Every May, Mental Health Awareness Week encourages organisations to focus on mental wellbeing. This year’s theme, Action, is a reminder that awareness isn’t enough and that change comes from what employers do next.

New data from the YouGov ‘Work is Health’ survey commissioned by Hussle paints a clear picture of employee stress and its impacts on productivity, retention, and workplace culture.

Mental health and wellbeing at work: the current picture

The EGYM Hussle 2026 ‘Work is Health’ study highlights the scale of the challenge facing UK workplaces:

  • 62% of those surveyed worry about the long-term health impact of work
  • 41% say work negatively impacts their mental wellbeing
  • 44% cite mental fatigue or stress as a barrier to work-life balance
  • 34% say health issues have negatively affected their work performance in the past year

The causes are often linked to everyday working habits and pressures:

  • 70% say their work routine contributes to a sedentary lifestyle
  • 61% say long hours of sitting and screen time negatively affect wellbeing
  • 55% say being indoors most of the day is harmful
  • 51% identify heavy workload and time pressure as wellbeing stressors

The data suggests that workplace wellbeing challenges are no longer limited to isolated cases or generic conversations about burnout culture. For many employees, stress and poor wellbeing are built into the working day – and this presents plenty of opportunities for change.

Who is feeling the pressure most?

The survey revealed that poor mental wellbeing at work isn’t equally spread across demographics. Mid-career employees (defined as 35-44 year olds) are often balancing workload, career progression, and caring responsibilities with the pressure of maintaining a fitness routine. In the survey, this age group reported:

  • mental fatigue or stress (50% – 6% higher than the UK average)
  • work reinforces a sedentary lifestyle (77% - 7% higher than the UK average)
  • wellbeing influences whether they stay with an employer (61% - 1% higher than the UK average)

81% of the female employees surveyed said flexibility is important to their wellbeing, pointing to a clear need for flexible wellbeing benefits, especially for your colleagues who are juggling young families or caring responsibilities with work.

Workplaces with a strong interest in attracting and retaining 18-34 year olds should be aware that this demographic value wellbeing support and increasingly expect employers to take it seriously.

The younger employees in the survey (aged 18-34) are the most active age group (87% say they are physically active weekly) and also one of the most self-aware (71% are concerned about long-term health impacts and 36% prioritise mental health support).

Why physical activity matters for mental wellbeing

The connection between physical and mental wellbeing at work is well known, and the survey results reinforce the positive impact of taking steps to support employees in staying more active. Physical activity can support mental wellbeing by helping to improve sleep quality, reduce stress, boost mood and energy, and support mental resilience.

While 77% of employees surveyed say they are physically active at least weekly, this figure is lower than the global figure of 87% who say they get weekly exercise. Of those surveyed, only 17% exercise daily despite the known benefits. It’s clear that occasional exercise isn’t enough to offset sedentary working patterns and workplace stress.

Workplace fitness support doesn’t have to mean intense activity challenges or lengthy gym sessions – in fact, these may be detrimental to the “little and often” physical activity guidelines promoted by the NHS.

Simple workplace initiatives like walking meetings, movement breaks, lunchtime walks, and flexible access to gyms and fitness centres can all help employees build healthier habits into their working day.

The business impacts of poor mental wellbeing

Poor mental wellbeing isn’t an individual problem - it directly impacts organisational performance, culture, retention, and can even become an image problem.

From the survey data:

  • 60% say wellbeing influences their decision to stay with an employer
  • Yet only 36% are satisfied with their employer’s wellbeing offer

If you’re not confident that your wellbeing resources are adequate, it’s worth exploring Hussle’s cost-effective fitness benefits that support employees in personalising the way they interact with physical activity.

How employers can support mental wellbeing at work

Supporting employee mental health doesn’t require large budgets or complex initiatives. With Mental Health Week urging us all to think about its theme – Action – here are some practical ideas for actions that make a difference.

Build wellbeing into everyday work

Wellbeing should be part of your colleagues’ day, not limited to awareness days.This could include encouraging regular breaks, reducing unnecessary back-to-back meetings, supporting realistic workloads, and normalising movement during the day.

Prioritise flexibility

According to the survey, flexibility is the biggest driver of wellbeing for UK employees (75%). Flexible working can help employees manage stress, improve work-life balance, and empower them to build movement into their routines more easily. Flexibility should also be a key factor of your fitness benefits, allowing colleagues to choose when, where, and how they engage with fitness.

Encourage movement and fitness

There’s a clear connection between sedentary routines and poor mental wellbeing. Organisations can encourage movement throughout the day with measures such as lunchtime walks, gentle activity challenges, team fitness activities, and flexible access to gyms.

Turning awareness into action

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is ‘Action’ and the ‘Work is Health’ survey findings show why action matters. Employees say that stress, sedentary working, workload pressure, and poor wellbeing are affecting their health and performance. But they are also showing what they value - flexibility, supportive leadership, movement, and wellbeing support that fits the reality of modern working lives.

Hussle helps organisations support employee wellbeing with flexible fitness benefits designed for office-based, remote, and hybrid teams across the UK. you can find out more and request a friendly discussion to explore their offering further for your organisation, via their website.

This survey was collected on the YouGov Panels, among 1000 employees of private companies of each country. Fieldwork was conducted from 19th to 27th August 2025 in France, Germany and the USA, and from 25th February to 6th March 2026 in the UK. The figures have been weighted and are representative of employed adults aged 18 and over in each country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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