The wellbeing-program graveyard.
In 2024, Dr William Fleming at the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre published the largest study of its kind: **46,336 employees across 233 UK organisations**, comparing those who participated in workplace wellbeing interventions with those who did not.
Of every individual-level intervention tested — wellness apps, mindfulness, resilience training, stress management, time-management coaching, relaxation classes — none produced measurable improvement in mental health.
"Volunteering was the only exception"
The study found that employee volunteering provides what other initiatives cannot: a sense of purpose, genuine social connection, and meaningful action outside the day-to-day role. Published in the Industrial Relations Journal, the research has been covered in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and HCAmag.
Why "wellness washing" isn't working
Most wellbeing programs ask employees to manage their own stress better — a band-aid that doesn't address the root causes of disengagement. Volunteering does something fundamentally different.
It pulls people out of their day-to-day. It gives them a problem worth solving. It connects them to a cause, and to each other. It restores a sense of agency that no app or seminar can manufacture.
That's why it shows up in the data when nothing else does.
Australia's largest Workplace Volunteering Platform.
GoodCompany is Australia's largest Workplace Volunteering Platform. Since 2000 we've improved employee wellbeing at Australia's best banks, tech firms, insurers, healthcare and energy companies. Our simple marketplace leads your people from well-doing to well-being.
We handle the matching, the platform, the reporting and the impact measurement. Your people just turn up.
Let's add real wellbeing to your wellbeing programme.
We work with organisations of every size — from those adding volunteering to a wellbeing strategy for the first time, through to those running national programs. Tell us where you're at and we'll set up a conversation within two business days.