An employee wellbeing strategy can help employers prepare for autumn and winter by putting support in place before seasonal pressures begin. Rather than waiting for sickness absence or health concerns to affect employees, employers can take a more preventative approach by encouraging everyday healthcare, reviewing existing wellbeing support and making sure employees understand the benefits available to them.
Why Should Employers Think About Winter Wellbeing Now?
Winter workplace pressures rarely begin on the first cold day of the year. As autumn approaches, employers have an opportunity to look at how well their existing health and wellbeing support is working and where employees may need additional help.
Healthy Working Wales is actively encouraging organisations across Wales to take action on workplace health and wellbeing. Its July 2026 update includes new recognition for employers taking positive steps to improve workplace health, alongside resources designed to help organisations introduce practical wellbeing initiatives.
The Healthy Working Wales July 2026 update is a useful reminder that workplace wellbeing does not need to begin with a major programme. Employers can start by looking at what they already provide and identifying practical steps that could better support employees.
Doing that before winter creates an opportunity to be proactive rather than waiting until health concerns or absence begin affecting teams.
Why Is Sickness Absence Important For Employers In Wales?
Employee absence has consequences for both people and organisations.
Healthy Working Wales reports that 6 million working days are lost to sickness absence in Wales each year, equivalent to an average of 4.1 days per worker. It also reports an employee sickness absence rate of 1.9% in Wales, based on 2025 ONS data.
For employers, absence can affect productivity, workloads and the colleagues who need to cover when someone is unable to work. But focusing only on absence figures risks missing the more important question, what can employers do to support employees before health problems reach that point?
Healthy Working Wales specifically recommends promoting health and wellbeing, providing early support and creating an environment where employees feel able to have open conversations about their health. That shifts the emphasis from managing absence after it happens towards creating a healthier workplace throughout the year. Exactly where WHA Healthcare can support your organisation.Â
What Does A Preventative Employee Wellbeing Strategy Look Like?
A preventative wellbeing strategy does not mean employers can stop people becoming ill. Nor should workplace benefits be presented as a solution to every cause of sickness absence.
Instead, prevention is about making it easier for employees to look after their health, seek appropriate support and address everyday health concerns sooner. That could include encouraging employees to attend routine health appointments, supporting physical and mental wellbeing, ensuring managers know where to direct colleagues for help and making health benefits easy to understand and use.
It also means considering whether employees actually know what support is available. A valuable benefit has limited impact if employees forget they have it or don’t understand when they can use it.
Before winter, employers therefore have a useful opportunity to remind employees about existing healthcare and wellbeing support rather than introducing activity only after absence starts to rise.
Where Do Healthcare Cash Plans Fit Into A Wellbeing Strategy?
Healthcare cash plans can form one practical part of a broader employee wellbeing strategy. They are designed to help towards the cost of eligible everyday healthcare. Depending on the plan, this can include services such as dental care, eye care, physiotherapy and other professional therapies.
For an employer taking a preventative approach, the value is in giving employees practical support with healthcare they may need throughout the year rather than providing a benefit designed only for major medical events.
A healthcare cash plan does not replace the NHS, occupational health, an employee assistance programme or an employer’s responsibility to create a healthy workplace. It can sit alongside those services as another way of helping employees manage their everyday health.
Find out how WHA Healthcare cash plans can support employee health and wellbeing.
Could Everyday Healthcare Support Help Before Winter?
Winter health planning often focuses understandably on seasonal illness, but employees’ healthcare needs are much broader than colds and flu.
A dental problem, changing eyesight, an injury or musculoskeletal discomfort can affect someone at any time of year. Helping employees access appropriate everyday healthcare gives them another way to take action when health concerns arise.
Healthy Working Wales identifies musculoskeletal injuries and stress among the long term causes of sickness absence that can be preventable and recommends early support as part of effective sickness absence management. This is why a preventative wellbeing strategy should look beyond responding to seasonal illness. The aim is to create an environment where looking after health becomes part of everyday working life.
How Can Employers Prepare Their Wellbeing Strategy For Autumn And Winter?
Preparation does not necessarily mean introducing more benefits. A good starting point is understanding whether the support you already provide is reaching the people who need it. Review what healthcare and wellbeing benefits employees currently have access to and whether they know how to use them. Look at absence patterns within your own organisation and consider whether particular health issues regularly affect employees. Make sure managers know where to direct people for appropriate support and use internal communications to remind employees about the help already available.
This is also an opportunity to ask employees what they value. Understanding how people actually use workplace benefits can help employers make better decisions about where future wellbeing investment should go.
How WHA Healthcare Supports Employers
For more than 75 years, WHA Healthcare has helped people manage the cost of everyday healthcare. Our healthcare cash plans give employers a practical way to add healthcare support to their employee benefits package, with options for organisations of different sizes.
We work with employers to understand what they want their healthcare benefits to achieve and help make the introduction of a cash plan straightforward for the organisation and its employees.
For employers preparing for the months ahead, the question is not simply how to manage winter sickness absence. It is how to create an environment where employees are supported to look after their health throughout the year.
Explore healthcare cash plans for businesses and organisations and see how WHA Healthcare could become part of your wider employee wellbeing strategy.
Is It Time To Move From Reactive To Preventative Wellbeing?
Winter will always bring health challenges that employers cannot control. A preventative approach is not about trying to eliminate sickness absence altogether. It is about recognising that employers can influence the support employees receive before, during and after periods of ill health.
Healthy Working Wales describes effective workplace health and wellbeing as beneficial to employees, workplaces and businesses. Its guidance links employer action with outcomes including employee engagement, resilience, morale and fewer sickness absences.
Preparing before winter therefore creates an opportunity to think beyond seasonal absence and consider the bigger picture.
Instead of asking what you will do when employees become unwell, perhaps the better question is – what support can you put in place now to help people look after their health before winter pressures begin?
Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Wellbeing And Winter
How can employers prepare for winter sickness absence?
Employers can review their sickness absence policies, analyse previous absence patterns, remind employees about available health and wellbeing support and make sure managers know how to provide appropriate early support.
What is a preventative employee wellbeing strategy?
A preventative employee wellbeing strategy focuses on supporting employee health before problems escalate. This can include workplace policies, early intervention, everyday healthcare support, health promotion and benefits that make appropriate care easier to access.
Can healthcare cash plans support employee wellbeing?
Yes. Healthcare cash plans can help towards eligible everyday healthcare costs such as dental care, eye care, physiotherapy and more. They can form part of a wider employee health and wellbeing strategy.
When should employers start planning for winter wellbeing?
Employers do not need to wait until winter. Reviewing wellbeing support during late summer or early autumn gives organisations time to identify gaps, communicate existing benefits and put appropriate support in place before seasonal pressures increase.
