As our Emotional Wellbeing Week, in association with Aon Employee Benefits, draws to a close, it is time to reflect on some of the trends and issues currently shaping this area of the benefits market.

Research has revealed that as many as 526,000 employees in the UK experienced stress, depression or anxiety between 2016 and 2017, resulting in a loss of 12.5 million working days. The study by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics, published in November 2017, clearly highlights the economic case for supporting staff in this area. For this reason, it is important for HR and benefits professionals to get board-level buy-in so they can implement measures to help address this, and one way they can do so is by collating and leveraging health-related data.

However, employers must bear in mind that because an individual’s emotional wellbeing can be affected by numerous factors – from issues at work to problems in their personal lives - they should adopt a holistic approach to deal with this.

Benefits strategies must incorporate initiatives that support people’s physical, mental and financial health in a pro-active, but sensitive, way in order to maximise their effectiveness. And, of course, any measures introduced to positively affect employees’ emotional wellbeing should be carefully implemented and well communicated.

Whatever stage you are at and however you support emotional wellbeing within your organisation, Emotional Wellbeing Week was designed to help you take this to the next level through exclusive insights and opinions uncovering best practice in this area. These included:

• The role of EAPs in supporting employees’ emotional wellbeing
• Johnson and Johnson embeds its EAP in a far-reaching wellbeing strategy
• Redrow Homes re-brands EAP as part of a holistic approach to wellbeing
• How can communications engage staff around emotional wellbeing supports?
• Suresite uses posters and case studies to showcase mental health support
• Emma Mamo: How can employers communicate about emotional wellbeing sensitively?
• Why should employers include emotional wellbeing within their overall benefits strategy?
• Fletchers Solicitors takes wide-ranging approach to emotional wellbeing
• Gillian Connor: What can employers do to better support emotional wellbeing in the workplace?
• The Typeface Group uses flexibility to promote emotional wellbeing
• Thriving at work: Emotional wellbeing in numbers
• Rachel Clift: Supporting the emotional wellbeing of employees throughout their careers
• Charles Alberts: What is driving mental health today?