In 2023 the global wellbeing market is worth a staggering $8,379 billion. Almost entirely centred around healthy eating, fitness equipment and beauty products. Yet when we ask the three in four employees who say their wellbeing is declining why that is, this is what they tell us.

These figures broadly match those from other global studies over the last two years. You will get past the top 50% of wellbeing issues in the above study before you even find an issue that the global wellness industry is focussed on.

Those analysing global wellbeing spends say "that the key driver of the global health and wellness market share is increasing consumer spending" and that the industry is attempting to deal with the increase in incidence of poor mental and physical illnesses, "such as anxiety and depression". But obviously that isn't true. The industry is focused far too much on trying to fix issues than it is preventing them.

Mental health is getting worse

The below graph is one I use a lot in my talks. I think it demonstrates quite clearly the mismatch between what people are suffering with and the support available to them. Any logical person would expect that the more a condition is supported, the better it gets. But we can see that isn't happening. The below graph should have the two items moving in the same direction; the more support available to help people's wellbeing, the better our collective wellbeing gets.

So why might this be? For me, all of the above shows us that we haven't been tackling the right problems. While the first year of the pandemic saw a huge spike in the prevalence of depression and anxiety worldwide (understandably), but our ability to "bounce back" from the pandemic has been admirable. The World Happiness Report shows global happiness levels in 2023 back to their pre-pandemic levels. This report pulls in data from 150 countries, so is a compelling data source. Our wellbeing gets worse when we are effected by things like a pandemic or a cost of living crisis and that is often temporary as we can see above. But still, outside of these figures our wellbeing is on the decline.

I think our wellbeing is getting worse because we aren't actually doing anything to stop it worsening. As people have had to deal with more issues in their lives relating to world events, financial stress and a collective loss of hope, as a nation we've just watched on. Our action has been to put an inspirational quote on a poster or invite someone in to do a talk or a webinar. Talk is cheap and largely ineffective. While hearing the real life stories of those who have struggled are an important part of getting others to speak up and creating a culture of wellbeing, they aren't going to solve the wellbeing issues.

I think lots of employers are overly relying on the one off, visible decisions they can make, or worse, following the advice of the wrong people. Getting people to like your social post is not going to solve the mental health crisis. Just asking people to speak up won't either. We have to actually create the conditions that will aim to support wellbeing and effect a change in behaviour or circumstance. And this is where you should be seeking the help of a real expert with credentials and relevant experience. I drive a car, but that doesn't mean I can tell you how to fix yours. So why does my own wellbeing experience have any relevance to your peoples?

While I'm not suggesting there isn't a role for those with stories to tell here, I'm just saying they are part of your strategy, not the totality of it.

The road to poor workplace wellbeing is paved with good intentions

I run a group called The Wellbeing Thought Leadership Group that pulls in around 30 global wellbeing leaders from some of the largest and most well known employers (DM if you'd like to join). At one of our recent meet ups related to a discussion on how we can help employers create a job description and skills requirement for the internal Head of Wellbeing role, we spoke about began the prevalence of "good intentions" when it comes to wellbeing. The reality is that many wellbeing champions, mental health first aiders and strategy owners get the job because they have a "passion for wellbeing" or are a "mental health advocate". But would you get your car brakes fixed by a person who has a passion for cars? Would you recruit a new finance director whose only experience their self proclaimed love of money?

Moving the dial on workplace wellbeing by the even the smallest amount has significant cost, resource, culture, profitability and sales implications for organisations. But for the decisions we make to be effective we have to get much better at:

• Not choosing our wellbeing leaders because of passion, their social media likes or their podcast
• Taking a real, evidence-based view of the initiatives we want to implement. Asking our suppliers difficult and challenging questions, asking for the evidence (data, anecdotal, academic).
• Understand that the employer plays a key role in communicating, raising awareness and promoting use of its support services. Advertising works.

And finally, and probably the most important - the squeakiest wheel shouldn't get the oil. The stat that is touted most in our industry in that 1 in 4 of us will get a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in our life. Which means at any one time, that's likely only 25% of your people (statistically it will actually be less than that). Because the industry, the major providers and the spend focusses almost entirely on those at point of crisis, we miss significant opportunities to intervene and improve the wellbeing of the majority. Micro stresses, small frustrations, common life events etc - all have the potential to make our wellbeing much, much worse without early intervention.

Your approach to wellbeing should be focussed largely on those that "at risk" not "at crisis" - and spoiler alert that's most of your people! Many of the employers I work with actually do a pretty good job at getting help for those who need it most. But what many aren't good at is doing what they can to make sure the majority are looked after. For example, 71% of employers already give their employees access to counsellors. Yet I frequently see people implementing a new wellbeing initiatives that actually just replicates that same support.

Everyday we plan for the future and mitigate risk, so why don't we do it more at work?

You likely have car insurance, home insurance and travel insurance. You put your seatbelt on when you drive and a helmet when you ride. Every single day we take preventative action because we understand the consequences of doing so could be grave. It's time for employers to start acting the same way and understanding that the right time to mitigate the mental health crisis and the wellbeing problems in the workplace was to act ten years ago. The second best time is right now.

If more employers helped people deal with their emotions, help them to feel less worried and concerned, helped with their sleep and tiredness, gave them more opportunities to relax and chill, helped them to concentrate and feel better about themselves, I'm confident the mental health crisis will begin to ease.