CIPD Festival of Work: Wellbeing must move beyond perks and become business strategy, panel says

Employee wellbeing should be treated as a core organisational strategy rather than a standalone initiative, speakers at the CIPD Festival of Work 2026 argued.

The session, chaired by Rebecca Peters, senior policy and practice adviser at the CIPD, featured Dr Ian Hesketh, honorary research fellow, Karen Chummun, deputy director of people, talent and leadership at NHS England, and Colin Hodgson, director of growth at Reward Gateway | Edenred.

Setting the context, Peters highlighted figures from the Government’s Get Britain Working report, noting that around 800,000 more people are out of work due to health problems than in 2019, with further increases forecast over the coming years.

Hodgson said there is growing evidence linking employee wellbeing directly to business performance.

Research conducted by Reward Gateway | Edenred and the London School of Economics (LSE) found happier employees are “12% more productive” and “30% less likely to leave the organisation”, which he said could translate into a “21% increase in profitability.”

Hodgson added: “We wanted to understand how do you measure happiness? What drives happiness?”

Chummun argued that wellbeing should not be viewed as an additional programme layered on top of work, but as part of creating the right conditions for employees to succeed.

She said: “What I’ve really noticed a moving shift on is wellbeing not being an intervention on top of things but being actually part of what we need to do in organisations to create the conditions for staff to thrive.”