The conversation around women’s health in the workplace has changed significantly in recent years. Menopause has moved from being a relatively overlooked issue to an increasingly important workplace health, equality and retention priority. Policy and professional standards are also beginning to reflect this shift, with further requirements around gender equality and menopause support expected to develop over the coming years. But women’s health at work is much broader.

What is employee burnout? According to the World Health Organisation, burnout is a clinically recognised syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been adequately managed. It is defined by three core dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy. It's not a character flaw or a 'sign of weakness', it's most accurately understood as an organisational failure, not an individual one. The UK burnout picture in 2026: the data is stark Nine in ten

Most sickness absence doesn't begin on the day an employee calls in sick. It often begins weeks or months earlier, with poor sleep, rising stress, recurring headaches, untreated health conditions, reduced physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns or declining mental wellbeing. By the time someone is absent from work, there have usually been multiple missed opportunities for prevention. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), an estimated 33.7 million working da

Most workplace musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) don't begin with an accident. They begin quietly, a stiff shoulder, a nagging lower back, a wrist that aches by Friday, and they build for weeks or months before anyone files a report. By the time an MSD shows up in the sickness absence figures, the prevention window has usually already closed. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), an estimated 511,000 workers in Great Britain had a work-related musculoskeletal dis

UK sickness absence hit 9.4 days per employee last year, the highest figure recorded in over a decade, up from 7.8 days in 2023 and 5.8 in 2022. Mental ill health is now the leading cause of long-term absence in British workplaces. Sixty-four percent of organisations report stress-related absence, yet only half believe their own efforts to tackle it are working. Those figures come from CIPD's 2025 Health and Wellbeing at Work report, and they frame the real question HR and o

By Dr Suzanne Barr MEd RD, Director & Education Lead, HercuWise Why does so much of what we do in healthcare and wellbeing only begin when something has already gone wrong? That question became the foundation of HercuWise. And the answer, it turned out, was sitting in plain sight. It was the workplace. The Workplace Is Where Health Is Won or Lost We spend more waking hours at work than almost anywhere else. For many people, the workplace shapes their sleep patterns, their eat

Published by HercuWise | Workplace Health | Digital Learning | Burnout Prevention The Investment Is Growing. The Results Aren't. UK organisations are spending more on employee wellbeing than at any point in history. And yet the numbers tell a different story entirely. Work-related stress, depression and anxiety now affects 964,000 workers in Great Britain, the highest rate ever recorded since annual data collection began in 2001, and a 24% increase on the previous year (HSE,

What Does Burnout in Working Mothers Actually Look Like? Picture a typical Tuesday for a working mum in a full-time role. She starts the day having already managed the morning routine solo, fielding a school admin email between getting dressed and leaving the house. She is in back-to-back meetings by 9am, and misses a call from the nursery. She eats lunch at her desk. She leaves on time, not early, which requires active political management. She does the pickup, handles dinne

Gen Z in the Workplace For decades, workplace culture rewarded long hours and constant availability. Skipping breaks, working late, and responding to emails at all hours were often seen as signs of commitment. But the traditional model is now being challenged. Generation Z have entered the workforce with different expectations. They are placing boundaries around their time, prioritising mental health, and questioning whether traditional ways of working are sustainable. The ev

Most managers want to build supportive, high-performing teams, and care about wellbeing, retention, and culture. Yet when it comes to menopause at work, many managers feel uncertain. Not due to lack of empathy, but because menopause has not historically been treated as a core component of workplace health. That gap is increasingly important. Millions of women in the UK workforce are in midlife, and many experience symptoms that affect day-to-day functioning and job performanc

International Women’s Day traces its roots to early 20th-century labour and suffrage movements and was first marked in 1911 as a call for women’s rights at work; including for fair pay, voting rights, and safer working conditions. More than a century later, it's a great opportunity to recognise the progress women have made, but also to reflect on the persistent gaps in equality that still need to be addressed, including the invisible load many women carry every single day. B

Written by Natasha Veeriovka, Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr) The UK government’s ‘Fit for the Future’: 10-Year Health Plan for...

Written by Lisa Davies (Registered Nutritionist): Workplaces are major settings for influencing people's health and eating habits. Many...

Workplace burnout is more than just feeling tired, it’s a state of chronic physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged...

In today’s fast-paced work culture, taking breaks can feel like a guilty indulgence. But what if those small pauses could actually...

Workplace wellbeing isn’t just a “nice-to-have”—it’s a business essential. Yet, for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),...