Benefits and wellbeing spend is easy to sign off and hard to prove. This document is about the second part: what a programme that moves the numbers, absence, retention, claims, is made of, and how to run it year-round.
This is a working document for UK HR teams that handle employee benefits. It sets out what a wellbeing programme contains, how the law underneath it sits, and how to govern it year-round. It's free to read, no email gate. You can take the parts that fit your organisation and ignore the rest.
It's also opinionated. The default approach in our industry is to score an organisation against a maturity model, send through a recommendations PDF, and call that a strategy. We don't think that's a strategy, and we say so plainly in the next six parts.
The four components of a strategy that actually runs.
The conventional response to this is a maturity assessment. Score the organisation, get a level, receive recommendations, receive a PDF. That isn't a strategy. It's a diagnostic dressed as one, and the sector has been measuring maturity while health outcomes deteriorate.
Research published in April 2026 found that 43% of UK companies have no formal health and wellbeing strategy. Another 18% think their benefits are the strategy. Only just over half have anything documented and regularly updated.
Meanwhile, sickness absence hit a 15-year high in 2025 at 9.4 days per employee. Mental ill-health is the leading driver. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has strengthened employer duty of care on psychological risk to match the rigour that's been expected for physical hazards for fifty years.
A strategy that runs has four components a maturity score doesn't. Each is a test you can run against your current approach.
Component 01 · Evidence-based
Built on real workforce data, not a self-reported questionnaire. The gold standard is the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, where over 80% of peer-reviewed studies confirm the dual-pathway model. Continuous measurement at the team and role level, linked to actual outcomes: absence, benefits utilisation, claims.
Component 02 · Legally grounded
Directly evidences the UK duty of care. HSWA 1974, MHSWR 1999, Equality Act 2010, ERA 2025, ISO 45003:2021. A maturity score satisfies none of these. A documented, reviewed, evidence-linked strategy does. In a tribunal or regulatory challenge, the distinction is decisive.
Component 03 · Continuously executed
Not annually reviewed. The strategy runs continuously inside the system, not in campaigns at review meetings. When sustained risk shows up in a team, the right manager is prompted with the right response. When an individual signal warrants it, the person is pointed to the support already in their package, while it still matters. How those rules are built and tuned is part of what we operate for you. These are rules, not projects.
Component 04 · Named governance
An accountable owner with a written remit. A steering group meeting on a cadence. Board reporting with metrics, not anecdotes. An Annual Strategy and Compliance Pack a CEO can take to a board and a regulator can be shown at a challenge.
A maturity score tells you where you are. A strategy tells you what's running.The legal grounding.
UK law is the floor, not the ceiling. A strategy worth running evidences compliance with the following, and does so by existing and running, not by being written down.
| Law or standard | What it requires | What the strategy must evidence |
|---|---|---|
| HSWA 1974 s.2 | Ensure so far as reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of employees. Mental health explicitly included by case law and HSE guidance. | Documented safe systems of work. Psychosocial risk control measures in place and reviewed. |
| MHSWR 1999 reg 3 | Suitable and sufficient risk assessment of psychosocial hazards (stress, workload, role conflict, bullying). Duty to implement and review control measures. | JD-R or equivalent continuous measurement. Documented controls per identified risk. Review cadence. |
| Equality Act 2010 | Reasonable adjustments for mental health conditions qualifying as disabilities. Avoid discrimination. | Documented adjustment processes. Manager training. Return-to-work support protocols. |
| ERA 2025 | Strengthened employer duty of care on psychological risk, to match the rigour expected for physical hazards. | Continuous execution. Named owner. Documented controls that match physical-hazard rigour (not policies alone). |
| ISO 45003:2021 | International standard for psychological health and safety within an OH and S management system. | Governance structure, policy, continuous improvement cycle, documented management review. |
Two non-regulatory references also matter. Thriving at Work (Stevenson/Farmer 2017) set six core mental health standards. Government-accepted. Most employers still haven't implemented them. The WHO Protect / Promote / Respond framework provides the whole-system model for workplace mental health that underpins international best practice.
A documented, reviewed strategy is the strongest evidence in a tribunal or regulatory challenge. Policies alone are increasingly insufficient.The evidence base.
The Job Demands-Resources framework
The most validated psychosocial model in occupational health research. Over 80% of peer-reviewed studies confirm the dual-pathway model. High demands combined with low resources produces burnout and ill-health. Sufficient resources produces engagement, performance, and resilience.
What to measure
Demands: workload, time pressure, emotional demands, role conflict, role clarity.
Resources: autonomy, support (peer and supervisory), recognition, fairness, learning, participation.
Outcomes: absence, turnover, benefits claims, presenteeism, performance indicators.
Validated instruments
- PHQ-9 · nine-item depression screening
- GAD-7 · seven-item anxiety screening
- WHO-5 · five-item wellbeing index
- MSK pain scales · musculoskeletal risk
- Financial wellbeing signals · both self-reported and (where the employer chooses to share) payroll-adjacent signals on overtime, salary-sacrifice use, and deduction patterns
The five strategy blocks.
The strategy operates through five building blocks. Each addresses specific JD-R dimensions and triggers specific interventions. They are not modules you pick from. They are the connected pieces that make the strategy function.
Block 01 · Psychosocial risk assessment and management
Addresses: all JD-R dimensions at the measurement layer.
What it delivers: the operating data for everything else.
Example interventions: managers prompted when a team's risk builds, workload adjustments, role clarity interventions.
Block 02 · Workload and job design
Addresses: demands (workload, emotional, time pressure); resources (autonomy).
What it delivers: the environmental controls that reduce ongoing risk. This is the block most employers skip because it's hardest.
Example interventions: workload reviews prompted when pressure stays high, flexible working pilots, role redesign, rotation policies.
Block 03 · Manager mental health capability
Addresses: resources (supervisor support).
What it delivers: the frontline capability to recognise and respond. Line managers are the single biggest lever on team-level wellbeing.
Example interventions: manager training mandated to cadence (not one-off), manager dashboards showing team-level risk (never individual data), response playbooks in the manager's hands when a prompt lands, reasonable-adjustments processes baked into manager onboarding.
Block 04 · Employee voice and consultation
Addresses: resources (participation, fairness).
What it delivers: the feedback loop that keeps the strategy grounded. Without this, the strategy becomes something done to people rather than with them.
Example interventions: structured consultation cycles aligned to strategy review cadence, clear grievance routes, voice-to-action reporting so employees see what their input changed.
Block 05 · Financial wellbeing
Addresses: demands (financial stress). Persistently under-addressed despite being one of the top drivers of absence and presenteeism.
What it delivers: reduces a category of demand employers rarely touch.
Example interventions: financial coaching surfaced when it's needed, emergency buffer support, salary-sacrifice advisory, structured debt help.
Job design is the block most employers skip. It's where the most leverage sits.Governance and cadence.
The owner
A named accountable owner with a written remit. Typically the HR Director or Chief People Officer. Without this, the strategy doesn't run. Every common failure mode comes back to this one.
The steering group
Cross-functional: HR, OH (or the OH provider relationship), Finance, Legal, and a senior operational leader. Meets quarterly. Reviews data, decides interventions, signs off the Annual Pack.
The review cycle
Monthly: risk data read, hotspot response. Mostly automated, surfacing exceptions.
Quarterly: steering group review. Trend analysis, intervention decisions.
Annually: full strategy review. Compliance Pack produced.
The Annual Strategy and Compliance Pack
Has three uses, all of which matter:
- Board pack. The HR Director's evidence that the strategy is running and working.
- Regulator and tribunal evidence. A dated, referenced document showing the organisation's approach.
- Broker renewal anchor. Replaces the premium-increase conversation with a value conversation.
Contents: executive summary, risks identified and tracked, actions taken, outcomes achieved, legal mapping refreshed, data visuals, next-year plan.
How Alltoogether runs this in practice.
Everything above is the standard to hold any programme to. This is how we run it, so your team doesn't have to.
The model: Strategy, Activation, Finance
Strategy. The Blueprint becomes your live, measurable strategy document. We build it with you, and it's a living thing, not a one-off deliverable.
Activation. The platform runs the daily infrastructure. Measurement (JD-R, deep-dive assessments). Communication (year-round, timed, targeted). Intervention routing (getting people to the support already in their package, when it matters). Manager dashboards and playbooks.
Finance. Paid by the insurers, like any broker. FCA-regulated. No separate management fee, no platform fee. The commission already embedded in your premiums funds the strategy work.
What we do
Build and run your Wellbeing and People Strategy as a document and a management system. Measure continuously through the IWE. Run the communication layer. Broker your benefits and insurance, aligning them with the strategy. Report to your board, with you.
The commercial model
FCA-regulated benefits broker (FCA 946194). Paid by the insurers. No management fee. No platform fee. The commission built into insurance premiums is doing this work whether you see it or not, with us, it funds a running strategy instead of disappearing into a broker's margin.
Onboarding
Two steps. A letter of appointment. A standard data template (or we integrate directly with your HRIS and pull the data ourselves). It takes roughly two minutes of work on the client side.
The Alltoogether Standard
The accreditation for organisations running all of this consistently. An external mark similar in spirit to Investors in People or B Corp, specifically for work, health, and financial wellbeing.
Next steps.
If you want to talk about running this at your organisation, email us at zak@alltoogether.com. If you've got a PMI renewal letter that's just landed and the number has moved north of sensible, that's also a good reason to send a note.
Appendix A · Glossary.
- JD-R
- Job Demands-Resources framework. The dominant model in occupational health for explaining how work design produces burnout or engagement.
- PHQ-9
- Nine-item depression screening instrument. Widely validated.
- GAD-7
- Seven-item anxiety screening instrument. Widely validated.
- WHO-5
- Five-item wellbeing index from the World Health Organization.
- MSK
- Musculoskeletal. Covers back, neck, joint, and movement-related pain.
- ERA 2025
- Employment Rights Act 2025. UK legislation strengthening employer duty of care on psychological risk.
- HSWA
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The foundational UK health and safety law.
- MHSWR
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Brings psychosocial risk assessment inside the HSWA framework.
- ISO 45003
- The 2021 international standard for psychological health and safety within an occupational health and safety management system.
- OH
- Occupational Health.
- EAP
- Employee Assistance Programme. The counselling and support benefit most employers provide and most employees don't use.
- PMI
- Private Medical Insurance.
Appendix B · Further reading.
Zak Fenton leads Alltoogether. He spent the best part of twenty years inside two of the largest employee benefits brokers in the world before completing an MSc in Workplace Health and Wellbeing at the University of Nottingham, where he graduated with distinction. Alltoogether is an FCA-regulated employee benefits broker (FCA 946194).
Get the next piece in your inbox.
We publish new strategy content for UK HR leaders. No spam. Unsubscribe any time.
Got a renewal letter that's moved north of sensible?
Email us directly and we'll make time this week.
Email us →Published by Alltoogether
FCA 946194 · Jactin House, 24 Hood Street, Manchester, M4 6WX