Wellbeing is often reduced to meditation sessions, mindfulness apps, yoga classes, free fruit or a good coffee machine. These things can have a place, but wellbeing is much broader than the initiatives organisations can easily package and offer to employees.
Research by the McKinsey Health Institute, published in 2023, found that 22% of employees surveyed across 30 countries reported experiencing burnout symptoms at work. The research also identified workplace pressures such as toxic behaviour, job insecurity, role conflict and excessive demands, which cannot be addressed through wellbeing activities alone.
Wellbeing includes our health, relationships, sense of security, purpose and environment. It is about whether people feel safe and valued, whether they have supportive relationships and whether they have the resources and control they need to do their jobs well. This wider definition also shows why employee resource groups (ERGs) have an important role to play in organisational wellbeing.
For many years, ERGs have provided safe spaces for people who share an identity or circumstance, but their contribution can extend beyond community and connection. They can help organisations understand what employees are experiencing and support people who do not always feel able to raise concerns elsewhere. At FAIRER, we often see the challenge as connecting ERGs’ work to wider organisational goals while preserving the support and sense of community that make these networks valuable.
The What Works Wellbeing framework identifies five areas of wellbeing: health, relationships, security, purpose and environment. Together, these offer a broader way to consider how people experience work and what organisations can do to support them.
Health is the most obvious starting point. Organisations need to provide safe and healthy working conditions, support mental health, manage workloads and make sure people have access to the resources they need. When people have the right support and conditions to do their jobs, this can benefit their engagement and productivity, as well as their wellbeing.
Organisations should also consider whether workloads are reasonable, whether people are being asked to do two or three people's jobs, whether they can work in ways that suit their roles and needs, and whether there are healthy boundaries and enough flexibility to reduce unnecessary stress and burnout.
The Job Demands-Resources model, developed by psychologists Arnold Bakker and Evangelia Demerouti, offers one way of understanding how workplace demands and resources affect employee wellbeing. High demands, such as excessive workloads, can contribute to strain, while resources such as autonomy, support and the tools to do the job can help people manage those demands. This is relevant to wellbeing because organisations need to look at how work is structured, as well as how individuals cope with it.
The Job Demands-Resources model
| What it can look like at work | How ERGs can contribute | |
|---|---|---|
| Job demands | Excessive workloads, long hours, emotional labour, microaggressions or pressure to hide parts of yourself at work | Help surface recurring concerns and experiences that may not emerge through formal feedback channels |
| Job resources | Supportive managers, autonomy, manageable workloads, recognition, psychological safety and supportive relationships | Provide peer connection, shared understanding, signposting and a space to raise concerns |
| When demands outweigh resources | Sustained strain, exhaustion, disengagement and increased risk of burnout | Bring attention to gaps in support, but cannot resolve structural problems alone |
| What organisations can do | Review workloads, improve management practices, address exclusion and provide employees with the support and autonomy they need | Give networks executive sponsorship, protected time and a clear route for feeding insights into organisational decisions |
Purpose is another part of wellbeing. People often want to understand how their work contributes to wider goals and see some connection between organisational and personal values, but that does not mean everyone needs to be highly invested in their employer. As Global DEI Consultant Barry Boffy explains, some employees simply want to come to work, do a good job, get paid and go home. They do not necessarily want to over-invest or apply discretionary effort, and that is okay. A wellbeing strategy needs to recognise that people have different expectations of work.
Security and fairness are equally important. People are more likely to thrive when they feel safe, valued and fairly treated. While organisations cannot guarantee job security indefinitely, transparency and openness about what is happening can help create a greater sense of security.
Finally, there are relationships. Inclusion and belonging are shaped by the relationships people have with colleagues, managers and senior leaders, and by whether they feel able to bring an authentic sense of themselves into the workplace. Strong social connections are an important part of a healthy working environment.
These five areas are connected. If an organisation focuses on mental health support but ignores excessive workloads, poor relationships or unfair treatment, it is only addressing part of the picture. ERGs may be well placed to help identify some of these issues because their members hear directly about employees’ experiences.
A holistic approach to wellbeing also recognises social, physical, spiritual and mental health. Social health includes the ability to build healthy, supportive relationships and to speak up when something is wrong. Physical health includes having a safe, suitable working environment and the right tools to do the job.
Spiritual wellbeing can involve being able to bring personal values and beliefs into the workplace, including religious beliefs, without feeling that they need to be hidden or changed. Mental wellbeing includes behavioural, cognitive and emotional health, as well as being able to participate at work without suppressing important parts of your identity.
The McKinsey Health Institute research found considerable differences in reported burnout symptoms between countries. Although the overall figure was 22%, the proportion varied from 9% in Cameroon to 59% in India. The research also highlighted toxic workplace behaviour, ambiguity, job insecurity, role conflict and work pressure among the issues affecting employee wellbeing.
These differences are a reminder that organisations need to understand the experiences of their own employees rather than assume that everyone faces the same pressures. This is particularly relevant for organisations with people working across different countries and cultures.
When people feel included and able to speak openly, they have more opportunity to contribute and build relationships at work. Psychologist Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety describes a shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, such as asking questions or raising concerns. This helps explain why inclusion is relevant to wellbeing: people need to feel able to speak up if something is wrong.
ERGs have traditionally been affinity networks, bringing people together around a shared identity or set of circumstances. Many were created because employees needed somewhere to raise concerns and discuss experiences they did not feel able to share with their wider organisation.
Social Identity Theory, developed by psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner, helps explain the importance of belonging to groups with which we identify. Shared identity can give people a sense of connection and support. For an employee who feels isolated or underrepresented at work, an affinity network can provide a space to connect with people who understand aspects of their experience.
ERGs have also evolved. Many provide resources, support and guidance while creating opportunities for organisations to learn from employees’ lived experiences. This is where the move towards business resource groups (BRGs) can be useful. The shift is about connecting ERGs’ existing work more clearly to the organisation’s wider goals, rather than changing their core purpose.
The needs of employees and the needs of the organisation are not necessarily competing priorities. As Global DEI Consultant Barry Boffy MBE explains, the organisation's aims and employees' aims are not necessarily separate; there is a relationship between what people need at work and what the organisation is trying to achieve.
ERGs can provide organisations with insight that may not appear through formal reporting channels. Employees do not always feel safe enough to raise concerns through a grievance process, engagement survey or formal complaint. An ERG may hear about an emerging issue much earlier, creating an opportunity for the organisation to understand and respond to it.
These networks can also help colleagues understand experiences they may not have encountered themselves. They can raise awareness, encourage people to ask questions and help organisations consider how policies, behaviours or decisions affect different groups of employees.
Some of the most significant threats to workplace wellbeing are embedded in the way work is organised and experienced. Long working hours are one example. The World Health Organization reports that working 55 hours or more a week is associated with an increased risk of stroke and ischaemic heart disease.
Other issues include poor relationships at work, a lack of support, micromanagement, authoritarian supervision, harassment, bullying, exclusion and microaggressions. The way colleagues and managers treat people can have a direct bearing on how safe and supported employees feel.
Another issue is emotional tax. People adapt their behaviour in different environments, and that is not necessarily a problem. The concern is when someone feels they have to hide parts of themselves or perform for eight or nine hours a day to fit in and feel they belong. As Barry explains, this is the unhealthy side of trying to fit in.
Constantly monitoring how you behave, what you say or which parts of your identity you reveal can create an additional cognitive and emotional load. Catalyst research found that 61% of employees from marginalised racial and ethnic groups across five countries were on guard against bias and discrimination within their work teams. The figure rose to 74% among LGBTQ+ employees from marginalised racial and ethnic groups, while 85% of transgender and non-binary employees reported being on guard against bias.
For people experiencing this, the pressure does not necessarily stop when they leave a meeting or finish a task. They may spend much of the working day thinking about how they are perceived and whether it is safe to be themselves at work.
ERGs can help by reducing isolation and creating spaces where people know they are not alone. They can provide peer support, mentoring and buddying, and give employees a place to discuss experiences they may not feel comfortable raising elsewhere. They can also help organisations identify exclusionary practices and understand where policies or ways of working may be having a disproportionate impact on particular groups.
But ERGs cannot be expected to resolve these problems by themselves. If the cause is a management practice, an excessive workload or a culture in which people experience discrimination, the organisation needs to address that cause. The role of an ERG is to support its members and help bring those experiences to the organisation's attention.
ERGs can support wellbeing in several practical ways:
For this work to be effective, ERGs need support from the organisation, including protected time, recognition and a route to influence decisions. Their contribution is more likely to make a difference when the organisation listens to what they are hearing and acts on the issues they raise.
ERG members are often volunteers, taking on this work alongside their day jobs. Organisations need to recognise the time and effort involved and make sure people have the support and resources they need to carry out the role. That means giving networks clear objectives, recognising their contribution and providing executive sponsorship so they have a voice at senior level. It is also important to think about what progress looks like over time, whether that is 12, 18 or 24 months, rather than focusing simply on how active a network is.
Organisations should consider the wellbeing of the people doing this work, too. If ERG members are expected to support colleagues, organise activities and influence change on top of their existing responsibilities, without enough time or resources, the role can become an additional source of pressure.
Protected time, appropriate resources and access to senior leaders can help networks do their work. Executive sponsorship is particularly important when an issue raised by an ERG requires action beyond the network itself. Members can share their experiences and make recommendations, but responsibility for organisational decisions remains with the organisation.
ERGs can help organisations understand their employees’ needs, raise awareness of issues affecting their wellbeing and contribute to a more inclusive working environment. Their work is most useful when the organisation listens to what members are saying and considers how those insights relate to its wider priorities. That means preserving the support and connection ERGs provide while giving networks the backing they need to influence change where appropriate.
At FAIRER, we work with organisations to strengthen the relationship between inclusion, workplace behaviour and wellbeing. Our Driving Business Performance through Inclusion and Wellbeing programme draws on behavioural science and social psychology to explore how workplace culture affects people’s experiences.
If you are reviewing your wellbeing strategy, consider where your ERGs fit into that work, what they are already hearing from employees and whether they have the support to make a meaningful contribution. Get in touch with FAIRER to find out more about our inclusion and wellbeing programme.