A row of office workers participate in stretching exercises at their desks, following a team leader at the front who is guiding them.

Office workout: Employers need to understand what motivates staff to join health programmes at work

The Keep Britain Working Review, published by the UK Government in November 2025, made uncomfortable reading for business leaders.

It warned that 150 million working days are lost annually to sickness absence. On top of this, presenteeism is depriving employers of up to nine days’ worth of productivity per worker. The cost to businesses is around £85 billion in the UK alone, the review said.

It is no wonder that a growing number of employers recognise the importance of a healthy workforce. With that in mind, more companies are investing in apps and wearable technology to try to get their employees moving and connecting.  But does it work?

For those that engage with these initiatives, yes. Wellbeing programmes can improve health, mood, and reported productivity.

But in practice, not everyone does engage. In fact, take-up tends to be patchy.

How effective are workplace health interventions?

I wanted to understand the causes of low engagement and what companies can do about it. So for my MBA thesis, I studied the wellbeing programme of my own company, dsm-firmenich, a global company with 30,000 employees active in the nutrition, health, and beauty sector.

I focused on one aspect of the wellbeing programme, the Boost Your Vitality Step Challenge. This was a four-week programme designed to get the workforce moving. People had to download the Vitality Boost app and use it to record their activity.

While a small number of employees (1,051 out of the total 30,000) enthusiastically participated in the Challenge, many more did not. Evidently, a one size fits all approach was not working.

Moreover, among those who started the Challenge, a significant share became ‘quiet quitters’.

So how can employers increase engagement and reap the benefits of a healthier workforce?

Cracking this problem points us to a complex interplay between social, psychological, and environmental influences. Many different theories have been developed to explain participation and provide a roadmap towards change.

The deeper I investigated, the more I found that one approach – the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) model – might offer some insights. This model argues that behaviour is influenced by three components.

What motivates staff to join health schemes at work?

Capability is about whether the employee can do the challenge. Opportunity refers to the external facts that might encourage or inhibit activity. Motivation is about the individual’s internal drivers – their disposition, habits, and emotional landscape.

However, COM-B does not explain those who have capability, opportunity, and motivation, but do not follow through for one reason or another.

There must be an added factor that allows these individuals to move from intention to the sustained action that delivers real benefits for wellbeing and productivity.

I used a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to explore the motivation-behaviour gap and found there were four distinct groups.

1) Non-intenders (27.7 per cent) who didn’t join the challenge at all.

2) Drop-offs (20.1 per cent) who installed the app but didn’t enrol in the programme.

3) Casual participants (15.7 per cent) who joined the challenge but had no change in activity.

4) Engaged participants (36.5 per cent) who reported increased step counts.

The fact that over one-third of those surveyed increased their step counts might sound like a pretty good result. However, this group was also more likely to be engaged in health and fitness anyway, irrespective of the programme.

The competitive way employees were being motivated was also more likely to appeal to this group. On the other hand, competitions may have the impact of demotivating others.

Why do workers quit healthy workplace schemes?

Some respondents expressed a preference for personalised health goals. As one said: “It would be more motivating to beat your own target, not necessarily others.”

Not everyone is the same. It’s helpful to think of employees as having different needs.

Further digging revealed more reasons why so many workers did not engage or dropped out.

The most common was technical issues – 44 per cent encountered difficulties installing or using the app, or conflicts with their existing health-tracking apps. Where was the technical support to help staff who ran into problems?

Participation was also strongly influenced by the work environment and social context.

Employees were more likely to engage if they had the autonomy to take breaks or be active during the day. Could people realistically integrate the activity into their daily routine at work?

Getting visible support from colleagues or managers also normalised the idea of wellness. When those conditions weren’t present, even motivated employees tended to drop off.

What does this mean for employers?

Creating more accessible health initiatives for staff

First and foremost, employers should understand their own workforce. My research was a snapshot of one company, but there are many different permutations of employee responses, depending on the context and company.

Second, once employee responses have been categorised to some degree, different strategies are required for different groups corresponding to their needs. What works for one – such as competitions for the already engaged – might not work for another.

Third, the biggest return comes from motivating the groups that are disengaged. Those that are engaged are likely to have healthy habits regardless of workplace wellbeing programmes. Meanwhile, those who are likely to benefit most can be the hardest to reach.

Wellbeing programmes need to address each aspect of the COM-B framework.

Capability can be addressed by ensuring apps are intuitive and easy to use. This would decrease the number of drop-offs that result from employees encountering technical difficulties.

Opportunity can be enhanced by ensuring healthy options are easy to access – fewer static meetings, introducing standing desks and nutritious meals choices in staff restaurants, and allowing employees to take a breath of fresh air throughout the day.

Normalising these healthy choices can reduce the number of ‘non-intenders’ who show no interest in engaging with workplace initiatives.

Motivation can be grown through personalised programmes focused on individual progress, not peer competition, which may be particularly beneficial for casual participants.

How to help staff make healthy choices at work

In addition to this, companies need to bridge the intention-behaviour gap for employees who appear to have the required capability, opportunity, and motivation, but fail to follow through.

They can do this by ensuring the necessary organisational support is in place to help employees who struggle to engage with health initiatives for any reason.

They can also create networks of social support (and help to foster social norms) that encourage healthy behaviour. For example, engaged colleagues can act as role models and champion health initiatives and their benefits to encourage greater participation.

The good news is that these steps can increase engagement with workplace health initiatives.

My company is already acting on this research, finding more creative ways to bridge the intention-behaviour gap, and early findings show employee wellbeing scores are on a significant upward trend.

Taking a more personalised approach may cost more, but it delivers greater benefits in the long run. Investing in strategies that only engage those who already taking action does not pay off.

We need to identify each group of employees and their leverage points if businesses are going to achieve those all-important productivity gains from a healthier, happier workforce.

 

Further reading:

Can joy improve our performance at work?

What leaders get wrong about resilience - and the cost to their organisation

The dilemma at the heart of an employee wellbeing strategy

How did the pandemic affect mental health in the workplace

 

Vincent van Buul is Director of Innovation, Application and Formulation EMEA at dsm firmenich, which specialises in nutrition, health, and beauty. He graduated from Warwick Business School with an MBA in 2025.

Understand the science behind human decision-making to solve challenges within your organisation with the three-day Executive Education programme Behavioural Science in Practice at WBS London at The Shard.

Discover more about wellbeing in the workplace. Receive our Core Insights newsletter via email or LinkedIn.