This months’ vital reading
Here are links to all the resources we cited in our Winter Newsletter, with a couple of extras thrown in at the end because why not?!
Research: Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 confirms that only around 1 in 5 employees globally are engaged at work, with a majority “not engaged” and a small but significant group actively disengaged. The report also shows just a third of employees are “thriving” in their lives, providing powerful data for board-level conversations about engagement, wellbeing and performance. Gallup.com
Policy: The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics brings together cross-party MPs, peers, academics and business leaders to promote a wellbeing-first approach to economic policy, shifting the focus beyond GDP alone. Their work includes the UK Wellbeing Report 2025, which highlights a rising number of people living below the “Happiness Poverty Line” and calls for evidence-based wellbeing policy.
Report: The UK government’s Keep Britain Working Review: Final report explores the role employers can play in tackling health-related economic inactivity and promoting healthy, inclusive workplaces. It sets out practical recommendations around a “healthy working lifecycle”, workplace health provision and a new vanguard of employers to test and scale what works.
Article: The Global Wellness Institute’s piece on Wellbeing Intelligence: The Leadership Competency Organizations Can No Longer Ignore argues that organisational systems, leadership behaviours and team dynamics account for around 90% of workplace wellbeing outcomes. It introduces “wellbeing intelligence” as a core leadership capability – on a par with financial or operational literacy – and makes a strong case for shifting from programme-led to systems-led approaches.
EXTRAs
Journal article: A new paper in the Journal of Business Research, AI and employee wellbeing in the workplace: An empirical study, finds that AI adoption doesn’t directly improve wellbeing – instead, it helps indirectly when it genuinely optimises tasks and improves safety. It’s a useful reminder that AI only supports wellbeing when it’s tied to better job design, not just efficiency.
Video: In her first in-person speech for two years, The Princess of Wales addresses over 80 senior business leaders at the Future Workforce Summit, calling on employers to value care, early childhood and “time and tenderness” alongside productivity. It’s a powerful watch that reframes caring responsibilities and early years as central to a healthier, more resilient future workforce.
Campaign & report: The Global Goals Be Hope campaign showcases what “hope in action” looks like through decades of progress against HIV and AIDS, and how renewed investment through the Global Fund could save millions more lives. The accompanying Hope Report is a compelling story of how long-term funding, innovation and solidarity can turn a global health crisis into a trajectory towards ending AIDS for good.