Why a discount on a scented candle isn’t enough anymore

By Kathryn Pinkham, Founder of The Insomnia Clinic

I love a scented candle as much as the next person. And if my employer wanted to offer me a discount on one, I’d happily take it.

But would it help me if I was struggling with my mental health, experiencing chronic insomnia or finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the demands of work and home life? Probably not.

Over the past few years, workplace wellbeing has become a much bigger priority for organisations, and that’s a really positive thing. Employees now have access to all sorts of benefits, from gym discounts and meditation apps to wellbeing webinars, yoga sessions and healthy eating advice.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these things. They can encourage healthier habits, help people feel valued and introduce them to activities they might not otherwise try.

But I do wonder whether, in our enthusiasm to offer more wellbeing benefits, we’ve sometimes lost sight of what we’re actually trying to achieve.

Are we helping employees who are genuinely struggling, or are we simply giving everyone more things to choose from?

There’s a difference between wellbeing and treatment. I think this is an important distinction, and one that sometimes gets lost.

Wellbeing initiatives are often designed to help people stay healthy, manage stress and develop good habits. They’re valuable, particularly when employees are generally well and looking for ways to improve how they feel. But what about the employee who is already struggling?

Someone experiencing significant anxiety may need more than a mindfulness app. Someone with persistent back pain probably needs more than a reminder to stretch. And someone who has been struggling with insomnia for months or even years is unlikely to find the answer in another list of bedtime tips.

That’s not because these initiatives are bad. It’s simply because they’re not designed to treat an established problem.

We wouldn’t expect a healthy eating webinar to treat diabetes, so why do we sometimes expect general wellbeing advice to resolve ongoing sleep or mental health difficulties?

Sleep is a good example. I’ve spent the past 17 years specialising in sleep, initially in the NHS and now through The Insomnia Clinic.

One of the things I hear most often from people who come to me for help is, “I’ve tried everything.” And when we talk about what they’ve tried, it’s usually a familiar list. They’ve stopped drinking caffeine, bought blackout blinds, downloaded a meditation app, stopped looking at screens before bed and invested in expensive pillows.

Some have developed such elaborate bedtime routines that preparing for sleep has become a stressful experience in itself.

Yet they’re still awake at 3am, worrying about how they’re going to manage the following day. The problem isn’t that they haven’t tried hard enough. In fact, quite often they’re trying far too hard.

Persistent insomnia isn’t simply a case of having poor sleep habits. It can develop following a stressful period, illness, menopause or another disruption to sleep. But over time, the worry about not sleeping and the changes people make to try to fix it can actually keep the problem going.

People start dreading bedtime, checking the clock, going to bed earlier to catch up and spending longer lying awake trying to force themselves to sleep.

All of this can make sleep more difficult.

This is why Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is recommended as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia. It addresses the thoughts and behaviours that are maintaining the problem, rather than simply offering advice about the bedroom environment. And yet, when I look at the sleep support commonly offered through workplace wellbeing programmes, it often stops at sleep hygiene.

It’s a bit like offering someone who is struggling with depression a discount on a spa set.

They probably already know they’d like to feel more relaxed. What they need is help understanding why they’re struggling and what they can do about it.

More benefits don’t necessarily mean better support

I can understand why organisations have ended up here. HR and wellbeing teams are often working with limited budgets, competing priorities and a workforce with a huge range of needs.

It’s difficult to know where to invest. A wellbeing platform offering hundreds of benefits can look like excellent value. Employees have plenty of choice, and there’s something for everyone. But I think there’s a risk that we start measuring the success of workplace wellbeing by how much we’re offering, rather than whether it’s making a difference.

An employee might have access to ten different wellbeing resources and still not know where to turn when they’re struggling. And while engagement figures can tell us how many people attended a webinar or downloaded an app, they don’t necessarily tell us whether anyone’s health has improved.

I’m not suggesting we should get rid of the perks, far from it, but I do think we need to be clearer about what different types of support are there to achieve.

A yoga class might be a lovely way to unwind and a meditation app can help to reduce anxiety but neither should be confused with specialist support for someone experiencing an ongoing sleep problem.

There’s room for all of these things, provided we’re realistic about what they can offer.

Perhaps we need to ask different questions

One of the challenges for employers is that they don’t always know how many people are struggling or what they need help with. Sleep is a particularly good example because many employees won’t tell their employer they’re experiencing insomnia.

They might turn up every day, do their job and appear to be coping, while privately spending hours awake each night and worrying about how long they can keep going.

So rather than immediately deciding which new wellbeing benefit to introduce, perhaps the starting point should be understanding where the problems actually are.

That doesn’t have to mean a complicated or expensive exercise.

A few carefully chosen questions can help organisations understand how many employees are struggling with their sleep, whether it’s affecting their concentration, mood or ability to work, and whether the support currently available is meeting their needs.

From there, employers can make more informed decisions about where to invest. For some employees, general wellbeing education may be exactly what they need. Others may benefit from more structured support, while some will need access to specialist treatment. The important thing is recognising that these are different needs.

It’s not about spending more

I don’t think the answer is necessarily bigger wellbeing budgets or adding another twenty benefits to an already long list. It’s about making sure we’re spending money on the right things. And sometimes that means being willing to question whether something that looks good on a benefits platform is actually helping the people it’s intended to support.

Workplace wellbeing has come a long way, and organisations deserve credit for taking it seriously. But perhaps the next step is moving beyond simply offering wellbeing benefits and thinking more carefully about the outcomes we’re trying to achieve. Because a scented candle might make someone’s evening a little nicer but if they’re lying awake at 3am, anxious about another sleepless night and wondering how they’ll cope at work tomorrow, they probably need something more.

The question we should be asking isn’t how many wellbeing benefits we’re offering, but whether they’re actually helping the people who need support most.