Wellbeing on paper, overload in practice
A Nottingham Business School study shows that more than half of employees see a gap between their organisation's wellbeing commitments and their everyday experience. Leaders largely determine whether policies are credible.
Professor Zara Whysall and Professor Nadia K. Kougiannou of Nottingham Business School (Nottingham Trent University) surveyed 1,178 employees of medium and large UK organisations in healthcare, education, finance and public services. The results appear in the peer-reviewed journal Employee Relations. The authors describe the phenomenon as "HR whitewashing": formal commitments that are not reflected in people's experience.
The largest gap concerns wellbeing: 53 per cent see a strong contrast or some inconsistency between policy and everyday practice. On diversity and inclusion, 44 per cent report discrepancies, and 19 per cent feel their organisation's culture does not reflect the values it promotes. A typical example is mental health messaging that reaches people who are chronically overloaded.
The researchers stress that this is not about deliberately misleading people. Whysall notes that a policy is far easier to change than culture. Employees judge an organisation's values by managers' behaviour, how workload is allocated, and how recruitment and promotion decisions are made. The study does not establish a causal link between specific practices and these perceptions.
What this means for organisations: another wellbeing programme will not build trust if daily practice contradicts it. Boards and HR directors should assess managers on how they turn commitments into practice – especially in allocating work and promotions – and measure employee experience, not just formal policy compliance. Consistency between words and actions is the cheapest and most credible culture-building tool available.