Employee wellbeing strategies: A guide for internal comms pros

You know that sinking feeling when your CEO announces another “employee wellbeing initiative“? Meanwhile, your inbox fills with burnout complaints and engagement surveys show people feel more disconnected than ever. We’ve all been there.

Here’s the reality: employee wellbeing has quietly become part of an internal comms manager’s role. According to Appspace research, 85% of employees say their organization could do more to improve their experience, and 82% struggle to connect with colleagues. These numbers reveal communication gaps, not wellness program failures.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to reframe employee wellbeing as a communication challenge, identify the channels and tactics that move the needle, and build measurement frameworks that prove your impact without stepping on HR’s toes.

What is employee wellbeing?

Employee wellbeing goes way beyond free gym memberships and meditation apps. It’s about creating an environment where people feel genuinely supported, connected, and able to thrive—not just survive—at work. Think of it as the foundation that makes everything else possible: better performance, lower turnover, and teams that actually want to show up.

Here are the six pillars that matter:

• Career wellbeing: Growth opportunities and meaningful work
• Social wellbeing: Strong relationships and connections with colleagues
• Financial wellbeing: Fair compensation and financial security
• Physical wellbeing: Health support and work-life balance
• Emotional wellbeing: Mental health support and psychological safety
• Community wellbeing: Sense of belonging and shared purpose

Why employee wellbeing should be a priority in 2025

Remember when “employee engagement” was the buzzword everyone threw around but nobody could actually move the needle on? Wellbeing is different. It’s what engagement was trying to be before it got watered down by consultants and survey fatigue.

The ROI is real

Your executives are finally paying attention, and the data is impossible to ignore. Gallup found that employees with high wellbeing are 23% more productive and 18% more likely to create great customer experiences. When people aren’t burnt out or stressed about basic needs, they have mental bandwidth for innovation and problem-solving.

It’s smart business, not just good intentions

McKinsey found that improving workplace wellbeing can increase productivity by up to 13%. This isn’t just feel-good fluff anymore. It’s a competitive advantage. Companies that treat wellbeing as a strategic initiative outperform those that don’t.

Connection is a communication problem

Our 2025 report on workplace experience found that 92% of employees say having genuine connections with colleagues is crucial to their experience.That’s not an HR problem solved by pizza parties. It’s a communication challenge about how information flows and whether people feel seen and heard.

Why internal comms is also responsible for employee wellbeing

The old model where HR “owned” employee wellbeing while everyone else stayed in their lane? Those days are long gone.

Today’s distributed workforce needs wellbeing support that reaches them where they actually are. That would be in their inboxes, on their phones, at the digital displays they pass every day. According to our 2025 report, only 26% of employees are completely satisfied with their company’s workplace tools, and 69% say their organization delivers inconsistent messaging across channels.

That kind of inconsistency isn’t just annoying; it’s actively undermining the wellbeing initiatives your organization is investing in.

How internal comms shapes employee wellbeing

Internal communications directly shapes employee experience in three critical ways:

• Messaging cadence and clarity determines whether people feel overwhelmed by constant notifications or left in the dark about the resources they should be keeping track of.
• Visibility of wellbeing resources means the difference between employees actually finding mental health support or giving up after clicking through five broken links.
• Tone and accessibility of content signals whether your organization genuinely cares about people or just checks compliance boxes (employees can tell the difference immediately).

Why employee wellbeing matters across industries

This responsibility hits differently depending on your sector. For example:

• Education: Campus-wide communications about safety alerts, schedule changes, or policy updates through digital signage and intranets either help students and faculty feel informed and connected, or add to campus stress and confusion.
• Healthcare: Shift schedules, policy changes, and critical updates need to reach frontline workers who can’t always access desktop systems. Poor mobile communication is a direct pathway to isolation and burnout.
• Manufacturing: Safety updates, shift changes, and company announcements to factory floor workers reveal why only 30% of employees say their organization does an excellent job supporting frontline workers. Most people feel forgotten because corporate communication never actually reaches them.

These aren’t abstract problems; they’re communication challenges that show up in your channels every single day.

How to improve employee wellbeing using the tools you already have

Now that we’ve established why this a problem internal comms can help solve, let’s talk solutions. The good news is you don’t need a massive budget or six months of stakeholder buy-in to start making a difference. The platforms you’re already managing—your intranet, digital signage, mobile apps, and content publishing workflows—can become powerful wellbeing tools with some strategic tweaks.

Consider this, from our report: 66% of employees say most days they’d rather work remotely than in person, and 57% say they’re required to be in the office more than they’d like. When people are already feeling disconnected, your communication strategy becomes central to supporting wellbeing and belonging.

1. Create content that actually connects people

• Normalize vulnerability by publishing real employee stories about stress, caregiving challenges, or recovery journeys
• Give managers templates for empathetic internal messaging that acknowledges what people are actually going through
• Crowdsource peer advice and wellness habits: People trust recommendations from colleagues way more than corporate-sponsored content

2. Turn your intranet into a wellbeing hub

• Feature rotating employee stories that tackle real issues like burnout, work-life balance, or managing difficult seasons
• Link directly to pulse surveys, mental health resources, and peer support information
• Make everything easy to find, navigate, and act on—not just another compliance checkbox

Add wellbeing touchpoints to your content publishing rhythm

• Incorporate small wellness messages into your existing channels—weekly newsletters, leadership updates, even policy announcements
• Reinforce healthy habits without launching new initiatives
• Look for natural moments to embed recognition or stress tips without disrupting the flow

Deploy digital signage that supports, not overwhelms

• Run monthly campaigns on topics like stress relief, break reminders, or hydration.
• Display real-time prompts that feel timely and helpful—not generic or patronizing.
• Spotlight employee recognitions tied to mental health awareness or seasonal wellbeing themes

Use mobile apps that nudge, don’t nag

• Push wellness check-ins that feel caring, PTO reminders for people who struggle to disconnect, and prompts that encourage small positive actions
• Promote optional, opt-in content like movement breaks or journaling prompts
• Keep it supportive rather than invasive—people should want to engage, not feel surveilled

The tools we’ve outlined here work best when they’re integrated and consistent across your organization. Platforms like Appspace help internal communications teams create these connected experiences without needing separate vendors for each channel.

Whether you’re publishing employee stories to your intranet while simultaneously pushing wellness reminders to digital displays, or sending coordinated mobile notifications that link back to resources on your intranet, the key is making sure your wellbeing communications feel seamless and intentional rather than scattered and overwhelming.

How to measure employee wellbeing (without becoming HR)

You’re not trying to become a wellbeing expert overnight, and you don’t want to step on HR’s toes. But if you’re going to make employee wellbeing part of your communications strategy, you need to know whether it’s working. 

Start with quantitative metrics you’re already comfortable tracking:

• Pulse surveys on wellbeing communication. Embed short, anonymous surveys directly in your intranet or mobile app, but focus specifically on how people feel about communication and connection rather than broad wellness questions.
• Click-through rates on wellbeing content. Compare engagement with wellbeing-focused content versus standard company announcements. This tells you what actually resonates with your audience.
• Open-text feedback fields. Add “emotional temperature” questions to regular feedback forms where people can share what’s genuinely on their minds without structured survey constraints.
• Content engagement patterns. Track engagement rates on employee stories or peer advice content versus typical corporate communications. Authentic content usually performs differently.

But numbers only tell part of the story. Qualitative feedback often reveals what’s really happening:

• Anonymous story collection. Set up tools that let people share experiences without revealing identity. You’ll quickly learn what’s actually helping people versus what feels performative.
• Sentiment analysis from existing channels. Monitor patterns in how people talk about work and each other in internal forums, chat tools, or comment sections on intranet posts.
• Department liaisons and informal check-ins. Regular conversations with employee resource groups or department representatives can give you the real temperature of different teams without formal surveys.

Here’s where you need to be careful: measuring wellbeing isn’t about surveillance or creating more data points to judge people. Your goal is understanding whether your communications are making people feel more supported, not tracking individual wellness metrics. Keep it light-touch, keep it voluntary, and always be transparent about how you’re using the feedback you collect.

You can’t fix burnout alone—but you can lead differently

You’re not going to solve systemic workplace issues with better email subject lines, and you can’t cure burnout with digital signage reminders. But you can help people feel seen, heard, and supported through the way you communicate.

Start small: launch one wellbeing-focused campaign this month, publish one authentic employee story, open one feedback channel, and send one genuinely supportive nudge through your existing platforms. 

Ready to turn your communications platforms into wellbeing tools that actually make a difference? Try Appspace free for 30 days and see how integrated communications can change your approach to employee wellbeing.