Innovative wellbeing initiatives in the banking sector

Central to the challenge is the GoJoe app, which allows participants to monitor their wellbeing progress; at the same time giving the bank a window into the fitness successes of a substantial proportion of their workforce. For their second challenge, NatWest wanted to test out something unusual and specific; whether an additional short-term incentivisation of employees to do more activity, would result in the continuance of the additional exercise, once the incentive was withdrawn. If so, that insight could be employed to increase the effectiveness of other behaviour-change wellbeing programmes implemented by the bank.

The incentive

The standard programme was launched for registered participants in most business areas, but a modified version was introduced for around 1,000 employees working within the bank’s Wealth function. With assistance from GoJoe, the Bank introduced a points-based reward system into the programme, where each kilometre earned a point, with 500 points gaining the employee a £5.00 reward voucher. The wellbeing team were intrigued to see what effect this had on levels of activity for this select group. The reward-based system was applied for two weeks after which the incentive was withdrawn.

The results were encouraging. During the two-week incentive period, there was a clear uplift in both the amount and consistency of activity logged. More importantly, when the reward ended, activity levels remained higher than before, suggesting that the short-term incentive had successfully sparked lasting behaviour change. Colleagues also reported feeling more energised and less stressed, mirroring findings from similar rewards-based programmes. These insights will help shape future NatWest wellbeing activity, particularly where targeted nudges and time-limited incentives can support healthier, longer-term habits.

Benefits of the activity challenge overall

A common criticism of workplace wellbeing programmes is that they tend to be utilised by the already-well, where there is least room for health improvement. Too often, those that would most benefit, remain out of reach. Unusually, NatWest succeeded in enlisting into the challenge, large numbers of employees who were doing little or no exercise. Afterwards, encouragingly, the GoJoe data showed that all groups of participants, whatever their activity levels at the outset, saw sustained behaviour change, involving at least a doubling of their activity levels. Other wellbeing benefits included improved social wellbeing and mental health.

The wider context

The UK’s Keep Britain Working Review highlights ill-health as a major driver of economic inactivity. It calls for earlier, preventative action and more consistent access to occupational and mental health support, with employers playing a central role.

NatWest’s activity challenges exemplify the shift to prevention referred to in the Review and highlighted elsewhere in this report. Critically they involve large numbers of employees in sustained activities and behaviours that will bring long term physical and mental health benefits. And, as we’ve seen, the incentivisation pilot confirmed that short-term rewards can spark sustained activity once incentives are removed, an insight that will now feed into the NatWest’s wider prevention pathways.

Lloyds Banking Group — Creation of an LGBTQ+ clinical pathway via an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Employee Assistance Programmes have long been a cornerstone of workplace wellbeing, a familiar and enduring feature of corporate wellbeing strategies. For decades they have provided employees with confidential access to professional counselling and guidance — creating a safe, expert space to explore personal or work-related challenges. But some have begun to question whether the longstanding EAP model remains optimal for all staff. One of the important recent developments in the field is that wellbeing programmes do now need to be inclusive. The days of a one-size-fits-all approach are over — we need to ensure any wellbeing provision works equally well for all demographics.

A new approach

Emma Stacey, Lloyds Banking Group’s wellbeing lead had felt for some time that some communities within the bank were not getting the most from the counselling services available through their standard EAP offering. Emma was concerned that employees from different demographics are likely to have different needs. A particular example she shares is around colleagues that are members of the LGBTQ+ community, who might have a less therapeutic experience, if they aren’t able to be seen by a practitioner with a full grasp of the cultural issues associated with their community. This concern was subsequently borne out by some colleague feedback from LGBTQ+ users of the EAP service. So, she worked closely with the bank’s Rainbow LGBTQ+ professional network and their EAP, Health Hero, to address the situation. Together they created a defined clinical pathway, within the EAP, for LGBTQ+ employees seeking counselling and emotional support.

Creating a dedicated clinical pathway

This guaranteed that anyone from the LGBTQ+ community using this pathway would be able to speak to a counsellor with lived experience or deep level expertise of their culture. Emma explained the benefits of this innovative approach.

For some colleagues, the standard EAP model can mean spending valuable time educating a counsellor about the nuances of their unique experiences before they can begin talking about what’s going on, and how it is impacting them personally. I felt uncomfortable about the emotional burden this creates for colleagues that were reaching out for support and wanted to address that for them. By creating a dedicated pathway employing practitioners who have either lived experience or in-depth awareness of the social and cultural factors shaping LGBTQ+ mental health, we removed that burden. It means colleagues can now focus fully on their wellbeing, confident that the person supporting them truly ‘gets it’.

From concept to launch

Lloyds Banking Group employ a test and learn approach to the introduction of any new wellbeing initiative. This is designed to deliver change at pace and iterate, rather than assume they have all the answers from the outset. It also ensures the new initiative is only launched when it is proven to meet employee needs, giving any proposed wellbeing provision the greatest chance of success. In December 2024, once the counsellors had been recruited, the programme was launched as a three-month pilot. After proving effective, it was embedded as a business-as-usual service.

The full introduction of the programme in March 2025 was a major success and to date 69 individuals have benefited from using the service.

HSBC — Health assessments

As highlighted in The evolving wellbeing landscape section of the report, there has been a significant shift in how UK businesses approach workplace wellbeing, with a growing emphasis on prevention. This proactive mindset is reshaping the wellbeing landscape, as organisations increasingly invest in resources designed to address health concerns before they develop into more complex and costly issues. The guiding principle is clear: prevention is better than cure.

HSBC is among the forward-thinking employers leading this change, placing prevention at the heart of its wellbeing strategy. In this case study, we explore a core element of HSBC UK’s wellbeing model — comprehensive health assessments offered to all colleagues, regardless of age or seniority, as part of their employee benefits package.

An evolving model

Historically, the bank provided health assessments as an employee benefit to UK colleagues, but access was determined by seniority, with only around half of the workforce eligible, and frequency determined by age.

However, in 2022 an internal survey, conducted against the backdrop of NHS backlogs and further strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, revealed that employee wellbeing needs were evolving.

In response, and to ensure a fairer and more inclusive employee value proposition, HSBC introduced a whole-of-workforce health assessment benefit at the start of 2024 for all employees, regardless of seniority or age.

Early intervention and behaviour change

The health assessments aren’t just about identifying concerns; they also provide an opportunity to discuss lifestyle habits with trained health professionals and help employees to optimise their wellbeing.

And while health risks generally increase with age, many chronic conditions that appear later in life are often linked to lifestyle choices made years, if not decades earlier. By identifying and addressing these risk factors sooner — through screening and lifestyle coaching, (especially for asymptomatic younger employees), the bank can help prevent more serious health issues from developing and stop unhealthy thirty-somethings becoming at-risk fifty-somethings.

Cancer screening

In our previous report, we identified cancer support in the workplace as an emerging wellbeing trend, with several UK banks in the vanguard. HSBC was one of them. Its health assessments now also include targeted, age-based cancer screening – an important development when around 25% of their private healthcare expenditure relates to cancer. According to Cancer Research UK, while 90% of cancers are still diagnosed in individuals over 50, cancer rates among those aged 25-49 years old increased by 24% between 1995 and 2019, further underscoring the importance of extending provision to all ages.

The programme’s impact

Identifying issues earlier means people can access timely, joined-up support. Feedback from colleagues on the value of the health assessments has been overwhelmingly positive. More than 1,000 enhanced coaching calls were delivered in 2025, helping colleagues improve their wellbeing, tackle risk factors and reduce the chance of more serious health problems later. Nearly 13,000 employees attended health assessments in 2025.

Take-up of the assessments, and the results they produced, show the programme’s growing impact.

Assessments resulted in:

• 69 referrals for further cancer investigation
• 600 colleagues started musculoskeletal (MSK) treatment
• 150 colleagues received mental health support

Ongoing support

Alongside the health assessments and private medical insurance, HSBC provides a comprehensive package of wellbeing support. That includes an employee assistance programme, the Headspace mindfulness app, accessed by 11,000 staff, and the Personify Health app, which focuses on physical health, which is also used by around 11,000 employees. Financial wellbeing is another key part of this preventative approach, giving UK employees access to confidential financial health checks, educational training and financial literacy resources.

Wellbeing initiatives two years on

The next two case studies both featured in our previous report but have since evolved in interesting new directions. The needs they address are quite niche, but the value they provide to the employees they support is significant. They also exemplify how wellbeing strategies have become more inclusive, recognising that meeting the needs of specific demographics is just as important as supporting broader employee groups.

In both case studies, we hear directly from employees who have experienced these programmes first hand and who describe the powerful difference they’ve made to their lives.

UBS — Dementia support

In the 2024 edition of this report, we highlighted the pioneering work undertaken by UBS to support colleagues that were supporting someone — usually a parent or partner — that is living with dementia. The rapid rise in diagnoses means that by 2040 an estimated 1.6 million people will be living with the disease. Whilst the number of diagnoses are set to increase, there are already many in the UK workforce who either suffer with the condition or care for someone that does.

UBS are unusual in having already made dementia support a wellbeing priority. Their approach is built around employee-led coffee corners, where staff can share experiences and find solutions, alongside regular themed clinics, run by an Admiral nurse specialising in dementia. Together these initiatives have made a huge difference to employees affected directly or indirectly by the condition.

Much has been learnt in the last two years of running the clinics, about where employee support needs lie. The knowledge gained has enabled the organising team to expand the range of themes, providing vital information that would otherwise be difficult for employees to access. In 2025 they covered topics like:

• Post-diagnosis planning and support
• Caring from a distance (a scenario faced by many employees)
• Living well with dementia

One of the sessions – “Care and beyond”, took a more practical focus, exploring concerns like lasting power of attorney, having difficult conversations and dealing with the emotional rollercoaster of caring. Backing all this up is the bank’s dementia SharePoint site. Expanding all the time, it has evolved into an outstanding repository of information covering all aspects of dementia.

The popularity of the clinics and the coffee corners go far beyond their practical value as sources of information and guidance. Caring for someone with dementia can be a profoundly isolating experience, and it’s poorly understood by those not touched by the disease. Outside the bank’s provision it is rare to find others that truly understand the issues this group of carers face, which makes these resources such an invaluable source of mutual support and community.

TSB — Carers support

In 2024 we featured a case study from TSB, whose carers policy, launched in 2020, broke new ground owing to the scale of support it made available to the bank’s carers. Internal research had shown around 1 in 10 colleagues had caring responsibilities — a substantial proportion of the workforce.

The policy provided:

• Up to 70 hrs paid leave a year
• A carers passport – facilitating ongoing conversations between carers and managers about balancing work and caring
• Information about a plethora of carer-relevant resources available through the bank

Since 2024, TSB has continued to prioritise carers needs and has expanded the range of provision available. In January 2025, the bank introduced KareHero, a fully funded adult care concierge service, that gives colleague carers fast access to expert advice, practical help and guidance on funding, legal matters and care arrangements. The quality of TSB’s support was recognised externally last year, when the bank received the Transformational Employer award in the Carers UK awards.

And the support is having a visible impact. In many workplaces there’s a stigma associated with being a carer, that can discourage employees from revealing their caring responsibilities. TSB’s supportive approach has created a climate that makes it much easier for carers to disclose.

The thousands of hours of paid carers leave, taken responsibly across the organisation, testify to the success of the policy, with one carer saying that the support is ‘a third emergency service’.

For a fuller exploration of the kinds of pressures TSB are trying to alleviate, you may wish to explore the content in the What our data is telling us section of this report, which includes content on carers needs.

Sharing wellbeing inspiration

Our aim in this section of the report has been to highlight some of the most imaginative — and at times unexpected — wellbeing initiatives we’ve seen in the banking sector. We hope they’ll provide inspiration to other banks and to employers in other sectors, to think creatively about how they support their people.

This was the most read section of our previous report, and we hope it continues to demonstrate what’s possible in workplace wellbeing. We’ll continue to look out for fresh and original ideas to share in future editions.