

Facilitate regular Check-ins
Formalise performance and wellbeing check-ins. Make it mandatory that Team Leaders have monthly scheduled face-to-face catch-ups with their team members and ensure that these meetings are recorded. That way, potential issues can be flagged and escalated in good time and not left to develop.

Get people socialising
Social rituals bring people together and their effectiveness for supporting colleague relationships and productivity shouldn’t be underestimated. Team-building, cross-departmental events, seasonal gatherings – retro, perhaps, but surprisingly radical for a generation raised online.

The Future Belongs to People-Centric Organisations

In this fast-paced technological world in which we live, people matter. Organisations that prioritise genuine human connection will stand apart. Wellness programmes may have a role, but they cannot substitute culture.

The companies that will thrive are those that realise that when people feel seen, supported and connected, they flourish – and so does the business.