2. News
  3. Well being is not a fruit basket its time to get serious

Well-being is not a fruit basket – it's time to get serious 

 

 

CEO Blog banner (38)

Burn-outs and stress-related absenteeism are on the rise. Despite growing awareness around mental health in the workplace, long-term absences continue to increase. While organizations are proactively responding with initiatives ranging from flexible work policies to coaching and team-building sessions, these efforts remain fragmented, and the real impact is rarely measured. 

 

A 2024 Deloitte report on workplace well-being noted that only 1–2% of organizations use hard well-being data to measure the Return on Investment of their well-being programs, and the majority admit to setting no clear success targets at all. 

 

Not surprisingly, this lack of measurement leads to uncertainty about actual benefits. A recent Harvard Business Review article zooms in on the ‘well-being paradox’: despite growing investment in wellness – with global corporate spending projected to reach $94 billion by 2026 – many organizations aren’t seeing clear improvements in employee mental health or engagement. Experts point to a key reason: the failure to gather consistent outcome-focused data. 

 

A wave of initiatives but no central view 

We see similar findings in Belgium. Research by Antwerp Management School (AMS) shows that only 20% of organizations have a comprehensive approach to well-being – one that includes diverse initiatives and evaluates their impact. The rest? A scattered set of actions, often launched without coordination or follow-up. This isn’t due to a lack of goodwill, but a lack of structure. 

  • Fruit Basket

 

In our view, the solution isn’t to keep adding new well-being initiatives. Managers often feel lost in a sea of option. What they need are proven, meaningful actions that are broadly supported and genuinely useful. They need tools and interventions that actually work for their employees in their specifiic context, because what looks good in theory doesn’t always translate into impact on the ground. 

 

Instead of launching new pilots, we should consolidate what already exists, link it across departments, and evaluate it. What are the most urgent pain points? Where are patterns forming? What helps? Without a shared overview and a focus on measurable impact, even the best initiatives risk becoming noise.  

 

From fragmented efforts to integrated impact 

At Flanders Technology & Innovation, we believe data can provide that clarity. That’s why we launched Elli, a secure digital environment that collects and connects well-being data in an impact-driven way. Elli helps organizations shift from reactive interventions to proactive strategy, and from scattered actions to measurable results. 

 

Unlike many tools, Elli doesn’t stop at individual data points like survey results or wearables metrics. It’s built on the IGLO model, developed by Karina Nielsen, a leading expert in organizational health psychology at the University of Sheffield. This model emphasizes that effective well-being interventions must address four levels: Individual, Group, Leadership, and Organization. Research shows that the ‘GLO’ factors are just as critical to mental well-being as individual resilience or stress levels. Elli incorporates all these dimensions to help organizations act on the full picture.

  

The intention is already there. The AMS study shows, 61% of managers feel responsible for preventing mental health issues within their teams. Elli translates that intent into action by offering both HR teams and managers a centralized view of well-being data across the organization. With concrete and connected data, HR can finally move beyond sharing survey results alone, and start giving managers the insights and tools they need to act more effectively. 

 

With that kind of insight, organizations can stop guessing and start taking well-being seriously, with the clarity and confidence needed to finally break the well-being paradox. 

 

 

Want to learn more about how Elli helps organizations turn good intentions into measurable impact? 
Reach out to our Strategic Partnerships Manager. We’re happy to start the conversation.